DAILY BEAST WRITER VILLIFIES DEBRA BURLINGAME

A writer for the Daily Beast who may be Muslim named Dean Obeidallah has written a hit piece against the lady whose brother was murdered in the 9-11 jihad, because he despises her possible support for the documentary video to be screened at the memorial museum:

What’s behind the museum’s actions? A theory advanced by Gudaitis is that Debra Burlingame, one of the 11 members of the museum’s program board, which decides content, has espoused anti-Muslim views. As a result, according to Gudaitis’s theory, she may not be objective about content decisions and might be influencing museum officials in a negative way. (That view was also expressed by another person involved who requested anonymity.)

Burlingame is the sister of Charles Burlingame, the pilot of the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, killing all aboard. My research found that her past comments about Islam have been troubling, to say the least. In 2010, she issued a press release denouncing President Obama’s support of the “Ground Zero Mosque.” That place of worship, she claimed, would spread Sharia law across the United States, leading to the “subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit.”

Burlingame also recently wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop because the hijacker in the film is a military combat veteran and “worse, the flight’s quiet hero who comes to the aid of the protagonist, thereby saving the day, is a Muslim doctor.”

These are just a small sample of the type of statements Burlingame has made. I twice reached out to her for comment via the email address on her organization’s Web site. Her colleague did respond on Sunday, saying he would forward her my email, but she still has not answered me. I also asked the museum whether Burlingame had any input in “The Rise of Al Qaeda,” but officials did not respond to two requests for comment on the issue.

What if he didn't send her anything? His attack on her positions is offensive, and shows that there are vicious leftists and other people out there who hold very hateful views of the relatives of 9-11, and have no interest in positing a serious defense of Islam and the Koran. And the writer refuses to mention that the movie Burlingame took offense at depicts the relative of a 9-11 victim committing an act of terrorism while a Muslim character is depicted sympathetically all along. One of the commenters says:

Wow, I just read the link to Burlingame's former comments. You really botched this. Dishonest piece. I support the truth. Museum doing the right thing. It doesn't have a "Muslim problem." Muslims have a jihad problem. They need to stand up and be more vocal against the extremists in their midst.

And another says:

"Burlingame also recently wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop because the hijacker in the film is a military combat veteran..." Obeidallah left out a critical piece. If you go to the link he provided, Burlingame wrote about not only the hijacking terrorist to be a military combat vet, but also a 9-11 family member. The former #2 now #1 Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri is an Egyptian doctor. Pretty warped inversion and very insensitive to the victims of 9-11 and their families to make a film reversing all the roles. There is no need to make a film that turns 9-11 family member into a terrorist hijacking a plane. They could have done a different story line that did not involve Muslims or 9-11 family members.

And Obeidallah's fine with all that? Disgraceful. I don't think Burlingame needs to answer such a horrific man with no respect for people like her. He owes an apology to 9-11 Families for his crude, disgusting insult to the memories of many fine people who perished in 2001 at the hands of jihad. And the video should be screened as it is at the 9-11 Memorial Museum.