read up on it before you decide we are chasing ghosts.
1. the crescent is an islamic symbol - only the totally ignorant do not know this. the commission on this project was well aware of the religious connection.
2. the design is not simply a crescent, but a crescent with a cluster between its horns, in precisely the configuration used in Islam
3. the entrance building is a "tower of voices" analogous to an islamic minaret ("tower of calling" of a mosque) with a color scheme similar to those favored by mesopotamian and other mosques
4. that the memorial is geometrically aligned so as to face Mecca is mathematically demonstrable. Given the wide range of other directions the architect could have chosen, many with traditional Western symbolic values, this cannot be an accident.
I'm still trying to figure out what the hell was going through the judges' minds when they picked this thing.
I have read up on it. If it was "facing Mecca" it would be with it's crescent opening toward Mecca, or the taliban or Pearl Harbor or the Twin Towers or the next target L.A. or Osama's cave or the London targets or Spanish trains or, or...
I will agree that choosing a crescent shape was a mistake. Because once they did that it allowed all kinds of wild theories to follow on. That's the way things seem to go these days.
That's my honest opinion. Given a crescent, some will find a lot of other stuff no matter what.
Your mileage may vary, but I appreciate your reply.
The swastika is also an American Indian, Buddhist and Hindu symbol, dating back at least 3,000 years, but because the Nazis used it for a while the PC brigade has been trying to eradicate it. They even had it removed from a high school yearbook in a heavily American Indian community.
Are we now part of the PC brigade?
I have a friend in public art, as left as left can be, quite famous in her field, and every piece of one of her "works" has to be explained, as layers upon layers of symbolism have been put into it deliberately by her. She had to do something for a Nestle owned firm and deliberately put in some oblique references in stone about how Nestle gave powdered milk to breastfeeding third world mothers to get them hooked on their product. These artists excel at BS-talk to get their bids accepted, but they are devious and have their own agendas (besides just sucking off the taxpayer's teat).