The death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was a historic
event for America, for American Muslims and for the world.

 American Muslims were the first community to thank
President Obama for fulfilling his promise, bringing the leader of al-Qaeda to
justice.

 In addition to the pain and suffering that the
September 11th terrorist attacks inflicted on the United States, Bin Laden’s
crimes directly affected American Muslims and the Muslim world at large by
hijacking Islam, a faith that is based on peace, tolerance and the belief in
one God, one universe and one humanity.

 Bin Laden, although he never burned the Bible,
misrepresented Islam through his actions as much as Terry Jones misrepresents
Christianity.

 The Prophet Mohammad defined a Muslim as a person who
never harms anyone with expressions or actions. He described attacks on
innocent people, regardless of faith or race, aa attacks on all humankind.

 We, as American Muslims, grieved for the loss of our
fellow citizens on 9/11, and we paid a heavy price for that terrorist tragedy.
Psychological terrorism called  Islamophobia has spiked, as has harassment
against our community, intimidation at airports and during immigration
procedures. Our holy book, the Qur’an, is being burned, our Constitutional
rights are violated and opposition to building mosques has increased.

 Islam is an Abrahamic religion, whose commandments are
based on heavenly revelations and human rationality. It is a religion of
justice and compassion that considers all mankind as God’s family, and the best
of them are those who do good to benefit humanity, the one who goes to bed full
while he knows someone in the neighborhood is hungry has no faith in God.

 From the beginning, we opposed the un-Islamic,
inhumane philosophy of Bin Laden.

 The death of Bin Laden is a relief for our nation’s
victims and their families, and a confirmation of the President’s statement
that “as a nation there is nothing we can’t do.”  However the
spontaneous celebrations may not meet Dr. King’s doctrine:

 “I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious
lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy… Hate
cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

 Could bin Laden have not been captured to answer for
his crimes in court?  Could his sea
burial cause controversy and questions in the world?  Al-Qaeda never
cared to bury its victims, yet to set a good example, protection of human
dignity even after death matters.  Perhaps it would have been better to
leave the burial decisions to his family.

 We are encouraged to bury dead bodies as soon as
possible; it’s permissible to delay the burial for technical reasons. One
reason for speed in the burial procedure was hygienic, to avoid smelling
and health problems and also a show of respect. Nowadays, using refrigerators
would protect the body from fast deterioration and bad smells.  

 Our government needs to learn its lesson not to arm
the wrong people as it armed and helped bin Laden and his groups in
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

 Let’s remember that bin Laden was born and raised in
Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists also came from Saudi Arabia and none
of them were Afghani citizens. The Saudi money has been behind so much
corruption and terrorism in the Middle East.

 The Saudi regime is helping the Bahraini regime to
terrorize the doctors, nurses and patients in the hospitals, torturing pro
democracy forces to death, destroying the places of worship and eliminating
voices for freedom and human rights. This is no different from what bin Laden
did and our government ignores that.

 Let’s pray that God will direct the decisions of our
policy makers to choose a path that serves the interests and the integrity of
our nation and the world.

The writer is the imam of the Islamic House of Wisdom in
Dearborn Heights.