World reacts to death of Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden was killed Sunday in 40-minute firefight when a team including helicopter-borne Navy Seals raided a heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Bin Laden was buried a few hours after his death in the North Arabian Sea, from the American aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in what was clearly an effort to prevent his grave becoming a shrine to his followers, New York Times reported.
However, Bin Laden’s burial at sea, which prevents the grave site from becoming a shrine, was quickly criticised by Muslim scholars who claimed it had breached sharia law and warned that it may provoke calls for revenge attacks against U.S. targets, The Guardian reported.
President Barack Obama addressed the death of Bin Laden: “As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”
To read the entire Presidential address, click here
The Taliban response could be extremely important to the future of the war in Afghanistan, said Martine van Biljert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think-tank based in Kabul. But it may be a lot trickier for the United States to justify the costs of the war to an increasingly skeptical public now that bin Laden is dead, van Biljert told Global Post.
“It will probably become more difficult for the United States to explain to its public why they are in Afghanistan, particularly if it becomes more complicated to portray the Taliban and Al Qaeda as closely linked,” she said.