Petula Dvorak at the Washington Post takes us back to 2002, “a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, with the horror and disbelief of that terrible day still very fresh in our minds,” when “right next to the spot where 184 people lost their lives in the Pentagon, the military opened a sanctuary where Islam could be celebrated.”
She tells us that this sanctuary is not two blocks away, not one block away, but a mere 30 steps “from the place where terrorists crashed the nose cone of American Airlines Flight 77 through the wall and killed Pentagon secretaries and military officers, soccer moms and Little League dads…”
No, this “sanctuary” is not a mosque; it is a chapel that is used by many faiths.
Yet, it is a place where “Muslims can unroll their prayer mats once a day and give praise to Allah,” and where on Fridays an imam comes in to conduct a service.
How can this be?
What an outrage!
What an insult to “patriotic Americans everywhere, and especially to the families of those who died that day and the good men and women who are risking their lives for their country in the fight against terrorism!”
But Dvorak tells us that there has been no outrage. “No hyperventilating by cable news anchors. No outpouring of hateful rhetoric on blogs and Web sites.”
She quotes personnel in the Pentagon chaplain’s office as saying: “Nope, never heard a word about it…No one has had a problem with it.”
And she adds that, according to officials, neither the families nor the friends and colleagues of those who died or were injured in the horrific 9/11 attack have ever complained to the Pentagon about the inclusion of Muslim services.
No one is outraged?
How can that be?!
Image: Courtesy Wikipedia
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.