Diane Schrader
Certainly there is no lack of words about the departure from this world of the closest thing we had to a real-life Lord Voldemort. How we react to these pivotal news events says a lot about who we really are, our values and our priorities.
Quite a few honorable, patriotic Americans struggled a bit with how to respond to the demise of Osama bin Laden. There was definitely joy over the (vastly delayed) justice, and pride in our awesome military. But there was also sober contemplation of a life wasted in hatred and violence, and very little hope of a positive eternal reward (jokes about 72 virgins notwithstanding).
One thing none of the honorable patriots would have done was to eulogize bin Laden as a fallen hero. Only “radical Islamists” would do such a thing. Right? The Muslim American Society (MAS) is a group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood to promote “Islam as a total way of life” – here in the United States. From their headquarters in the DC area, the group blamed 9/11 on Osama bin Laden “American foreign policy,” so I’m guessing they weren’t among the celebrants in front of the White House on Sunday night. (Although come to think of it, didn’t “American foreign policy” also die a somewhat horrible death… back in 2008? Hey, I think they DID celebrate that one at the White House!)
But I digress. MAS has a long and rich history intertwined with terrorism, and along with CAIR, ISNA, etc. have been named co-conspirators in funding terror. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that their (somewhat disjointed) press release on bin Laden’s death doesn’t exactly express joy over the recent turn of events. And although it doesn’t overtly criticize America for killing bin Laden – they’re all about the subtlety, those MAS folks – it doesn’t spend much time mourning the loss of life on 9/11, either. That is mentioned, in a couple of lines buried within the bigger message of this statement, which seems to be this: Osama bin Laden was a great man who made a bad mistake one day. (That day, of course, was September 11, 2001.) But before that, he was AWESOME.
“Osama bin Laden cared unrelentingly about the Afghan Muslim children in the same way he cared about his own children, and believed in the right to liberate the Afghan people from their Russian aggressors, who raped innocent women and who tried to destroy the country… they did not have rights over.”
Um… wait. Bin Laden was AGAINST trying to destroy a country you don’t “have rights over”? I guess that was before he was FOR it. And what’s all this about him being anti-rape? Who knew. Too bad he didn’t share this secretly-held conviction against raping innocent women, at least to his buddies in the field – the “boots on the ground” if you will. That would have saved one CBS reporter a hellish encounter that will no doubt haunt her for the rest of her life. Not to mention the veritable epidemic that some have referred to as the “Muslim rape culture.”
But no. MAS defends bin Laden, upon his death, as a… visionary. (I know that’s probably not the word YOU were thinking of, you Islamophobic bigot.)
And MAS is right. He was a visionary, as they say:
“…who believed in the possibility of an Islamic state in Afghanistan and the possibility that this thing might someday be. There was nothing wrong with that dream, even if it differs from that one that all Americans have here for themselves.”
The dream that Americans have here for themselves? You mean our dream of not getting blown up, even while engaged in such warlike activities as boarding a plane or sitting at our desk in a tall office building? Yeah, wacky Americans – we’re funny that way!
But in the spirit of peace-loving tolerance, let us indeed acknowledge that there was “nothing wrong” with bin Laden’s dream. It was just “different” from ours. Yes, yes, his dream was a little unorthodox, in that it involved killing all of us — but never mind that NOW. The important thing is, he had a dream! Osama, we hardly knew ye!
“That dream of a pure and merciful Islamic state in a Muslin land, never realized itself in Afghanistan.”
Uh, why was he trying to blow up this country if he just wanted to live in purity and mercy over there in the sand? Methinks that MAS doesn’t really want to be honest about bin Laden’s intentions, since he made clear only about ten-trillion times that he wanted to destroy the West.
Despite its disingenuous posturing as it attempts to distance itself from the actual 9/11 attack (the press release refers to 9/11 as a “nightmare”), here is the bottom line: MAS considered bin Laden a visionary because they share the same vision, even if they disagree on tactics.
And what is that vision? Islam for all. The West will be conquered, Allah willing.
England is closer to this reality than the U.S., as could be seen during the furious protests outside the U.S. embassy this week in London. I mean this both literally and figuratively: read the signs.
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