The Muslim American Society has issued a press release on the death of Osama Bin Laden that contains much praise of his actions prior to 911 and which refers to “the terror and the loss of blood that came with his death.” According to the MAS statement:
The recent press release of the Muslim America Society meant one thing only. We hope that the death of Osama bin Laden’s will stem terrorism and eliminates one of the causes of violence in the world. With Bin Laden’s death, one of the reasons for which violence has been practiced in the world has been removed. We hope every person in this country, whether they agree with the death of Bin Laden or they disagree with, whether they themselves would made the decision to eliminate him or not, will come together and step up beyond press releases and statements, and continue the meaningful work that highlights the benefits Islam and American Muslims contribute to society. When Osama Bin Laden died, he was not the same man who came to fight against the occupation and solely connected to the struggle for which he had committed to; despite. With his wealth and ability, he could have done almost anything he wanted to do. At that time he supported the anti-occupation forces by providing housing for the thousands of volunteers who converged on the small border town on the edge of Pakistan. At that time, 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 in order to control a country they did not have rights over. He was a visionary 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. That dream of a pure and merciful Islamic state in a Muslim land, never realized itself in Afghanistan, and for the man that dreamed of it created a nightmare on September 11, 2001. Bin Laden became someone we did not know and could not understand. He, by his own testimony, designed a plan and promoted acts that led to the deaths of thousands of Africans and Americans; and direct and indirect repercussions listed below:
The MAS statement then goes on to detail five paragraphs of text criticizing U.S. anti-terror policies and their impact on U.S. Muslims before concluding:
Osama Bin Laden singlehandedly undid some of the most significant Islamic work done in America and disseminated the rights of Muslims here and forced the world to ignore the rights of our other brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. He knew there was a price to pay for his actions and ideas. He paid. I do not believe that any human being relished the terror and the loss of blood that came with his death, but most believe he would not have wanted to be arrested, brought to America and tried in our courts of law. In the end, he died on his own terms.
The MAS was identified in a Hudson Institute report as a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and closely tied to the Egyptian organization. Previous posts have discussed the controversies involving the Roxbury Mosque in Boston, also tied to the MAS, as well as the various mosques being sponsored by the MAS in the New York area.