Should the 9/11 Museum Display Quotes From Hijackers' Suicide Tapes ?

A museum dedicated to the September 11 attacks will display written quotations drawn from "martyrdom" videos made by the hijackers.This announcement has drawn some critisism. The quotations along with witness testimonials will be screened to prevent sympathizers from praising the hijackers, museum officials said on Thursday.

Previous attempts to put the motivation of the men, who used passenger planes to attack the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, into context have been met with emotional public opposition, with politicians canceling plans for an "International Freedom Center" in 2005. But the president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum said photographs of the 19 hijackers would be displayed along with the quotes as part of the "witness testimony" in the museum.

The memorial and museum are planned for the World Trade Center site undergoing reconstruction in lower Manhattan. The underground museum should open by 2013. Museum president Joe Daniels told reporters the exhibit would present the facts, focusing on "what happened on that day, why it happened and what it means to live in a 9/11 world."
"Let the perpetrators speak for themselves," Daniels said.

The museum has possession of videotapes the hijackers made in preparation for the suicide attacks and it was previously reported that visitors could play back the tapes.
"That's a powerful and important thing that visitors to this museum need to hear -- bearing witness to the actual testimonials of those who committed the atrocities," Daniels told a news conference. However, Daniels later said that the exhibit would be limited to photos and written text from the martyrdom tapes.

The museum is inviting people around the world to send in pictures and recorded recollections about the attacks that will be displayed on its website after being screened for sentiments lionizing the hijackers.
"No one will come to this museum and leave with a feeling of heroism for the people who committed the crimes that we bear witness to today," Daniels told reporters.

Museum officials are treading carefully. Initial plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center included the International Freedom Center, which would have covered subjects unrelated to the 2001 attacks and discussed themes such as tolerance and diversity. But Former New York Governor George Pataki canceled the Freedom Center after critics, including survivors and relatives of the nearly 3,000 who died, said the museum should instead be dedicated exclusively to the day known as 9/11 and the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center.

As an example of what will be included, Daniels said the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union was vital in understanding "the roots of Al Qaeda." The most horrific pictures, such as those of people who jumped from the top floors of the Twin Towers to escape the heat and flames, will be segregated.

I hope people will accept the decisions of the museum officials and try not to object too much, based on their emotions. It's important, historically, to get all the facts and put them in order, including the motives that drove the men who perpetrated the attack. The anniversary of September 11 has just past and I wonder how many people stopped what they were doing for a moment of silence and thought about the events of that day.