Osama bin Laden’s Death Pivotal in Shift to Peace, Leaders Say

10 May 2011

An Iraqi businessman reads a newspaper about the death of Osama bin Laden.

Amid swift reaction to the death of terrorist leader and mass murderer Osama bin Laden, world leaders generally believe the event may be pivotal in shifting the focus away from a decade characterized by terrorism and extremism to one of building democratic societies in the Middle East and across the globe.

Lebanon’s outgoing premier, Saad Hariri, may have summed up best the sentiments of those in the region where the al-Qaida terrorist group formed and fomented its brand of extremism. “The history of our nationalism and Islam will never forgive that man who was a black mark for two decades, filling the minds of youngsters with ideas about terrorism, murder and destruction,” Hariri said in published news reports.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted on May 2, the day after a team of U.S. Navy special operations commandos attacked and killed bin Laden in a walled hideout, that the al-Qaida leader’s reign of terror and violence were not just attacks on Americans in the United States 10 years ago: “These were attacks against the whole world.”

“In London and Madrid, Bali, Istanbul and many other places, innocent people — most of them Muslims — were targeted in markets and mosques, in subway stations and on airplanes, each attack motivated by a violent ideology that holds no value for human life or regard for human dignity,” Clinton said in Washington. “I know that nothing can make up for the loss of the victims or fill the voids they left, but I hope their families can now find some comfort in the fact that justice has been served.”

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said that the end for bin Laden is good for the cause of worldwide peace, but overcoming his discourse and methods — all of them violent — will be what counts over the long term. And Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein expressed the hope that the death of the al-Qaida leader would lead the world “to universal peace and harmony.”

The Turkish Milliyet judged in its editorial pages that bin Laden was “already a representative of a ‘defeated’ ideology” even before he was killed. “Muslims have already made their choice” in the Arab Spring uprisings, and they have chosen to embrace democracy, the newspaper said.

The Gulf News in the United Arab Emirates said that while bin Laden claimed to be Muslim and speak for the Muslim world, what he offered his followers was nothing other than hatred and anger. The challenge now, the newspaper said, is to root out these dangerous terrorists and expose them for the sham that they are.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters that bin Laden was responsible for some of the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen, which have cost thousands of lives. Hague added that it “is a time to remember all those murdered by Osama bin Laden, and all those who lost loved ones. It is also a time too, to thank all those who work round the clock to keep us safe from terrorism.”

The president of the European Union Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said in the aftermath of bin Laden’s death that “we woke up in a safer world. Even if the fight of the international community against terrorists is not over, an important step in the fight against al-Qaida has been made.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that “the forces of peace were able to report a success, but international terrorism has not been yet defeated. What has become clear today is that there will be further successes in the fight against terror, even if they take a long time to achieve, and the death of bin Laden is a huge success in this endeavor.”