Kent, CT – Peter Gadiel, the 9/11 victim’s father, has insisted that the stone state that his son was “murdered by Muslim terrorists,” a phrase that town officials say has no place on a monument that would be paid for by municipal funds and be placed on the town hall property.
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Working in North Tower James Gadiel was working as an assistant trader at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 103rd floor of the North Tower when the World Trade Center was attacked with passenger jets that had been taken over by terrorists. He was 23.
“He was a lovely young man who deserves to be honored,” said First Selectman Ruth Epstein, “but Peter is still adamant that he wants that wording. We do not feel that is appropriate, and I have not heard from him since.”
Catherine Posselt Bachrach appeared at the Board of Selectmen meeting to present a letter that supports the town’s position. She said she had found the “impasse to be extremely painful.”
“I am adamantly opposed to any reference to ‘Muslim’ terrorists and cite personal experiences to support that opposition,” she wrote.
Ms. Bachrach went on to recount her time as an English teacher in remote regions of Turkey, where she was treated everywhere with “respect and civility.” “Hospitality and the protection of strangers are basic tenets of Islam and I was the beneficiary, even when those I encountered had never met an American. To think that one of my former students, my teaching colleagues or others would see a reference in my home town to ‘Muslim’ terrorists is painful.”
She said her family had felt the sting of such prejudice when she was a child. Her family left Germany in 1930, she said, and settled in Kent in 1941. “Shortly after my sister entered Kent Center School during World War II she came home and told my parents that she had been called ‘a Nazi’ by fellow students. My father, who preached and lived tolerance and civility, marched into KCS and informed [the principal] that this type of bullying was unacceptable. To his eternal credit, Mr. Perkins swiftly put a stop to the bullying, reinforcing the values that we all celebrate in our small town.”
She said that for young Muslim students in today’s hometown school to see a plaque referring to their religion in a negative way would be “unthinkable.”
“I appeal to you all to affirm Kent’s long history of tolerance and ability to welcome and provide a home for citizens of all backgrounds and religions.”
Mrs. Epstein said she has heard some comments from residents who feel it is inappropriate to have any memorial at all. “I agreed to it, though,” she said. “I feel it was such a catastrophic episode for the United States, and we lost one of our own, that it is a good idea to memorialize James. But we could not condone that wording for anything on public land.”
But for Gadiel, it’s an important message that he insists be present on any tribute to his son.
“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.”
I agree with this man. Enough with the PC, tell it like it is.
whats the big deal, he was in fact murdered by a muslim who was a terrorist, seems straight forward enough.. oh wait, we now have to be politically correct, he was ” selectively eliminated by a unaffiliated religious freedom fighter”
How off the derech we all are…
Write it in big letters on every stone of all the 9/11 victima
Forget the PC BS.
Never forget!
too late…it has already been forgotten
I don’t understand. The town is paying for the monument and it gets to pick the language. He can always fund his own monument on his own property.
In Israel, the Yitzchak Rabin memorial in Tel Aviv says that he was killed by a “Kippa-wearing Jew”. Do you really want to go there???
They won’t allow “murdered by Muslim terrorists” because they argue that they don’t want “Muslim” to go with “terrorist”; so will they allow “murdered by terrorists”?
Well. What if a morning newspaper would come out reading “52 Billion Dollar Scam Orchastrarted By Jewish Swindler.” You are getting the idea?
1. The city has the right to put whatever language they want on it. If the parents want their own monument, they are free to pay for one that can say whatever they want.
2. There is nothing wrong with saying “Murdered By Terrorists On 9/11”. However, it is a bit of a smack in the face to those Muslims who ran INTO the flames to save people to attach their religion to it.
This would be like putting a monument in Oklahoma City that says “Murdered By American, Xian Terrorist”. It would offensive and inappropriate. Should I inscribe on my uncle’s tombstone “Robbed of the fruits of his life’s work by a greedy, lying, money-hungry Jew”?
It is funny how it is “liberal political correctness” when we talk about gentiles, but when we talk about Jews, the same words are “antisemitism”. Go figure.
This is not about political correctness. It is about common decency and civility.
I agree that we should not write this muslim stuff on the monument,and I also agree that a lot of muslim people are decent, hard working people . But please don’t compare the hate and suicide bombings that kill and injure men, women, and babies by the extremists muslim to some people who are jewish who swindled other people .. It is a very bad,terrible thing , but please let’s keep in prospective.
We should all chip in and pay for the monument so it can spell out the truth.
those peace loving muslims should help that town pay for the tombstone,,, let the poor father tell the truth
Relating to the topic at hand, today I passed the WTC site and it is STILL empty. This is very painful and is so only because of politics. Enough is enough – let these people be remembered!!
