Is Osama ben Laden A Hero Or A Terror Lord?

Recentlyand again the name of Sheikh Osama Ben Laden surfaced across the world newsafter the tragic terrorist incidents that took place in New York and Washington,D.C. which shocked the whole world, the friends and foes alike of the USA.

Thisarticle sheds lights on some few facts and the background of the Middle Eastarea, which represents the heart of the Islamic world. First and foremost ofall, it should be acknowledged that Islam as a religion and doctrine of life isthe strictest law against killing people irrespective of their faith and way oflife. Most of the Islamic rules and laws come directly from the Moslem Holy Bookof Quran and the statements of the Moslem prophet Mohammad.

Thereis not a single statement in the huge amount of decrees and fatwas issued in thelong history of Islam that incites violence and killings. In the wars which theMoslems had, the orders given to the soldiers and army commanders were not totouch civilians; of men, women and children, and their property. Even the mostnotorious prisoners of wars against Moslem were not subjected to any kind ofhumiliation or torture as happens nowadays in most of the modern armies in theworld.

Thesecond important feature of Islam that it has the full respect of others’opinions and beliefs despite their hostile attitudes against Islam in numerouscases along the Islamic history. Islamic eras and history enfold long periods ofreconciliation and side-by-side co-existence with other ethnic minorities.Islamic culture and civilization contains scores of philosophers, scientists andscholars with a wide spectrum of faith and beliefs ranging from atheism toChristianity to Judaism to devout Moslems. In brief, Islam summarizes the ruleof coexistence between nations as: "People are created from a single male andfemale and made as nations and tribes to acknowledge each other, the best of thepeople is the one who fears Allah (God) most".

Theword Jihad in Arabic is a sacred concept and cannot be compared to terrorism atall. Jihad means true struggle against injustice, unfairness and the realdangers against the belief in Allah and Islam. In Islamic history Jihad used tobe carried out against dictatorships and monarchies that were subjecting thewhole communities to slavery, terrorism, poverty and the law of the jungle.Terrorism, on the other hand, is a means of terrifying civilians and governmentsfor the sake of political concessions. Nowadays it is carried out by persons,groups of people, and governments (state terrorism). The means of terrorism  range from economic to psychological. The most dangerous,nowadays, is the mass-destruction weapons terrorism that is inflicted on theinhabitants of the planet Earth, mainly by the superpowers.

Thequestion of why recently Islam and terrorism are associated with each other isbecause of the influence of the Western Media coverage of incidents. Whereas,for example, in the war in Northern Ireland nobody talks about Catholic or Protestant terrorism and in Palestine nobody mentions anything about Jewish terrorism; we find that any incident sparkedaround the world is associated with the concept of Islamic terrorism by theWestern media. Most of the news that is fed to the world comes from American andZionist media tools. All have their hostile fingerprints when they cover newsespecially from the Middle East where Israel is the focus of attention andcenter of propaganda against Islam and Moslems.

TheJihad against the Soviets in the Afghani war attracted scores of men from allover Islamic world to fight alongside brothers in faith. For most Moslems thatwas a crystal-clear case of a modern situation where Jihad should be donemilitarily. Callers for Jihad against the Soviets spread in the Moslem world andthe governments had their eyes blinded on the calls for Jihad in Afghanistan. Atthat time the cold war united the Americans and the Moslem Mujahedeen againstthe Curtain of Iron terror (the ex-Soviet Union). Numerous Islamic factionsworked on the Afghani arena, one of which was that of Sheikh Osama Ben Laden.

TheAmerican foreign policy is mainly directed against Islam and Moslems. Considerthe Palestinian Cause.  The USA has directed all its military, economic,political might and propaganda of its media against the Palestinian cause,considered as the most sensitive cause in the Islamic modern history. In acentury of continuous crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Israelis, theAmericans (with their policy of Double Standards ) have stood as perpetrators,accomplices and supporters to the genocide that ended up in uprooting a wholenation from their land and culture. Furthermore, tens of millions in Sudan,Libya, Iraq, Iran and other countries are subjected to the most stringenteconomic and financial sanctions that kill women, babies, children and elderlypeople.

Ithas been largely adopted by Arabic and Islamic scholars that USA is consideringIslam as the main enemy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The US media andaffiliates save no reluctance or effort in adhering any terror activity orincident to Islam or Moslems. Soon after the Oklahoma City explosion, the USAmedia pointed fingers at Moslems where several Moslems were detained andinterrogated. The Clinton Administration bombarded pharmaceutical productsfactory in Sudan, as well as caves for Afghanis in Afghanistan soon after bombswere detonated in two of the American embassies in Africa. There was no evidencesubmitted to the  Sudan governmentor Taliban-Afghanistan against those being involved in those terrorist acts. The Western media and their followers keep spewing out literature aboutterrorism and Islam even at times in which there is no violent activity. Tillnow there is no evidence that the USA has presented for the governments ofconcern to the activities of Sheikh Osama Ben Laden on the pretext that thiswill endanger the American national security. The USA is preparing the wholeworld against the Ben Laden organization; this "alliance" will includeIslamic states.

Ifthere were no Osama Ben Laden, a devotee Moslem millionaire originally fromSaudi Arabia, then others of different faiths would appear. In the Americanhemisphere alone, there have been other cases of opponents to the Americanforeign policy. Ernesto Guevara, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan are,save but few, of the well known figures who opposed the American foreign policies.

It ispolitics that has created Osama, in particular the American politics thatconcentrates on the domination of the Planet Earth by determining the benefitsof the economic, financial and political decisions on the American soil.  USA determines and controls this modern theory of globalization. BeforeSeptember 11, 2001 there was hardly any talk or knowledge of the movements ofSheikh Osama Ben Laden and his whereabouts, now the pictures of the Sheikh isall over. The American behavior after the "New Pearl Harbor" strike israising the credit of the al-"Qaedat" (the Base) organization. If theAmericans bombard Afghani cities’ slums and/or its terrain of bare mountains (sincethere are no strategic bridges or oil refineries in that poverty strickencountry) then Sheikh Osama Ben Laden will become Sheikh of hearts, brains andspirits.

(DrNasrin Murad Chairs the Department of Polical Sciences, University of the UnitedArab Emirates, Al-Ain City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This was writtenbefore the American strikes began last Sunday)