A religious group in New York has a bone to pick with the town of Owego over a 9/11 memorial that calls those responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks “Islamic terrorists.”
The Children of Abraham of the Southern Tier reached out to city leaders in Owego to try to change the wording on the monument because they allege that the words encourage hatred towards Muslims, Fox News reports.
A spokesperson for the organization told WICZ that the words “Islamic terrorists” on the monument paint “a broad brush against the many Muslims who live in the Southern Tier.”
The group wants the words changed from “Islamic terrorist” to either “terrorist” or “Al Qaeda terrorist.”
The city manager has told the group, however, that the wording will not change for the sake of political correctness.
“I don’t live in a politically correct world,” City Manager Donald Castelluci said to WICZ. “I live in a historical fact world and cross-terrorism, whether it’s American, homegrown, Christianity, Islamic, you call it what it is. And, we don’t whitewash things, especially here. And, we think we done the accurate citing of what happened.”
Castelluci said to Fox News that his decision was not about religion, but about the event that took 3,000 lives.
The town of Owego plans to remember the 15th anniversary of 9/11 by holding a dedication of the monument Saturday that will honor a local resident who died in the attacks.