EXCLUSIVE - Concerns over 9/11 museum film in New York

by Selcuk Acar

NEW YORK

A seven-minute documentary, "The Rise of al-Qaeda", to be screened at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which is opening on Thursday in New York, has drawn criticism from different ethnic and religious groups for linking al Qaida terrorist organization to Islam, one of the greatest religions with more than almost one and a half billion believers

During a meeting at the Interfaith Center of New York, a secular non-profit organization, community representatives voiced their concerns over the film saying they believe the film, featuring al-Qaeda training camps, links a small group of perpetrators to all Muslim people. They also voiced concern over the use of controversial – and possibly inflammatory - terms such as "Islamic" and "Islamist."

"The film loosely and without sufficient definition or context describes the rise of al-Qaeda and uses terms that are confusing and controversial," said Reverend Chloe Breyer, executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York.

"We feel that there is unfortunate messaging in referencing Islam," said Zead Ramadan, Chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), stressing that he was among the first people who rushed to help with the search and rescue efforts following the attack. The group asserted that the film gives the impression that, "Islam as a religion is responsible for the September 11 attack."

Todd Fine, founder and director of Project Khalid, a campaign celebrating the centennial of the first Arab-American novel, told Anadolu Agency that he also took exception to the use of terms like "Islamism, jihadism, terrorism'' in the documentary, pointing out that the site of the World Trade Center was once known as "Little Syria," home to the first Arab-Americans in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. 

However, museum officials denied such claims, asserting that the documentary is objective. The movie, as well as the permanent exhibition, was prepared with the help of the museum's own delegation of religious advisors.

But an interfaith advisory group of clergy members to whom the movie was shown maintained that the film is "provocative and confusing," adding that their repeated demands to revise the disputed parts had fallen on deaf ears.

Others voicing concern over the film include national security expert, Haroon Moghul, from the think-tank New America Foundation, mother of the 9/11 victim Salman Hamdani, as well as Donna Nevel from Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition.

Nevel said that interfaith leaders unsuccessfully recommended a "contextual statement at the very beginning that says: this video is about the historical rise of al Qaeda and does not relate to the history of Islam." 

President Obama will be the first visitor of the National September 11 Memorial Museum on Thursday.

Relatives of 9/11 victims will be able to visit the museum until May 20 and it will be open to the public as of May 21.

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