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The sheik is death, long live the sheik!Reader comment on item: Thoughts on the Killing of Osama bin Laden Submitted by Sergio (Mexico), May 2, 2011 at 15:07 The "concept" of Bin Laden was George Bush's equivalent of "the boogieman" ,used historically by parents to scare or threaten children. Bush used it to create the damaging "Department of Homeland Security", and all its equally un-American offshoots, such as the TSA. He used it to scare Americans and instill in the hearts and minds of the American people fear and mistrust. At the same time the concept of Bin-Laden was useful in enabling him to blame an individual and his organization, instead of putting the full weight of the blame where it belongs: Islam. If Bin-Laden ever truly existed in a militarily significant fashion, he was but one of a series of equally criminal, equally bloody, equally islamic petty leaders of thug-bands, based in he Arab and muslim countries and spread out throughout the whole world. With or without Bin-Laden, al-Qaeda will still be named as the source of all Western evils, even in spite of the contradicting episode of the West aiding al-Qaeda in Libya. A new "boogieman"will have to be invented, lest the American people and Westerners in general start connecting the dots and realizing that Bin-Laden is but a masquerade of the true problem: Islam. And all this while at the same time the "other" al-Qaedas, such as Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah, the PFLP, the muslim Brotherhood, etc, will still be approved as "militants", "fighters" or some other romantic terms. There's an old story about Arafat and Bin-Laden meet in hell. Bin-Laden complains to Arafat; "Look at me, persecuted by US soldiers thru the Middle East, blamed, denigrated, insulted and vilified; while you were entertained by kings and presidents, invited to the UN, wined and dined thru every major Western capital. And we both have been criminals and murderers, specialized in pillage, death and misery. But you were even worse than me, so how come this difference in treatment by the West?" To which Arafat answered: "ahhh, but I only kill Jews..." Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (90) on this item
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All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes (The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998. For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.) |