Relatives of several people who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 yesterday dismissed claims that a planned monument to the 40 hijack victims actually glorifies Islam and the terrorists who took over the plane Sept. 11, 2001.

"These allegations are not only hurtful, misleading and not based in fact, but have required an inordinate amount of our time to set the record straight," Gordon Felt, brother of passenger Edward Felt and president of Families of Flight 93, said during a news conference at a Downtown hotel.

Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County as passengers tried to wrest control from the four hijackers. Their heroics prevented the plane from reaching a likely target in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday marked the first time family members involved in erecting a $57 million memorial at the crash site in Shanksville have publicly addressed criticism about what some see as Islamic design elements, starting with the memorial's original name, "Crescent of Embrace."

They did so ahead of a quarterly meeting today in Somerset County of the Flight 93 family group and the Flight 93 National Memorial Federal Advisory Commission.

Commission Chairman John Reynolds said he anticipated that people who opposed the memorial design would present a petition to throw it out.

But family members yesterday said they will work tirelessly to have the monument completed according to the design by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"We're standing up and saying, 'Enough.' We're proponents of the winning design," said Patrick White, whose cousin, Louis "Joey" Nacke II, died on Flight 93.

Critics have made numerous allegations that the design of the memorial has Islamic overtones. They said, for instance, that the original crescent shape of red maple trees around the crash site evoked a widely accepted Muslim symbol, and that a planned tower looks like an "Islamic sundial" that would cast a shadow signaling the start of Muslims' afternoon prayers.

The crescent has since been changed to more of a circle, and the National Park Service, which will manage the memorial, has refuted all the claims.

Mr. White said his group rejected any wholesale change to the design but allowed that it would have to be modified as it shifts from paper to reality.

However, Mr. White added, "They're not going to be changed based upon the idea that someone sees crescents everywhere."

Tom Burnett Sr., 77, of Northfield, Minn. said a petition would indeed be handed over today. Mr. Burnett, whose son Tom Jr. was one of the passengers, is one of the prime movers behind the design backlash. He said two "surrogates" would present a petition with 6,300 signatures that have been collected over the past month.

"I support the petition to throw that design out," Mr. Burnett said yesterday. "What it is is a large outdoor mosque, and these people refuse to get at the truth on that, and that really staggers me."

Mr. Burnett has joined forces with conservative California blogger Alec Rawls.

Mr. Burnett, who was one of 15 jurors judging the final design, said he did not believe the park service's denials. He said the vote for the design, which he refers to as "Red Crescent of Embrace," was 9-6 in favor -- hardly unanimous.

"Why they didn't vet that awful design that's loaded, riddled with Islamic symbolism I'll never know," Mr. Burnett said.

Sandy Felt, Edward Felt's wife and a fellow juror, said the panel was well aware of concerns about the design.

However, she noted, a decision was made to not throw out a design simply because of a crescent's possible religious connotations.

"There's no particular ownership of this shape," Mrs. Felt said.