Leading
Islamic organizations and civil rights groups marked Bin Laden’s death by
announcing that justice finally came to the Al-Qaeda leader who represented the
face of global terrorism to Americans and the world.
Muslim
American organizations also expressed their gratitude that in announcing the
death of Bin Laden; President Barack Obama used the event to reiterate that
America was not at war with Islam.
“We are just thrilled, like every
American,” said Mohamed-Shukri Hassan of the Al-Farooq Mosque in Tennessee. “As
the president pointed out in his address to the nation, the ideology of Osama
Bin Laden is incompatible with Islam, and he murdered more Muslims than anyone
can think of.”
The Muslim
American community’s blogs and social media were filled with reactions on the
death of Bin Laden, and their conclusions were all the same: Bin Laden did not
– in any manner -- represent Muslims and/or Islam.
The nation's
leading Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American Islamic Relations,
CAIR, issued a statement saying: “We join our fellow citizens in welcoming the
announcement that Bin Laden has been eliminated as a threat to our nation and
the world through the actions of American military personnel.”
The Islamic
Society of North America, ISNA, issued a statement from their Plainfield,
Indiana headquarters saying the ideology of Bin Laden is incompatible with
Islam, adding that it hoped Osama's death would bring some relief to all the
families, of every faith and walk of life, who lost loved ones on 9/11 and in
every other terrorist attack orchestrated at the hands of Osama.
The Islamic
Circle of North America, ICNA, a New York-based Muslim community organization,
called Osama “a serious threat to the security of America and the world” and
said his death marked “a significant turning point in the post-9/11 global War
on Terror.” ICNA also expressed
its wish that the Obama administration would use “this pivotal moment as an
opportunity to rapidly end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and ensure the safe
return of our troops.”
The Muslim
Public Affairs Council, MPAC, a public service agency based in DC that works
for the civil rights of American Muslims and for the integration of Islam into
American society, said both Bin Laden’s actions and those of Al-Qaeda had
violated the sacred Islamic teachings upholding the sanctity of all human life.
“We hope this is a turning point away
from the dark period of the last decade, in which Bin Laden symbolized the evil
face of global terrorism,” said MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati. He pointed
out that Bin Laden’s senseless terror “had been met with moral outrage by
Muslims worldwide at every turn in the past decade.”
But Bin
Laden’s death also brought additional feelings of anxiety to some Muslim
Americans.
Federal
officials reassured Muslims and Arab Americans during a meeting in Dearborn,
Michigan on Wednesday that they would not be profiled in the aftermath of Bin
Laden's death.
They said the
FBI was looking into potential revenge attacks, but added that it does not have
information on specific plans.
The leaders
expressed their concern that the death could lead to increased profiling, but
Margo Schlanger, national head of the office of Civil Rights and Civil
Liberties in the Department of Homeland Security, said the government would not
employ extra scrutiny of anyone, including Muslims, according to those who
attended. She added that the federal terror alert is at the same level now as
it was before Bin Laden's death.
Goatmilk, a
California-based blog run by Wajahat Ali, was one of several Muslim community
blog sites that carried mixed reactions to Osama's killing.
"With the
passing of a man who came to represent violence and hate overseas, incite
ignorance and misunderstanding within our own nation, and become the face of an
agonizing war, I pray that our leaders turn this into a turning point in our
history, bring our brave troops back home to safety, and allow for the
suffering peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan to establish the peace and
security they have been longing for," wrote Hammad Moses Khan from
Sacramento, CA.
Another
commentator, Art Balaoro wrote: "Though I am not Muslim, I was happy to
hear President Obama reiterate in his global statement that it WAS NOT a war
against Islam. Very happy to hear the promotion of racial, religious, and
ethnic tolerance in a critical moment."
“Still, the matter of how — or whether —
Bin Laden's death might change the perceptions of those who believe a Koran and
a shoe-bomb are part of the same spiritual advisory kit will take a long time
to solve,” wrote Stephen George in the Muslim Spring.
Katherine
Carroll, an assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University
who spent a year embedded with the US Army in Baghdad as an expert on Middle
East politics, says she's skeptical that Bin Laden's death will change some
Americans' perception of Muslims. She says at this point, he's more like a bit
player in the ongoing drama.
“American anxiety is not just about Bin
Laden… It’s about a narrative that comes mostly from conservative media that
builds Islam up as an ongoing existential threat to the West. This narrative
presents Muslims as the ‘other’ — dangerous, different, not ready for democracy
and not appreciative of freedom.”
But
Muslim Americans want very much to be included as ‘another’ not as ‘the other.’
“Some Americans categorized us with Bin
Laden and associated us with him and his ideology,” said Imam Mohammad Ahmed
Al-Sherif of the Islamic Center of Nashville, Tennessee. “But we are not. We are
not. We are insisting to be part of this country.”
