The 10th anniversary of the attack on America brings with it much controversy. As if denying first responders and clergy admittance at the ceremony at the site of the World Trade Center was not enough, now a company from St. Louis that has published a coloring book that depicts the events is being accused of creating anti-Muslim sentiments.
The coloring book entitled “We Shall Never Forget 9/11 — The Kids Book of Freedom” is described by Really Big Coloring Books as a tool that parents can use to help teach children about the facts surrounding 9/11. They suggest parental guidance when using the coloring book because of the graphic nature of the drawings and the difficult subject matter. The book has sold out of 10,000 copies and is trying to keep up with demand by running a second printing.
The publisher, Wayne Bell, says the book is a memorial tribute but Islamic leaders are saying something else. Time News quotes Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as expressing concern that the book will give children the idea that all Muslims are somewhat responsible for 9/11.
There have been reports that the book uses the term Radical Islamic Terrorists 10 times in the book but this has not been confirmed. The point is it was Radical Islamic Terrorists that bombed the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and took over a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. As Bell says in an ABC News piece “The truth is the truth. It’s unfortunate, that they were all Muslim and that’s the part that people want to erase. … I don’t know what else you call them.”
The truth is often a difficult thing. How do we explain to future generations the differences between radical Islamic terrorists and Muslims? Seems like a silly question. We teach children about the Holocaust, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor and other events in history and yet we don’t inspire them to hate their German-American or Japanese-American neighbors. Isn’t it possible to encourage patriotism and a love of America and what it stands for without passing on hatred? If children are taught that terrible things happen and every people group, culture, religion has participated in some offensive action then maybe they can learn to not repeat the atrocities that past generations have committed.