Supporting Civil Rights for Atheists and the Separation of Church and State

01
May
2011

bin Laden is Dead

admin's picture
Author: admin /

After 10 years, President Obama just announced that Osama bin Laden is dead. He stressed, in his speech, that bin Laden was not a Muslim leader, but that depends how you define "Muslim leader." He led Muslims. He used the Koran to motivate and justify his actions. He legitimized terrorism with his holy book, and his interpretations thereof.

So... was he a Muslim leader? Yes, depending on your interpretation of what Islam is, which is of course, individual, as all religions are.

So, take a moment to reflect on Islamic fundamentalism, and its Christian and Jewish counterparts. Understand that this world is full of religious moderates, who make fertile ground for extremism by tolerating such behavior. How different is Militant Islam from the others, really?

We have a long way to go before extremist religion dies, but at least for now, the good guys have won a battle. Many congrats to the countless American patriots who brought this Muslim leader to justice. DS

Comments

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Sun, 05/01/2011 - 19:54

Well, we can only hope people take this news with dignity... I'm personally afraid of not supporters of Osama or the like, but some of some American's celebrating his death a little to far which may come to instigate more problems.

But otherwise this is a victory for the American people against terrorism, and yes that should be celebrated. Even if it is only symbolic.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Mon, 05/02/2011 - 02:00

"... who make fertile ground for extremism by tolerating such behavior."

Are atheists for intolerance, now? Extremism is in the eye of the beholder, and there are plenty in the world that consider atheism extremist.

I'll shed no tears for bin Laden, nor will I celebrate killing.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Wed, 05/11/2011 - 11:50

As an atheist, I am intolerant of bigotry and murderers killing in the name of a non-existent man in the sky. Atheists are extremely rational, logical, and loving beings. Have you ever heard of an atheist suicide bomber? nope.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Tue, 05/31/2011 - 13:59

That's a generalization. Yes, atheists don't believe the myths that religions put forth, but they can be irrational or illogical in other ways. And not all our actions are loving. Even though it's true that far more murders have been committed in the name of maintaining a religion, it's still true that many murders have also been committed in the name of stamping out religions entirely.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Mon, 05/02/2011 - 16:45

I too will not celebrate killing.

However, I am glad that bin Laden is no longer free. He was a powerful leader and an educated and trained leader who had the ability to cause far more damage than the average terrorist.

So, I am glad he is gone, but not jubilant and celebratory about it.

As for him being a Muslim leader, anyone who claims that he was not has not been paying attention.

It is certainly true that the vast majority of Muslims in the world are good and decent people who wish us no harm. With 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, if the reverse were true, we'd already be dead.

However, the fringe movement he led respected him tremendously because, despite his great wealth, he lived a relatively meager life and really did practice Islam very strictly according to one interpretation of the religion. That he chose the most violent interpretation is obvious. But, from that definition, he was pious.

This is the danger in religion, or at least the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion.

Regardless of which flavor of this particular religion you choose, it is clear that the books of this religion may (only may) be interpreted to be as violent as the Quran may be. So, is there a real difference between the sects of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion?

Not really.

It seems that there are waves in time during which each of these sects have become violent. For a significant amount of time, it was Christianity that was violent and Islam that was peaceful. During the Old Testament times, if the O.T. has any historical accuracy, it was the Hebrews who were genocidal. Pages and pages, in fact whole books, of the bible are devoted toward describing and justifying genocide.

Are people violent in the absence of these violence inducing books? Of course.

People are typically most violent when we have an ideology, which may or may not be a religion. It could be communism. It could be a cult. Or, we become massively violent with any conflict between Us and Them. It's always OK to kill or even torture and be incredibly cruel to Them. Anything that divides people into Us and Them can make us horrifically violent. The problem with religion is that it, by its nature, is sectarian meaning it divides us into sects of Us and Them.

So, the best cure for this sort of violence is to recognize that we are all very closely related. We have a very small gene pool, despite a large number of humans. We're all cousins.

Let's just try to remember that.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Tue, 05/03/2011 - 06:47

Couldn't have said it better myself, Scott... though I think I did do a little mental dance when I heard of bin Laden's fate. Didn't throw a party or anything fancy like that, but I think at least an audible "YES!" is in order? Something to mark my personal closure with this issue?

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Tue, 05/03/2011 - 16:48

3E8 - Just a guess, but you may be a bit younger than me. I have only heard since Monday about how much the events of 9/11 and hunt for bin Laden defined a generation, but not my generation.

My generation was more defined by bomb drills in elementary school and watching "the moon shot". I am just old enough to remember watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon (live on B&W TV). I even remember asking my parents about his flubbed line and what it meant.

Thanks for the compliment.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Tue, 05/03/2011 - 16:04

I, too, am uncomfortable "celebrating" bin Laden's death, and I think that releasing the pix to the public would be a bad move. Even though the dog isn't sleeping, let's not poke it with a stick.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Tue, 05/03/2011 - 16:51

I've got mixed feelings about showing one potentially relatively ... um ... tasteful? respectful? ... photo. The right wing nut jobs are already starting to question whether this really happened. Of course, they also assert that we have not been to the moon and that the earth is 6,000 years old. So, perhaps nothing will quiet our home-grown crazies. Tough call.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Fri, 05/13/2011 - 18:17

True, the Stern Gang did not do suicide bombings. Just regular car ones. I do wonder if some of them were secular though.

Bin Laden's killing was not justice. It was an execution. Extra-judicial.

Nothing to celebrate in our government deeming itself righteous in knocking off people without bringing them to justice first.

Beware who you elect next time. They might not like atheists.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Fri, 05/13/2011 - 19:08

http://www.galacticempiretimes.com/2011/05/09/galaxy/outer-rim/obi-wan-k...

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) / Sun, 05/15/2011 - 05:17

All this is well and good IF and I say IF the Bin Laden narrative played out as the government would have you believe, AND you believe what they are reporting.

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