Is Flight 93 Memorial An Islamic Symbol Pointing To Mecca?

 Shanksville PA, was the tragic site for 9/11 crash in which innocent people stopped Islamic extremists from flying the United Airlines jet into an intended target in Washington, DC. 

  The controversy over the memorial site began when the Flight 93 Advisory Commission announced a memorial design from Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angles called “Crescent of Embrace,” that included a crescent of maple trees around the crash site. 

  The Bowl is a large, existing landform roughly circular in shape that forms the heart of the memorial and park.  The Bowl’s outline commemorates the collective acts of courage by the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93 with 40 groves of Red and Sugar Maple trees, referred to as the 40 Memorial Groves, in curving embrace of the Bowl’s open space as it descends to the Sacred Ground.  The memorial design expresses the union of the land’s beauty and power with the strength and sacrifice of the heroes of Flight 93 by marking the Flight Path as it breaks the circular continuity of the Bowl edge at the Entry Portal and the Sacred Ground, where the crash occurred. The location of the temporary memorial will be recognized. Visitors will be allowed to leave tributes in niches in the sloped walls of the new Sacred Ground plaza and written comments at the visitor center. 

  Some critics say it looks likes an Islamic crescent that points toward Mecca, the Muslim holy city.  Some also say say its crescent-shaped design call to mind Islam or subtly include the hijackers alongside the passengers and crew.  The National Park Service, which is managing the construction of the memorial, denied those claims, but changed the design to more of a circle, and dropped the name.

  What do you think about this design and do you support it?

For more information about the memorial go to: http://www.honorflight93.org/