The opening of New York’s 9/11 Memorial this week was marred by claims that a film shown at the centre portrayed Islam unfairly: a concern which, for some, is emblematic of a societal suspicion that continues to see Muslims stigmatised in the US.

One of those concerned is Talat Hamdani, the mother of a young chemist whose disappearance on September 11 – along with thousands of others who disappeared that day – was treated as suspicious, she believes, because of his religion.

Pakistani-born and a former police cadet, 23-year-old Salman Hamdani was treated as a terror suspect after he failed to turn up to work on the morning of the attacks. His poster was wired across police networks, as newspapers began scrutinising his past.

His mother, a schoolteacher from Queens, was in the classroom when the attacks hit. Her son had left the house that morning to take the 8.15 bus, as usual, to the city. But he never returned home.

“We searched for him for 10 days” she told FRANCE 24. “And then the flier came into our knowledge.” The police notice showed her 23-year-old son’s face alongside the words “Hold and detain. Notify: major case squad”.

Hamdani remembers the New York Post headline that followed: “Missing or Hiding?” And the quote from the neighbours - “We didn’t know we were living with a terrorist”.

“From there I started writing to everyone, she said. “The FBI, the CIA, even George W. Bush”.

But Hamdani was ignored by the authorities. Only six months later, when the police had exhausted their investigation into her son, was she told that his remains had been found - back in October - in the north tower. They told her that his identification had been lengthy, because they found him in 34 pieces.

Hamdani had not gone into hiding on the morning of the attacks, but rushed to the Twin Towers to help.

Long struggle

Hamdani fought for a decade to clear her son’s name. Today, the street he lived on in Queens has been renamed Salman Hamdani Way.

At his inauguration speech at the 9/11 Memorial last week, Obama hailed the bravery of those who lost their lives trying to help others in the attack.

But his mother was not there to hear it. Hamdani turned down her invitation because the museum refused to change the script of a film featured among the exhibits.

“I was fighting for my son’s name but now I am fighting for the community” she told FRANCE 24.

Hamdani was joined by Christians, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus in campaigning for the change.

Entitled “The Rise of al Qaeda,” the film refers to the 9/11 attackers as Islamists who viewed their mission as a jihad. Showing footage of terrorist training camps and attacks, the film aims to explain the ideology of al Qaeda.

Several groups, including the museum’s internal Interfaith Advisory Group, were shown the film before the opening of the museum.

“The video may very well leave viewers with the impression that all Muslims bear some collective guilt or responsibility for the actions of al Qaeda, or even misinterpret its content to justify bigotry or even violence toward Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim (e.g., Sikhs),” wrote the New York Disaster Interfaith Services last month after viewing the film.

“The film ignorantly implies a religion, rather than a group of criminals, was to blame for the September 11 attacks,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations board member Zead Ramadan in a statement. “Instead of unifying all Americans against evil-doers, this film continues to offensively cast suspicion on faith rather address the terrorist act."

Latest in a string of conflicts

But despite an overwhelming consensus that Islam had been misrepresented in the film, the museum’s board of directors refused to alter the script.

Concern over the narrative has brought up other potentially worrisome issues at the museum, which, according to its mission statement, aims to “inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance”.

One of those issues is the influence of Deborah Burlingame, who sits on the museum’s board of directors. The sister of Charles Burlingame, who piloted the hijacked flight which crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, Burlingame has spoken openly (before protecting her Tweets) of Islamism as "a supremacist ideology which is very much a threat to Western ideology”.

“Ms. Burlingame has a First Amendment right to speak as she pleases, but no right to sit on the board of an organisation where her hate-filled words can do great damage,” said American author, political activist, and rabbi, Arthur Waskow, in his support for a petition calling for her dismissal.

The dispute is the latest in a string of conflicts that threaten to ostracise the US's Muslim community.

“A lot of Americans don’t understand the depth of contribution of Arabs and Muslims to American society for centuries,” historian Todd Fine, who campaigns to raise awareness of historical Arab-American communities in New York, told FRANCE 24. “That’s why it’s important that any institution - the 9/11 museum or any cultural institution - make sure that Arabs or Muslims are humanised as a fundamental part of this country.”

France24