Far from mourning the death of Osama bin Laden, most Muslim-Americans are celebrating his demise, saying they have no sympathy to spare for a man who indiscriminately slaughtered people of all religions and launched their community into a decade of distrust and discrimination.
"A lot of (Muslim-Americans) feel, first and foremost, catharsis and relief," said Wajahat Ali, a Muslim-American writer and attorney in the San Francisco Bay area. "Relief because Osama bin Laden was a global symbol of terror and indiscriminate violence."… It's also a relief because he symbolizes (those who) hijacked Islam, legitimizing his ruthlessness (using the) religion. … His name and the photo (are) imprinted on the collective consciousness of the world."
"Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims," said Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America. "Indeed, al-Qaida has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity."
Backlash But they were divided about whether bin Laden's demise would mark a turn for the better for the Muslim-American community, which many say has been subjected to anti-Islamic attacks and overzealous intelligence gathering by U.S. authorities as a backlash sparked by bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.
"For too long, many of our fellow Americans have stereotyped the entire Muslim community as somehow being extensions of bin Laden," Yasir Qadhi, an Orthodox Muslim leader and Islamic Studies scholar at Yale University, said in an email. "While the capture of Osama bin Laden was always a high priority, dealing with bin Laden should never have distracted us from solving our domestic problems, nor been used to create problems that did not exist (by targeting and stereotyping the Muslim community).
"With his death, we pray that we as a nation can regain our composure and begin in earnest to take our country to greater heights."
No comments:
Post a Comment