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Controversy in Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Flight 93 was en route westward from New York to San Francisco on September 11, 2001 when it was hijacked, and then crashed in Pennsylvania, after turning back eastward. It is believed that the hijackers were turning towards a Washington D.C. target. There were 40 passengers and crew aboard the plane, all of whom died.

A design for a memorial to the people who died on Flight 93 was recently selected. The controversy centers on the part of the memorial that involves a semi-circle of red maple trees on the land where the flight crashed.

The crash site is located among the rolling farmlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. The closest major city is Pittsburgh, about 65 miles northwest. The site is most difficult to find. Driving past it today, there are virtually no landmarks.

Initially after the crash, the area was designated as a federal crime scene and was protected by the Pennsylvania State Police. Makeshift memorials were erected by the side of nearby Lambertville Road, where the media and many volunteers congregated for about three weeks. Later, a temporary memorial was constructed overlooking the actual crash site.

You can see Photographs of the makeshift memorials which included hundreds of items.

The hullabaloo over the memorial arises because some believe the semi-circle of red maples in the chosen design is actually a “Red Crescent” representing Islam. This theory appears to have its origins in the beliefs of Ron McRae. Mr. McRae is a former cop from Texas who now styles himself as an Anabaptist Bishop.

Mr. McRae almost immediately denounced the Flight 93 Memorial design as an Islamic symbol, and “a memorial to the terrorists who killed those people, not a memorial to the folks who died there.” He explained: “I’m sorry, I do not believe it was an accident. They chose a red maple. C’mon man.”

The vehement tone was quickly picked up by media, some of which echoed the view that the memorial is really a slur on the dead. For instance, columnist and frequent FoxNews contributor Michelle Malkin agrees with “tons of you [who] are stunned, outraged and sickened by the new Flight 93 memorial.”

True, the crescent and moon are sometimes identified as symbolic of Islamic culture. In reality, it does not have a religious significance, and many Muslims reject the use of this symbol as representative of their religion. Historically, Islam has had no “official” symbol, and utilized absolutely plain colored flags.

The crescent and moon were represented on the flag of Constantinople when it was conquered by the Turks in the 1400s, when the flag was adopted. Today, crescent and moon symbols in various designs and configurations appear on the flags of eleven countries, although the design, placement and color of these symbols vary by flag.

The “Red Crescent” is actually one of the logos of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The logo was recognized by the 1929 Geneva Convention, and has no religious significance.

The Flight 93 Memorial is not a pro-Islamist statement, nor is it part of any secret prearranged plan to hide contextual meaning in artwork. Gerald Bingham, who was on the jury which selected the design and who is the father of one of the victims, feels the memorial will “capture the spirit of facing death and taking over the plane.” Another victim’s father, Ben Wainio, praises the design as comforting and tranquil.

The final design was announced on September 7, 2005 after a juried competition of 1,011 entries.

The memorial will cover more than 2,000 acres of land at the crash site in the Borough of Shanksville, Strongcreek Township, Pennsylvania. It will cost millions of dollars to construct; private fundraising is being led by former Secretary of Homeland Security (and before that, Pennsylvania Governor) Tom Ridge and Army General Tommy Franks. It is truly hard to conceive of these two men being unwitting pawns in a secret conspiracy to duplicate the flag of an Islamic country in the countryside of rural Pennsylvania.

The memorial will have three different areas. The first is the entrance, which will have a 93 foot high tower faced in white glass mosaic tiles. Inside the tower, there will be 40 white aluminum wind chimes, each with a different “voice” to represent the 40 dead. The tower will be ringed by white pine trees.

After passing the Tower, one will arrive at the “Bowl.” The edge of the bowl will be marked by the now-controversial “crescent of embrace.” The architects of the design actually used the phrase “crescent of embrace” never suspecting the term would generate so much outrage.

In any event, this “crescent of embrace” is “an allee of Red Maple trees,” again using 40 trees to depict the dead. The allee of trees “gently descends around the Bowl . . . to the Sacred Ground.”

The Sacred Ground is the third and final area. This area is the land believed to contain the remains, and is known as the final resting place of the dead. Detailed renderings of the memorial are available at flight93memorialproject.org.

High Resolution Images of the the photos in this story.