Tension marks this year’s 9/11 remembrance

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans prepared Saturday to come together in somber memorials and peace rallies -- and to confront one another in protests over a proposed mosque and Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero.

For the first time, bitter passions over religious tolerance and partisan politics threatened to overshadow an anniversary that previously passed mostly as a quiet day of national mourning and sober reflection.

The debate grew so divisive this year that President Obama appealed Friday for Americans to “rekindle the spirit of unity” that swept the stunned nation after nearly 3,000 people died in the horrors of that sun-dappled Tuesday morning.

“We have to make sure we don’t start turning on each other,” Obama told a White House news conference.

Obama and other top U.S. officials had condemned plans by an anti-Muslim pastor in Florida to burn copies of the Koran. The event was canceled, but not before sparking outrage around the globe and anti-U.S. protests in several Muslim countries.

As in previous years, commemorative ceremonies were planned at the three places where the four hijacked planes crashed.

Obama will lay a wreath at the Pentagon, Vice President Biden will go to New York, and First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush will appear at a 9/11 national park under construction in Shanksville, Pa.

In New York, security was tightened as the anniversary coincided with the end of Muslim Ramadan, the middle of the Jewish High Holy Days, and the crush of Fashion Week, the fashion industry’s biggest event.

The site of a proposed 13-story Islamic cultural center two blocks from where the World Trade Center towers were brought down was padlocked for the weekend. But police braced for possible street clashes as activist groups prepared to rally for or against the facility.

On Friday night, about 2,000 supporters held a peaceful vigil that packed three streets near the site. Many held small glasses or cups with flickering candles, or waved U.S. flags. John Lennon’s “Imagine” played from speakers. People lined up to scrawl their names on a billboard-sized sign reading, “We Welcome Park51,” the official name of the Islamic center.

A short distance away, two beams of light representing the fallen towers briefly pierced the night sky from the heart of Ground Zero. They will light the sky again Saturday night.

Lynn Corwin, a veteran of antiwar marches and peace rallies, worried that the rancor over the proposed mosque could eclipse the need to honor the 9/11 victims and the first responders who tried to save them.

“It’s very sad,” she said. “It’s a time for recognizing that someone from every country was killed.”

Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena, of New York’s Park Avenue Christian Church, said the candlelight rally was a way to show intolerant groups that Americans welcome diversity and embrace religious freedom.

“There is a time to mourn, and there is a time to mix politics with the heart,” said Cartagena. “But for me, at least, it is a time for mourning.”