Islam Before Ground Zero

This article in Slate from 2001 is a must read. In a dizzying array of circumstance, it reminds us how Islam had been a part of the World Trade Center site for decades.

The story goes like this: Minoru Yamasaki, a Japanese-American architect who drew inspiration from Islam for his designs, became a sought-after architect for many of Saudi Arabia's most important structures, including the country's central bank and two major airports. Now, architects are only as good as the construction firms charged with turning their designs into reality. It just so happens that in Saudi Arabia, one family's construction firm was adept—and politically connected—enough to turn Yamasaki's beautiful designs and breathtaking reality: the bin Ladens. And as it happens, Yamasaki also designed the World Trade Center.

As a scion to the construction firm, the article argues that Osama bin Laden must have know about the Islamic influences that adorned the World Trade Center buildings and the plaza in between. This gave bin Laden a reason to despise the site: it embodied the marriage of Islamic art, modernism, and commerce—a combination anathema to his idea of Islam.

We all know the basic reasons why Osama Bin Laden chose to attack the World Trade Center, out of all the buildings in New York. Its towers were the two tallest in the city, synonymous with its skyline. They were richly stocked with potential victims. And as the complex's name declared, it was designed to be a center of American and global commerce. But Bin Laden may have had another, more personal motivation. The World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a favorite designer of the Binladin family's patrons—the Saudi royal family—and a leading practitioner of an architectural style that merged modernism with Islamic influences.