Free Republic

The National September 11 Memorial Museum will be showing a film called “The Rise of Al Qaeda” when it opens next month. The film tries to explain the roots of the terrible attacks and why radical Islamists killed so many people that terrible day. In an attempt to get feedback from the Muslim community on the film, which portrays Al Qaeda as radical Islamists who were on a jihad against the United States, the museum showed “The Rise of Al Qaeda” to an “interfaith advisory group of clergy members.” This group included Muslim leaders. After seeing the short film, which...

Past the towering tridents that survived the World Trade Center collapse, adjacent to a gallery with photographs of the 19 hijackers, a brief film at the soon-to-open National September 11 Memorial Museum will seek to explain to visitors the historical roots of the attacks. The film, “The Rise of Al Qaeda,” refers to the terrorists as Islamists who viewed their mission as a jihad. The NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who narrates the film, speaks over images of terrorist training camps and Qaeda attacks spanning decades. Interspersed with his voice are explanations of the ideology of the terrorists, rendered in...