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Mosque row threaten ceremony for 9/11 dead
Source: Agencies |
September 12, 2010, Sunday
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A DAY of mourning for nearly 3,000 September 11 victims began with moments of silence and tears near ground zero, as observers braced for protests over a mosque planned blocks away on what is usually an anniversary free of politics.
Chants of thousands of sign-waving protesters both for and against the planned Islamic center were expected after an annual observance normally known for a sad litany of families reading their lost loved ones' names.
Speaking at "hallowed ground" at the Pentagon, United States President Barack Obama alluded to the controversy over the mosque and a Florida pastor's threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Quran. Obama made it clear that the US is not at war with Islam and called the al-Qaida attackers "a sorry band of men" who perverted religion.
"We will not give in to their hatred," Obama said. "As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam."
Family members gathering at observances in New York and Pennsylvania brought flowers, pictures of loved ones and American flags, but no signs of opposition or support for the mosque. Reading victims' names at ground zero in New York, they urged a restrained tone.
Pipes and drums played to open the ceremony, followed by brief comments by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Once again we meet to commemorate the day we have come to call 9/11. We have returned to this sacred site to join our hearts together, the names of those we loved and lost," Bloomberg said.
"No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply. No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity."
A moment of silence began at 8:46am local time, the time the first hijacked jetliner hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in 2001.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were attending separate services at the Pentagon in Washington and a rural field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
But the rallies planned in New York embroiled victims' family members in a feud over whether to play politics on the attacks' ninth anniversary.
Nancy Nee, whose firefighter brother was killed at the World Trade Center, is bitterly opposed to the Park51 proposed mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero. But she didn't plan to join other family members at an anti-mosque rally hours after the anniversary ceremony.
"I just wanted to be as at peace with everything that's going on as I possibly can," Nee said. Even nine years later, she said, her brother George Cain's death "is still very raw. And I just don't have it in me to be protesting and arguing, with anger in my heart and in my head."
Jim Riches planned to pay respects at ground zero to his firefighter son, Jimmy, then attend the rally.
"My son can't speak anymore. He's been murdered by Muslims. I intend to voice my opinion against the location of this mosque," Riches said. "If someone wants to go home, that's their right. I have the right to go there."
A threat to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary - which had set off international protests - was called off. Florida pastor Terry Jones told NBC: "We feel that God is telling us to stop."
Chants of thousands of sign-waving protesters both for and against the planned Islamic center were expected after an annual observance normally known for a sad litany of families reading their lost loved ones' names.
Speaking at "hallowed ground" at the Pentagon, United States President Barack Obama alluded to the controversy over the mosque and a Florida pastor's threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Quran. Obama made it clear that the US is not at war with Islam and called the al-Qaida attackers "a sorry band of men" who perverted religion.
"We will not give in to their hatred," Obama said. "As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam."
Family members gathering at observances in New York and Pennsylvania brought flowers, pictures of loved ones and American flags, but no signs of opposition or support for the mosque. Reading victims' names at ground zero in New York, they urged a restrained tone.
Pipes and drums played to open the ceremony, followed by brief comments by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Once again we meet to commemorate the day we have come to call 9/11. We have returned to this sacred site to join our hearts together, the names of those we loved and lost," Bloomberg said.
"No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply. No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity."
A moment of silence began at 8:46am local time, the time the first hijacked jetliner hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in 2001.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were attending separate services at the Pentagon in Washington and a rural field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
But the rallies planned in New York embroiled victims' family members in a feud over whether to play politics on the attacks' ninth anniversary.
Nancy Nee, whose firefighter brother was killed at the World Trade Center, is bitterly opposed to the Park51 proposed mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero. But she didn't plan to join other family members at an anti-mosque rally hours after the anniversary ceremony.
"I just wanted to be as at peace with everything that's going on as I possibly can," Nee said. Even nine years later, she said, her brother George Cain's death "is still very raw. And I just don't have it in me to be protesting and arguing, with anger in my heart and in my head."
Jim Riches planned to pay respects at ground zero to his firefighter son, Jimmy, then attend the rally.
"My son can't speak anymore. He's been murdered by Muslims. I intend to voice my opinion against the location of this mosque," Riches said. "If someone wants to go home, that's their right. I have the right to go there."
A threat to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary - which had set off international protests - was called off. Florida pastor Terry Jones told NBC: "We feel that God is telling us to stop."
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