Despite having his theories that the proposed Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County contains Islamic symbols memorializing 9/11 terrorists debunked by scholars, park administrators and relatives of family members killed in the 2001 crash, controversial California author Alec Rawls insists the entire design still should be scrapped.
Rawls, 51, of Palo Alto, Calif., presented his theories to fewer than a dozen supporters at a Mt. Pleasant restaurant Thursday. He is in western Pennsylvania to attend a public meeting of the Flight 93 Memorial Advisory Commission and Task Force at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Somerset County Courthouse.
"We need to start over with the entire design. I will not accept the current design that actually is a terrorist memorial," Rawls said.
Rawls, an Internet blogger, and Bill Steiner, 66, of Mt. Pleasant, have spent the last two years investigating the design by architect Paul Murdoch, claiming its main element, originally titled "Crescent of Embrace," resembled the red crescent associated with Islam and complained that it purposely points toward Mecca. The design has since been modified, but Rawls maintains the Islamic symbols remain.
"It's a giant prayer rug and all they've done is planted trees behind it to try to change it. The religious symbolism is still there," he said.
However, Daniel A. Griffith, a professor of geospatial information sciences at the University of Texas-Dallas, studied Rawls' assertions at the request of family members and has repeatedly dismissed them. Last year, Griffith, a native of Hempfield, told the Tribune-Review that the mathematics employed by Rawls do not bolster "a case for a conspiracy, oversight or insensitivity."
Yesterday, Patrick White, of Florida, whose cousin, Louis Nacke II, died aboard Flight 93, was critical of Rawls' continued complaints.
"I support free speech and Alec's book is worth just that. My feelings about his theories are that we have made every reasonable investigation of the claims and find them to be entirely groundless," White said.
Rawls is releasing a book this fall, "Crescent of Betrayal," and its publisher, World Ahead Publishing, has made advance drafts available on the Internet at crescentofbetrayal.com.
"If I thought there was even one shred of truth to (Rawls') claims, I would never choose to dishonor my cousin with this memorial," White said.
Joanne Hanley, Flight 93 Memorial superintendent for the National Park Service, concurred.
"Alec's theories are plagued with faulty theories and assumptions. A proper analogy would be like attempting to place square pegs in round holes," Hanley said.
"It's a disservice to the honor of this country, the honor ot the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 and to the integrity of the thousands of people who have contributed to this memorial to continue to persist in these claims," Hanley said.
"Frankly, it's distracting from the ultimate goal of honoring these national heroes," she added.
Murdoch's design was selected by two juries from more than 1,000 entries.
