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another. However, the friendly feelings did not

always extend to everyone. Some people blamed all
Muslims for the terror attacks. Muslim Americans

sometimes became the victims of harassment,
threats, and violence. People of Middle Eastern

descent were also targeted, as were Sikhs (who wear
turbans and beards as part of their religion). In

reality, the majority of Muslim leaders denounced
the attacks. Salih bin Muhammad Al-Luehidan,

chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council of
Saudi Arabia, called the 9/11 terrorists “the worst

of people…. Anyone who thinks that any Islamic
scholar will condone such acts is totally wrong.”

POINTING
OUT

CROSS CONTROVERSY
Days after 9/11, a cleanup worker uncovered
two intersecting steel beams in the WTC rubble.
Workers, families, and, later, tourists flocked to
the 17-foot (5.2 m) cross. In 2011, the National
September 11 Memorial & Museum installed the
cross as part of its display. American Atheists Inc.
filed a lawsuit to remove it. But the museum stated
that the cross was important history. “It provided
comfort to … people who were working in some
of the most hellish conditions imaginable,” said
museum president and chief executive Joseph C.
Daniels. In 2014, a judge dismissed the lawsuit,
and an appeals court upheld the decision.

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