Cross to be banned from Ground Zero?

A group of atheists in New York have filed a lawsuit to prevent a cross from being displayed at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

American Atheists, a Texas-based group that describes its mission as protecting civil rights for non-believers, claims the government installation of the cross is an unconstitutional "mingling of church and state".

The group’s president, Dave Silverman, insists that no religious symbols should be included in the memorial of the 9/11 terror attacks at Ground Zero if the Christian cross is the only symbol being represented.

As a public accommodation, the memorial must allow us (and all other religious philosophies) to include our own display of equal size inside the museum, or not include the cross. Equality is an all-or-nothing deal.

The lawsuit names the museum, New York and New Jersey, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Chris Christie, among others, as defendants.

The cross is made up of two intersecting steel beams that were found intact amid the rubble of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. Originally erected on the side of St. Peter's Church on nearby Church Street, the cross was placed inside the 9/11 memorial museum during a ceremony on Saturday.

According to museum organisers, construction worker Frank Silecchia discovered the 17-foot-tall cross in the vicinity of 6 World Trade Center after the attacks. Since then, the cross, the only thing left standing amid the rubble, has become a symbol of hope and comfort for many citizens of New York.

Joe Daniels, the 9/11 Memorial president, described the cross as:

an important part of our commitment to bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the history of 9/11 in a way nothing else could. Its return is a symbol of the progress on the Memorial and Museum that we feel rather than see, reminding us that commemoration is at the heart of our mission.

In 2010, the same atheist group also challenged the constitutionality of roadside memorial crosses erected to honour fallen Utah state troopers. A federal court ruled in favour of the crosses, but an appeals court ruled against them.