Wednesday, May 23, 2012

5/27/11, Opinion Editorial, The Finger Lakes Times

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Understanding Osama bin Laden's Death
By: Sardar Anees Ahmad

What does Osama bin Laden’s death mean? Answering this question requires understanding the “idea” of bin Laden, assessing the validity of bin Laden’s position and, lastly, asking where we go from here.

Understanding Osama bin Laden requires understanding the allure of Osama bin Laden. A wealthy businessman, bin Laden embraced hardship for the defense of the Muslim world – a self-appointed “vanguard,” as New Yorker writer Steve Coll notes. In the early 1980s, bin Laden abandoned all luxury and migrated to Afghanistan to fight the invading Soviets. In turn, bin Laden became a solder-statesman: providing funds, construction expertise, recruitment, training, and refugee care while also serving on the frontlines and winning battles. As a military strategist, bin Laden’s faith in a war of attrition, primarily through economic warfare, proved correct. Indeed, bin Laden did play a part in the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also lobbied on behalf of poor Arabs for employment opportunities. Bin Laden was also very inclusive. He stressed that Muslims overlook internal differences and focus on external enemies, ultimately recruiting members from more than 50 countries for his cause. Thus, Bin Laden became the “everyman” in many people’s eyes.

Having helped defeat the Soviets, bin Laden channeled his anger towards the West. Bin Laden did have legitimate grievances – the West is somewhat responsible for the poor state of the Arab world. Bin Laden’s mistake, however, did not lay in his grievance, but his solution. He founded Al-Qaeda in the late 1980s to expel Westerners from Muslim countries and install theocratic governments. Brevity does not afford for a detailed explanation of jihad here, but it is worth asking what did bin Laden hope to achieve?

If bin Laden ultimately sought political change, then his efforts cannot be considered “Islamic.” Moral reformation occurs largely independent of, and largely precedes, political reformation. It is foolish to assume that corrupt Muslim communities would behave morally simply because the government is “Islamic.” In fact, the community must first be “Islamic” in order for the government to operate morally because community members themselves run the government. For example, what benefit would come from penalties for threatening free speech if people do not appreciate the value of free speech? Political goals aside, if humanity is lost in the pursuit of this goal, why bother? The Quran (5:33) declares that killing an innocent person is akin to killing all of mankind. Therefore, whatever bin Laden’s goals, according to Islam, he is a mass murderer many times over. Lastly, note that Prophet Muhammad termed the struggle against one’s own weaknesses as the “greatest jihad.” In other words, Islam considers supreme victory to lie in self-refinement – not political reformation.

But if Bin Laden was not a representative of Islam, what do we make of his legacy? Osama bin Laden once noted that 9/11 cost him $500,000. Nobel economic laureate Joseph Stiglitz notes that America has spent $4-6 trillion in response. The so-called “War on Terror” helped cause the recession and the housing crisis – leave alone the massacre of millions of innocent civilians abroad and the damage of America’s global image. Also, like the “War on Drugs,” the “War on Terror” actually furthered what it sought to eliminate. Extremism relies on exploiting the grievances of the poor and hopeless. Defeating extremism, therefore, requires abandoning cowboy diplomacy and offering much of what extremists offer – foodstuff, education, shelter, etc. More than aid programs, this will require including countries in the global economy and open dialogue between cultures. In contrast, iron fist diplomacy will only legitimize bin Laden’s legacy.

Ultimately, only by practicing the opposite of extremism can we ensure bin Laden is remembered as a murderer, not a martyr.

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