Raw HTML code (text and tags) for 9-9-12 blogburst post: 9/11: New Park Service images prove the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 is unchanged
Just copy and paste into your HTML editor. (Alternatively, you can copy the formatted HTML from my Error Theory blog post.)
9/11: New Park Service images prove the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 is unchanged
<a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/honorflight93/index.html"><img
alt="Crescent and star" border="0" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/MockUpandCrescentSidebySideBordered.jpg"
/></a><br />
The original Crescent of Embrace design for the Flight 93 memorial (left) was
laid out in the configuration of an Islamic crescent and star flag (right). The
crash site sits between the tips of the giant crescent, in the position of the
star on an Islamic flag.<br />
<br />
When this apparent symbol of Islamic triumph caused a national uproar seven
years ago the Memorial Project (a public-private entity overseen by the Park
Service) <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2005/09/14/flight-93-memorial-design-will-be-altered/">promised</a>
to change the design, but as demonstrated by the images below, they never did
make any significant changes:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/?action=view&current=SitePlan_VidShot_comp.png"
target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/SitePlan_VidShot_comp.png"
/></a><br />
Above: original Crescent of Embrace design. Below: a frame from the Park
Service's new <a href="http://www.nps.gov/media/ner/avElement/conv/flni-02_THE_MEMORIAL_DESIGN_360p2_480x360.mp4">virtual
fly-by</a> of the Circle of Embrace "re-design" as it is being built.
(Comparison image thanks to MaxK.)<br />
<br />
The most significant change is the few extra trees that are being planted
outside the mouth of the original crescent (starting at the crescent tip on the
right, where the flight path symbolically "breaks the circle," and continuing
down behind the Sacred Ground Plaza that marks the crash site). These few trees
supposedly turn the crescent into a circle, but as you can see, they do no such
thing, but only apply the most minor window dressing to what is still a bare
naked Islamic-shaped crescent.<br />
<br />
<b>The circle-breaking, crescent-creating theme of the design also remains
completely intact</b><br />
<br />
The Park Service web site explicitly describes the Circle of Embrace as a <a
href="http://www.nps.gov/flni/parkmgmt/designquestions.htm">broken circle</a>,
proving that the terrorist-memorializing theme of the design is also unchanged.
Way back in 2005 architect Paul Murdoch described his original Crescent of
Embrace as a <a href="http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x519117221/Flight-93-design-provokes-uproar?keyword=topstory">broken
circle</a>. The 9/11 attacks broke our circle of peace and the unbroken part of
the circle, what symbolically remains standing in the wake of 9/11, is a giant
Islamic-shaped crescent. The terrorist memorializing intent is obvious, or in
the words of Tom Burnett Senior (father of flight 93 hero Tom Burnett Junior),
"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4z1QN6m_QI&feature=plcp">blatantly
obvious</a>."<br />
<br />
The actions depicted in the memorial design are those of the terrorists. They
break the circle of peace and the result is their flag planted atop the graves
of our murdered heroes. Calling the design a broken circle instead of a crescent
does not change this symbolism one whit. The unbroken part of the circle is
still a giant Islamic-shaped crescent, <em>still pointing to Mecca</em>.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Instead of pointing 2° north of Mecca, the half-mile wide crescent now
points 3° south of Mecca</strong><br />
<br />
A crescent that points the direction to Mecca is a very familiar construct in
the Islamic world. Because Muslims face Mecca for prayer, every mosque is built
around a Mecca direction indicator called a <em>mihrab</em>, and the classic
mihrab is crescent shaped. Here are the two most famous mihrabs in the world:<br
/>
<br />
<a href="http://looklex.com/spain/cordoba04.htm"><img alt="Crescent mihrabs"
border="0" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Crescentmihrabshalf.jpg"
/></a><br />
Left: the Mihrab of the Prophet, at the Prophet's mosque in Medina. Right: the
mihrab of the Great Mosque in Cordoba Spain. Face into these crescents to face
Mecca, just as with the Flight 93 memorial.<br />
<br />
As the Crescent of Embrace was originally designed, a person standing between
the tips of the giant Crescent and facing into the center of the Crescent would
