What the Middle East papers are saying about the killing by U.S. special ops forces of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. What will have to happen before the world can turn the page on one of the darkest chapters in history?
Calls for a UN inquiry
The US holds all the evidence, particularly the final moments of what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as “38 intense minutes”. We must also assume therefore that the treatment of the body and subsequent burial at sea were also filmed.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for “a full disclosure of the accurate facts” to determine the legality of bin Laden’s killing. “The United Nations condemns terrorism but it also has basic rules of how counter-terrorism activity has to be carried out. It has to be in compliance with international law,” she said.
The thought of an independent inquiry that has full access to the evidence being conducted by the New York City-based UN may appall many Americans who believe there should be some sort of closure after nearly a decade since the terrorist atrocities.
Unfortunately, as the press and public have been fed contradictory statements this week one is looking increasingly necessary. – Gulf Times, Qatar
All eyes on Arab revolution
The announcement of Bin Laden’s death could not have come at a more opportune time. Most countries in the Arab world are in the throes of a revolution or are in the process of reform, having toppled previous regimes. These upheavals in the Arab world ensure that Bin Laden’s killing will not become a big issue among people in these countries, who sometimes use Bin Laden as a symbol in their fight against their governments. – The Peninsula, Qatar
Drawing the line on 9/11
For the Muslim world, it is like a lifting of a curse. We complain, with very good reason, at the spreading tide of international Islamophobia but bin Laden was the cause of so much of it. He, more than anyone else in human history, with his twisted version of Islam, made it feared and despised among millions upon millions of people who had never known about it before. He perverted its image and made them come to think of it as a religion of death and hatred.
No civilized person can ever take pleasure at the death of another, but in this case the hope must be that this death will draw line under 9/11 and all the dysfunctional relationships and mistrust it has brought to the world. Not that anyone will be so naïve as to believe it. The American media and unscrupulous politicians there and elsewhere will continue to see Al-Qaeda threats at every turn, as they have in the Arab uprisings. The U.S. military presence in Iraq will not end nor NATO’s in Afghanistan. – The Arab News, Saudi Arabia
The value of assassination
The value of the assassination of Osama bin Laden is more symbolic than practical. But bin Laden-style terrorism has changed shape over the years. Its headquarters and training bases are still in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, but its terror cells exist independently, or in loose alliance with distant terror networks. The death of the spiritual leader of Al-Qaida terrorists won’t extinguish the zealotry surging through their murderous activities against Western targets. – Haaretz, Israel
Judaism warns against gloating. Proverbs (24:17) states, “When your enemy falls, do not rejoice, and when he stumbles let not your heart be glad.” According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 39b and Megillah 10b), angels were rebuked by God for attempting to sing during the splitting of the Red Sea: “My creatures [the Egyptians] are drowning in the sea and you are singing a song?”
[T]he very fact that Judaism questions unbridled jubilation at the demise of our enemies helps ensure that the focus of our joy is less about triumphalism and self-satisfaction and more about the victory of good over evil. Otherwise, we risk losing our moral bearings. – Jerusalem Post, Israel
Lessons in coexistence
All of us would like, as rational and peaceable folk, to agree that war and economic stability, protracted conflict and human development do not and cannot coexist. Yet, for the last decade, the world’s richest countries and most militarily ambitious armed forces have done their best to tell us the opposite.
In the aftermath of the Abbottabad strike, which view is the truer reflection of our times? Agencies of the United Nations, those primarily concerned with helping people live better, healthier, safer lives, have spared no effort in telling us that more, not less, needs to be done for the world’s poor and vulnerable. The world body’s promise to halve global poverty by 2015 has failed. That trillion dollars could have gone a long way.
So, against that bleak backdrop, if the death of bin Laden is also a signal that obscenely enormous military spending will now be used to feed the hungry, teach the young and give them a safer future, then perhaps we can indeed call it a milestone. – Khaleej Times, UAE
A resolution to “terror”
It is time for the United States and other countries interested in pursuing the so-called war on terror to turn over a new leaf, by formulating a new policy.
Just as the G-8 was too small to handle the complex global economy, the complex global phenomenon of terrorism requires a much more inclusive mix of nations.
Terror itself, as all of the experts point out, and as people across the world have experienced, is not confined to a single group of people, whether in terms of colour, class or ideology.
The classification of various political groups, and the methods they employ, should be re-evaluated, and involve no double standards. As for practical measures, the U.S. and other countries seeking a resolution of the “terror” issue could do themselves a big favour by engaging pro-actively with the people in countries of concern.- Daily Star, Lebanon
