9/11 museum at Ground Zero opens amid anxiety and criticism

 
       

  
  
   
       Credits:    Anthony Behar-Pool/Getty Images     Alt Text:    Image of original WTC Towers displayed in window of the 9/11 Memorial Museum      

  
 
      
    Relatives object to victims' remains being stored underground, while al-Qaeda video sparks concern        
 
        Summary  
    
    Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 4:13pm  
      THE National September 11 Memorial Museum has been applauded as a fitting way to honour the victims of the 2001 attacks, but it is not without its controversies. 
 President Barack Obama dedicated the $700m 9/11 museum during its ceremonial opening today, ahead of the public opening next Wednesday. Most of the exhibition space is located in the foundations of the collapsed skyscrapers, up to 70ft beneath Ground Zero. It includes the 36ft piece of steel known as the Last Column, a burnt-out ambulance and walls covered with portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims. Many families have expressed their support for the project, but others have been left unimpressed... 
  Unidentified remains of victims  
 A small number of families have said they are "outraged" that the unidentified remains of victims found in the rubble of the Twin Towers are being stored inside the museum building. "The human remains of my son and all of the 3,000 victims should be in a beautiful and respectful memorial, not in the basement of a museum," said Sally Regenhard, the mother of a firefighter who died at the World Trade Center. Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and the chairman of the 9/11 memorial and museum, told  The Guardian  there are "roughly 3,000 families who think this is a good idea, and about a dozen who don't". 
  Al-Qaeda video  
 A group of faith leaders have raised concerns about how the museum is portraying the cause of the terrorist attacks. In particular, they have objected to a seven-minute film, entitled  The Rise of Al Qaeda , which they fear blurs the line between violent extremism and the non-violent tenets of the Muslim faith. Zead Ramadan of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told  CNN  there was "unfortunate messaging in referencing to Islam" in the film. But the museum has insisted it "does not purport to be a film about Islam or in any way generalise that Muslims are terrorists". 
  Museum entry fee 
 The mandatory $24 entry fee to adults visiting the museum has also come under fire. Discounts are available and families, rescue workers and New York school groups can enter for free, but some relatives said it undermined the idea that all the world can visit and learn from the tragedy, reports the  LA Times . Bloomberg has said the fee is needed to maintain the site and urged people to contact their representatives in Congress to complain about lack of federal funding to meet the museum's $60m annual operating costs. 
  'No day shall erase you'  
 The unidentified remains will be kept behind a wall on which an inscription has been studded in steel from the towers. It says "No day shall erase you from the memory of time", a translation of a phrase from Virgil's Latin poem  The Aeneid , written between 29 and 19BC. But critics say the direct literary context of the quote is "shockingly inappropriate". It refers to two Trojan warriors, Nisus and Euryalus, who have just slaughtered their enemy in their sleep and end up having their severed heads paraded on spears. To apply the sentiment to civilians killed indiscriminately in an act of terrorism is "grotesque", says the  New York Times .  ·   
       World Trade Centre    terror attacks    9/11 memorial    Ground Zero