Muslim Military Worship Freely in Pentagon Chapel, Near 9/11 Crash Site

At the Pentagon, there's no controversy. In the reconstruction after attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a non-denominational chapel was built in an area about 100 feet from a plane's impact on the side of the mammoth building.

There, on Friday afternoons, an imam conducts a Muslim service for worshipers with prayer rugs. Muslim military personnel also gather for group prayer at the Pentagon Memorial Chapel on weekdays, according to CNN.

"What happens here is normal," Chaplain Carleton W. Birch, a lieutenant colonel, told the cable network. "I've never had a question about it," said Army Spokesman George Wright.

The chapel, which opened in November 2002, is also used by Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Hindus and Mormons. Its stained-glass windows and inscription behind the altar -- "United in Memory, Sept. 11, 2001" -- seem far removed from the controversy over a proposed a mosque near the site of the attacks in Lower Manhattan.

"We're very tolerant here of one another and our faith," Wright told CNN. "We don't keep track of who comes in."

A double row of 184 red glass pieces commemorates the 184 victims killed when American Airlines Flight 77 ripped into the building. As a reporter standing outside on that terrible day, watching the flames and smoke rising above the Pentagon, it never occurred to me that the rebuilding would include a place of peace and calm so close to the site of the devastation.