Peter Gadiel, James’ father, wants everyone in their hometown of Kent, Connecticut, to remember his son James. And his hometown wants to memorialize James. However, the town coucil has rejected Peter’s wording. He wants the memorial to read that his son was ‘murdered by Muslim terrorists.’ Some members of the town council object to the language and feel it is inflammatory and might alienate Muslim familes.
According to Peter Gadiel:
“It isn’t just overlooked, it’s suppressed,” Gadiel said. “It’s simply wrong to imply that people just died. The buildings didn’t just collapse, they didn’t just fall down — they were attacked by people with a specific identity, a specific purpose.”
Conversely:
Town officials call the phrase too controversial for a small town memorial, and they recently voted against erecting the plaque if Gadiel insists on the language.
“We perceive ourselves as a very warm, loving town,” said Ruth Epstein, a Kent selectman and one of two town leaders to vote the plaque down. “To disparage any one ethnic group is just against everything that we stand for here.”
Epstein noted that other Sept. 11 memorials, like the one at the Pentagon, don’t mention Muslim terrorists, and she said she does not want to alienate any members of her small and close-knit community.
“We have at least one Muslim family living here with children and it — it would be just awful to have them see something like that,” Epstein told Fox News.
So far, the matter is unresolved. Peter Gadiel refuses to back down. The town official refuse to back down. Meanwhile, the memorial to James does not exist. Gadiel feels that removing the word ‘Muslim’ is not being truthful. He harbors ill feelings because:
“Muslims have to acknowledge that it was their co-religionists who committed this act in their name,” he said. “I am offended that unlike so many others, they refuse to acknowledge that it was their people who did this.”