be facing a little less than 2° north of Mecca (proof here). This almost-exact
Mecca orientation was confirmed to the Park Service in 2006 by Daniel Griffith,
a professor of "geospatial information" at the University of Texas who was
brought in as a consultant by the Park Service.<br />
<br />
Griffith's <a href="http://www.crescentofbetrayal.com/GriffithTribuneReview.htm">report</a>
examined the analysis of <em>Politicalities</em> blogger jonathan Haas, who
had <a href="http://politicalities.typepad.com/politicalities/2005/09/it_points_towar.html">calculated</a>
that the crescent pointed.62° off of Mecca. Allowing some margin of error for
the exact coordinates used for the crash site and for Mecca, Griffith confirmed
Haas' calculation of the direction to Mecca ("the arctangent value is correct"),
and he accepted Haas' calculation that the bisector of the giant crescent
pointed a mere .62° off of this Mecca-line. The actual divergence is slightly
larger—a bit less than 2°—but this is what the Park Service was told by
Griffith: that the crescent pointed less than 1° from Mecca.<br />
<br />
Even the Park Service realized this was bad but their response was pathetic, as
Murdoch was only forced to make a slight change in the orientation of his giant
mihrab. The conversation is easy to imagine: "How about if I change the
orientation by five degrees?" Murdoch presumably asked. "Would that be enough?"
So now instead of pointing 2° north of Mecca, it now points 3° south of Mecca,
both of which are highly accurate by Islamic standards.<br />
<br />
For most of Islam's 1400 year history far-flung Muslims had no accurate way to
determine the direction to Mecca. (Many of the most famous mihrabs point 10, 20,
30 or more degrees off Mecca.) Thus it developed as a matter of religious
doctrine that what matters is <em>intent</em> to face Mecca, which architect
Paul Murdoch proves by elaborately <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVVKKoGRVFw&feature=plcp">repeating</a>
his Mecca orientations throughout the design.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>They misled the public into thinking that the crescent was being
removed</strong><br />
<br />
Images of the Circle of Embrace "redesign" that the Park Service released in
late November 2005 were calculated to fool the public into thinking that real
changes were being made. Here is a comparison between the original Crescent of
Embrace (top) and the phony redesign (bottom). At first glance the Circle of
Embrace actually does look more like a circle than a crescent, but if you
examine closely you'll see that this is almost entirely due to re-coloring of
the image. The only actual change is the addition of the extra arc of trees that
extends from the circle-breaking crescent tip down the hill towards the crash
site:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/?action=view&current=Crescent-and-Circleaerialviewscaptioned.jpg"
target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/Crescent-and-Circleaerialviewscaptioned.jpg"
/></a>
<br />
<br />
Because this extra arc of trees explicitly represents a broken off part of the
circle it in no way alters the circle-breaking, crescent-creating theme of the
design. Neither does it affect the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent (the
unbroken part of the circle) that is left standing in the wake of 9/11. It only
looks like a real change, but the Memorial Project apparently decided that even
this purely cosmetic alteration conceded too much to critics.<br />
<br />
Look again at that screen-grab from the Park Service's new animated fly-by of
the design as it is actually being built. The bold extra arc of trees that was
the only actual change in the Circle of Embrace redesign has been taken out and
replaced with a wispy wave trees:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/?action=view&current=Fly-byscreengrabcaptioned.jpg"
target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Central%20crescent/Fly-byscreengrabcaptioned.jpg"
/></a>
<br />
<br />
These few trees, planted to the rear of a person facing into the giant crescent,
do not diminish in any way the crescent's functionality as a <em>mihrab</em>/Mecca-direction
indicator. You can plant as many trees behind a mosque as you want. It is still
a mosque, or in this case, a terrorist-memorial mosque.<br />
<br />
Feel like complaining? Give Flight 93 Memorial Superintendent <a href="mailto:Keith_Newlin@nps.gov">Keith
Newlin</a> a piece of your mind (and please <a href="mailto:alec@rawls.org">pass
along</a> any response that you receive). There is also a <a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/honorflight93/">petition</a>
you can sign, if you haven't done so already.<br />
<br />
Never forget!