Hartford, USA - A memorial to honor a Sept. 11 victim from a small northwestern Connecticut town has been halted by the unexpected conflict arising from his father's insistence that it say his son was murdered by "Muslim terrorists."
Town officials in Kent are balking, saying it would be inappropriate to single out a religious group in a project on town property and paid for with taxpayers' money. The memorial plaque to be erected outside the town hall is on indefinite hold.
Peter Gadiel says he's frustrated about what he calls a growing trend across the country to soften the reality of the Sept. 11 attacks by not mentioning a word about terrorism on victims' memorials. "Ordinarily I would not want a reference to his murder on his memorial, but there seems to be an effort to whitewash what happened that day," said Gadiel, a 61-year-old retired real estate investor.
Gadiel's 23-year-old son, James Gadiel, was working for the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage firm in the World Trade Center when he was killed.
Town leaders acknowledge that Muslim terrorists were responsible for the attacks, but they insist that saying it on a public memorial plaque would be wrong. "To disparage a particular religious group would not be appropriate," said outgoing First Selectwoman Ruth Epstein.
Town officials say that most of the criticism is coming from outsiders.
Epstein said the town has received about 150 e-mails and numerous phone calls on the issue. Many of them supporting Gadiel were obscene and threatening, including one from a person who hoped Epstein and her family were killed by terrorists, she said.