The killing of Jews is a mandatory religious obligation established by Islam’s founder Muhammad, according to a Muslim academic who spoke on Palestinian Authority television.
“Muhammad said in his Hadith: “The Hour [Day of Resurrection] will not arrive until you fight the Jews, [until a Jew will hide behind a rock or tree] and the rock and the tree will say: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'” said Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia.
Khader spoke during a lecture, broadcast Sunday, on what he describes as the war of the Jews against Palestinian “trees.”
The program was monitored by Palestinian Media Watch, or PMW, an Israel-based group.
PMW director Itamar Marcus says Khader’s statement was one of many instances in recent years of Palestinian religious leaders teaching publicly that this Hadith – part of Islamic traditions attributed to Muhammad – is a current obligation of Islam.
Marcus says these teachings challenge the common belief that the premise for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is over borders.
“Palestinian religious and academic leaders publicly teach that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is part of Islam’s irreconcilable religious war against the Jews,” he says.
“To justify this view,” he adds, “Palestinians repeatedly cite Islamic sources to demand as religious doctrine, that Jews be hated, even demanding the killing of Jews as the will of Allah.”
Marcus says “the continued expression of this PA worldview is most ominous.”
“For by depicting redemption as dependent on Muslims’ murder of Jews, the murder of Jews is being presented as mandatory religious obligation,” he says.
for all those who say many muslims are our friends, so were many germans until it became socially acceptable to hate and murder and then they showed their true feelings. And btw chazal say that yishmael will be worse than edom.
A recent British poll found something like a third of Muslims think its justified to murder Jews or/and Brits in the name of Jihad. With numbers like that, I think they’ve lost the chance to be judged favorably.
how many Jews have killed from hatred?
did u forget ari halberstam a’h?
did u forget rabbi meir kahane a’h?
wake up already….
“To think that one of my former students, my teaching colleagues or others would see a reference in my home town to ‘Muslim’ terrorists is painful.”
Someone should remind her that having your 23 year old son murdered for nothing is also painful, especially when he was murdered by a FREAKIN MOSLEM TERRORIST!!!
How did an article about a mans greif in search of truth, denied, where “murdered by Muslim terrorists, in the name of Islam”, exactly what happened. Is truth in history being rewritten by omission? And defended by someone who’s truth, the holocaust history, is at this very moment being denied, potentially erased, because it wasn’t written in stone.
If the support, of the current administration, very possibly a repeat of 1930’s Germany and the mirror like proposals, usurpation of the media, checks/balances being circumvented and unaccountable executive (czars) appointed to bypass the peoples representatives..All supported by our Jewish brothers and voiced by the last election is an abomination and a slap in the face of all those Jews laid waste in Dachau and Aushwitz who now must watch as a their children usher it in all over again !
Why has this story been turned on it’s head from a fathers truth to a blind politicians personal yet backward view in protecting those tied by their faith to the slaughter and not to the fathers of the victims?
You, First Selectman Ruth Epstein, are miserably wrong !
God help us if the supervisors of Kent, Ct. are allowed to ban what truly happened to that young man, and the other 2400 souls, who were “Murdered by Muslim Terrorists” on Sept. 11th at the Towers. Shame on those cowards. I would encourage the citizens of Kent to make a move to “Impeach” their local government. I love my country, but politicans like those in Kent make me ashamed of my government.
So, I guess we need to reword MLKs memorial so that it says “killed by white racists”….no i really dont think that would be right personally, and im sure many people would have a problem with that!
ok…so your saying that he should put the exact amount of muslim terrorists involved?
I so totally agree with this Dad. What is wrong with telling the truth? Whose feelings are we afraid to hurt? There are plenty of good decent Muslims in this country who should speak up and defend this country and these issues. I am sure they are ashamed of their fellow Muslims who are trying to destroy America. We can’t let this happen. Lets pray to God that we do not need another Sept 11th to keep us reminded of our enemies.
Even if this memorial is being funded by government, where is the government getting the money? Taxpayers, so let the taxpayers have a voice since we are funding the memorial.
Stop the political BS in this government. It is ruining us.
Yes so, since the money comes from the people, thats why they VOTED to not accept it. And yes, it would be natural to have hate in your heart after this incident, but that doesnt make it right…People have hate in their heart for all sorts of reasons, maybe a past experience or just the way they grew up. But you cant possible believe that it makes it ok to spread the hate
The truth will set you free…and the truth is Muslim jihadists murdered Americans on 9/11. And it happened again a little over a week ago in Fort Hood. If good Muslims get offended by this, too bad. Let them speak out against the rift raft in the religion, the whack-jobs that are hell bent on converting the world to their perverse ideas. I wish elected officials had backbone these days, and stood up to terrorists and all other forms of tyranny, but most are more interested in walking that fine line of offending no one to gain votes.