NEW YORK – This year’s anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks promises to be the most political and contentious ever, because of a proposed Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero, and a Florida pastor’s plan to burn the Quran.
As in other years, official ceremonies are planned today at the three locations the terrorists struck, killing nearly 3 000 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
President Barack Obama will attend a commemoration at the Pentagon, while Vice-President Joe Biden will attend the ceremony at Ground Zero.
First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush will travel to Shanksville – where a plane crashed amid a struggle between hijackers and passengers – to observe the ninth anniversary there.
Obama said at a White House news conference that September 11 would be “an excellent time” for the country to reflect on the fact that there were millions of Muslims who were American citizens, that they also were fighting in United States uniforms in Afghanistan, and “we don’t differentiate between ‘them’ and ‘us’. It’s just ‘us’.”
He said a plan by Terry Jones, the pastor of a small, independent church in Gainesville, Florida, to mark September 11 by burning copies of the Quran must be taken seriously because it could cause “profound damage” to United States troops and interests around the world.
“You don’t play games with that,” Obama said.
Obama said he hoped Jones “prays on it and refrains from doing it”.
Jones has been under pressure from the White House and Defence Secretary Robert Gates to cancel the event. He said Thursday he would call it off if he could meet today with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who was leading an effort to build the Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero. Rauf said in a statement yesterday he had no plans to meet with Jones, although he was open to seeing anyone “seriously committed to pursuing peace”.
A step further
Luke Jones, the pastor’s 29-year-old son, went a step further and told reporters yesterday afternoon: “There will be no Quran burning tomorrow.” He said he could not say whether the event would be revived after that.
Biden will attend the largest of the three September 11 events – the New York ceremony at a park near Ground Zero, where 2 752 people were killed when Muslim extremists flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.
The ceremony there will pause four times: twice to mark the times each plane hit the towers, and twice to observe the times the towers fell. Houses of worship in the city toll bells at 8:46 a.m., when the first plane struck the north tower, and three more times to mark the moment the second plane hit the south tower and to observe the times each tower fell.
But this time, along with the formal ceremonies, activists for and against the proposed Islamic centre are planning their own events to capture the emotion of the day for political purposes. (AP)