Justice?

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Etched into the minds of millions of Americans is the moment they first heard about the attacks of September 11, 2001. Since then, it is not uncommon to hear the question, ‘Where were you (or what were you doing) when you learned about the attacks of 9/11?’

And now, the moment President Barak Obama announced the death of bin Laden will be imprinted alongside that memory in the minds of millions of Americans. Now people will ask, ‘Where were you (or what were you doing) when you learned of Osama bin Laden’s death?’

I heard about it when I woke up, turned on my computer, and logged onto Facebook. The first words I see? ‘Osama bin Laden is dead!!!’ My interest certainly peaked, I went immediately to CNN and from there to several other news sites. Of course every site I visited proclaimed the downfall of al-Qaeda’s leader.

Returning to Facebook for a moment, I read everyone’s statues lauding President Obama and gushing about how great the US was (even though it took 10 years and over a trillion dollars) in finally hunting down bin Laden. Back on CNN, I read a bit about the celebrations around the country, namely New York. It seems Americans are completely overjoyed and besides themselves with bin Laden’s death.

And then there’s all this talk about justice. From a story on KARE11.com: ‘…ultimately, it's about justice.’ Some tweets from Twitter: ‘Justice!’ and ‘Don’t celebrate death, celebrate justice.’ and ‘Osama killed. Justice is done.’ and ‘Went to sleep last night with the sweet taste of justice. Woke up this morning with and even sweeter taste. This is what justice tastes like.’ and so on…I could go on for a very long time with Twitter. Lastly, the President himself: ‘Justice had been done.’

My question is, has justice really been served?

One particular tweet I saw this morning about sums up how I feel: ‘Approx. 4000 Americans died on 9/11. Afghan deaths number 24,000+ from US/NATO strikes. Think about that before saying justice was served.’

Maybe for the families and friends of those who lost their lives during 9/11 or those soldiers killed in battle, justice has been done. Maybe for the average American, justice has been done. The mastermind behind the murder of almost 4000 innocent Americans is now dead himself.

But what about all the innocent Muslims killed in the US’s hunt for bin Laden? Twenty-four thousand is a very, very modest estimate and does not even take into consideration the lives lost in other countries. I have seen stimates ranging from 600,000 to 1,000,000 civilians dead. For Muslims, especially those living in countries occupied by foreign forces, justice has certainly not been served. What about all the children whose parents are dead and now have to raise themselves and their siblings? What about all the parents who have lost children, never to feel their loving embrace again? What about all who have lost family and friends? The loss there is far, far greater than that of the Americans.

Even if bin Laden had managed to evade US forces and managed to pull off yearly attacks with loss of life equal to that of 9/11 for the rest of his life (assuming he lived until 67 years of age, the world life expectancy), 52,000 people would die. That is a big number, but it comes nowhere near the number of Muslims who have been killed by foreign forces.

I will agree that bin Laden’s death is good news. As President Obama said, ‘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.’

Yet, should Americans really feel all that much satisfaction in bin Laden’s demise? In the 10 years or so since 9/11, there has not been an attack to rival 9/11, nowhere near so. Yes, there has been loss of innocent lives since then: the Madrid train bombing in 2004 and the London Underground bombings in 2005 to name two. Any life lost is terrible, there is no doubt about that.

But bin Laden’s death is absolutely no guarantee people will not still die at the hands of extremists. In fact, this event will only entice extremists to react with violence and attacks. Anjem Choudary, the topic of a recent post, said on bin Laden’s death, ‘I think Britain is more likely to face a 7/7 today than ever. Rather than dampening the spirits of those who are today engaged in jihad physically around the world... bin Laden's death will merely act as an incentive to prove to the world that the death of anyone will not affect them. Hence in the coming days and weeks, we will no doubt see increased activities from the mujahideen and more intense fighting in the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya.'

Ultimately, the US and other countries need to leave Muslims countries; I believe that might be the only way to stop the unfortunate and unnecessary killing. Why do most extremists plan and play out these attacks? It rarely has anything to do with converting the ‘infidels.’ Rather, it is in response to the deaths of their family members, their friends, and their innocent brothers and sisters in Islam. Even 9/11 was supposedly a reaction to the deaths of innocent Muslims at the hands of the West.

Americans scream justice, but Muslims have yet to see it.