Controversy over 9/11 Museum Film

Here's an interesting debate for a religions class.

Should the National September 11 Memorial Museum show an introductory film, called “The Rise of Al Qaeda,” that refers to the terrorists as "Islamist" and “jihadist?”

That's exactly what the National  Memorial intends to do when it opens on May 21st, according to  this fascinating story in the New York Times.

To many, including an interfaith advisory group of clergy members, those words means Muslim. As Akbar Ahmed, the chairman of the Islamic studies department at American University, noted in an interview with the New York Times, when you associate the terrorists' religion with what they did, "you associate one and a half billion people who had nothing to do with these actions and who ultimately the U.S. would not want to unnecessarily alienate."

The Museum does not want to make changes. Should they?  Is it necessary or important to associate religion with the perpetrator of any heinous crime?

Here's a  viewpoint from Ani Zonneveld who  wrote a essay for the the Huffington Post called Museum of Intolerance.