Last night, the American people learned of the death of Osama bin Laden, long heralded as the mastermind of the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, of the U.S.S. Cole, and the September 11th attacks. In his remarks to the nation, President Obama’s words were underscored with caution that although the Special Forces had successfully assassinated the head of Al-Qaeda, the war was not yet won. Yet outside the gates of the White House and at Ground Zero in New York City, an impromptu celebration erupted as crowds gathered to celebrate the death of a man who was partially responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, including Muslims during his reign of terror. These celebrations were far more complex than just a moment where, after ten years of war and bloodshed, Americans could celebrate its exceptionalism, its ability to surmount all odds and obstacles, and its ability to see justice done at whatever the cost. The assassination of Osama bin Laden marked the closing of a decade-long chapter, it sutured wounds long open, and although should not be used to justify wars on two fronts, his death represents something much more significant than just the satiation of Americans’ blood lust.
Simultaneous to the announcement, as emotions ran from elation to fear to relief to confusion, my Facebook newsfeed erupted with two reactions to Osama’s demise: elation and condemnation. My reaction was one of elation, then fear, national pride and then, when the President began to speak, I began to sob. Last night was not a moment for celebration, but it was a moment of tremendous relief and release. Osama bin Laden was symbolic in the burden that he presented to the American people. Last night, as people cried and screamed and chanted, they were not celebrating the death of bin Laden. The celebrations were not that simple: to Americans, Osama bin Laden was the bogeyman, Big Foot, a specter who was at our fingertips and who always managed to slip away into the darkness. For the last ten years, Americans clung to the myth of Osama bin Laden, to the idea of al-Qaeda, and the notion that with the death of al-Qaeda’s leader, the “War on Terror” would be dealt a devastating blow.
In the wake of President Obama’s speech and during the day following the announcement of bin Laden’s demise, not one single person has asked me what I think about it. Articulating this is, of course, symptomatic of my own arrogance as a trained-Islamicist, but also of the arrogance of Americans themselves. Information about Islam, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda: it is all filtered through political blogs, news programs, neighbours, and long-held assumptions about the Islamic World. In an effort to not have to confront the realities and complexities of bin Laden’s death, two approaches were adopted, both of which are wholly American in spirit and execution, and testimony to Americans’ self-righteousness in the face of the so-called “War on Terror.” The first reaction is Biblical, calling-out in the wilderness for peace and brotherhood, for no more blood to be shed, and for the beating of the swords into plowshares. The second is one that yet again draws-upon the Abrahamic, the Judeo-Christian impulse to turn the other cheek, to seize this moment as we failed to do in the days following September 11th and react to bin Laden’s death with poise, dignity, and due reverence. After all, it was still a human life that was lost, and at the cost of thousands of lives before the night of May 1st, 2011. Both of these approaches denote a sense of American exceptionalism: “We killed him. We are awesome.” “This is not right, we are better than this. We should be better than they are.” In both cases, Americans establish themselves as superior, as exceptional, as better than their “enemy” a sophisticated network of soldiers interested in the establishment of a Utopian society, a caliphate in which justice would finally be divinely executed. A sophisticated process of othering takes place that no one is immune from in their commentary on the events of last night.
I will admit that clearly my moral compass is clearly not as evolved as my colleagues on Facebook whose updates called for calm, introspection, and calls for peace: I did not turn any religious book or cite a verse, although I had trouble articulating that I wished bin Laden to be condemned to hell, my tongue stumbled over the words. Writing to my friend this morning at Baghdad University, I wrote: “This is a bittersweet ending. I don’t know how to feel exactly. It was still a human life that was taken and many were taken in order to get to that place. In the end, it is for God to decide. God’s verdict is greater and more just than any of us could render .” I admire my friends and colleagues who are not so embroiled in the Islamic world and its contradictions, can employ their Christian, “secular,” and otherwise intellectualized empathy to the situation. Unfortunately, I cannot see this event or critique it in the same manner. For me, as an Islamicist, I am too deep to be able to look from the outside in, to read blogs and watch political pundits banter about the significance of bin Laden’s death.
From the perspective of an Islamicist, I believe that the Qur’an justifies the killing of Osama bin Laden. In Sura 17, it is written: “You shall not kill any person – for God has made life sacred – except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice. Thus, he shall not exceed the limits in avenging the murder, he will be helped.” The United States acted well within the Shari’a in its assassination of Osama bin Laden. Perhaps it was not the best decision, nor perhaps, as I wrote to my friend at Baghdad University, it was not our right to exact justice or to define the parameters of earthly justice, even if God has given us the tools with which to do that. For me, as an Islamicist, it is a bittersweet turn of events. Not only has the United States taken off the head of the beast, but the nation has also made itself vulnerable through its sense of exceptionalism and the smugness with which bin Laden’s death was simultaneously celebrated and condemned. Americans demonstrated once-again last night that their greatest enemy is themselves and their own ignorance of a world that they keep at an arm’s length and refuse to understand. It is not Islam that will be the downfall of this country, it is Americans’ and their willful ignorance that will be our undoing.
