Post date: Sep 11, 2010 3:38:58 PM
Mourners arrive for a September 11th remembrance ceremony in New York -- some voicing opposition to a planned mosque near the Ground Zero site.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 11, 2010) REUTERS - Mourners began arriving at the so-called Ground Zero site early on Saturday morning (September 11) to attend a remembrance ceremony at the location where the World Trade Center once stood.
Saturday marks nine years since two planes crashed into the Twin Towers, killing nearly 3,000 people.
But many said this year's ceremony was bound to be overshadowed by religious tensions following threats by a Christian preacher to burn copies of the Koran. The threat came as the nation remains divided over controversial plans for an Islamic center to be built just two blocks away from Ground Zero.
The pastor behind the Koran-burning threat later changed his mind on Saturday morning, saying no Islamic text would be burned. The pastor, Terry Jones, who is from a little-known church in Florida, arrived in New York late on Friday night (September 10) in the hopes of meeting with the imam behind the mosque's planned construction. But so far Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has said he has no plans to host any such meeting.
Opponents of the 13-storey mosque say the location chosen for its construction is insensitive to the families of 9/11 victims.
In the hours ahead of Saturday's remembrance ceremony, friends and family of those who died began arriving, carrying flowers, posters and photographs of the victims.
But others, like Bill Steyert, decided to attend even though they hadn't lost any loved ones that day.
"You know, I mean, if we don't care about our fellow citizens, especially almost 3,000 of them, more than we lost at Pearl Harbour, for goodness sake, then there's something missing in your heart, you know. I watched it on television that day and the sky was blue like this...when I got up and looked...," Steyert said, before breaking into tears.
Rosemary Cain lost her son in the attacks. He was a 35-year-old New York firefighter.
"He was a wonderful, happy person and he lived a full, happy life and he was very active, he was athletic. He lived every day. He loved his job, he loved the fire department and he loved his family and we miss him very much," Cain said of her son.
Cain said it was sad that the world was so full of hatred and that people couldn't just get along.
"Just learn to live in peace and harmony -- that's what I think. All the victims of September 11th would ask everybody to just, let's just get along, if you don't agree with somebody. We don't have to agree with everybody but that the evil and the hatred is so...it just makes me sick. It's not necessary. It's a big world, we should all be able to get along," she explained.
Carlos Estrella, a police officer who was near Ground Zero on the day of the attacks, says his feelings of sadness will never fade.
"I come back here every year and it doesn't get any easier," he told Reuters.
New Yorkers were acutely aware on Saturday that once the remembrance ceremony ended at roughly 12:00 local time (1600 GMT), thousands of demonstrators planned to take to the streets at the proposed location for the mosque and hold two separate marches -- one in favour of its construction and one against it.
New York's police were out in full force on the streets of lower Manhattan and security was on high alert.
Carmelita, a New York resident, was already on the scene near Ground Zero, brandishing her poster, long ahead of the rally's start time.
Her poster read: "No mosque on Ground Zero."
Carmelita explained: "The American children, they lost their parents. The American people, they lost their family. So we should understand the feelings of America. It's not the political issue. It's the feelings of America. So our people give a lot of blood. I know that I worked as a volunteer for the second day that that happened and I saw how it is terrible, so we American people doesn't want the mosque at Ground Zero."
U.S. President Barack Obama has said that he recognises "the extraordinary sensitivities" surrounding the September 11 attacks, but has added that it should be possible to erect a mosque near Ground Zero, or a building representing any other kind of religion.
According to a Marist Poll, 54 percent of Americans disagree with Obama, saying they find the mosque offensive.