That’s super, but it’s also a dodge. Bin Laden wasn’t given a dignified burial replete with Islamic rituals so that Americans could high-five each other over their moral superiority to Al Qaeda. The reason he got better than he deserved aboard the carrier is that O and his team aren’t sure how wide the backlash would be in the Middle East if OBL’s remains were desecrated. Jihadis and their Islamist enablers would be outraged, but their outrage and calls for revenge were already priced into the decision to kill him. The real fear was that the humiliation of a devout Muslim by non-Muslims would lead to a surge in anti-Americanism in the region at a precarious moment in the Arab Spring. That would mean more jihadist recruits, which in turns would mean more threats against America. After eight years of Bin Laden’s crew killing Shiites in Baghdad and then Sunnis in Anbar province, one would think he’s sufficiently reviled in the Muslim world that denying him Islamic rituals before burial would post a minor risk of a backlash, but evidently it wasn’t minor enough. Too bad Steve Kroft didn’t press him on that.
See, Islam is not monolithic.
Somebody would feel Osama’s body was desecrated even while all of these respects of it occurred.
And here’s some:
Senior clerics, such as Egyptian Mufti Dr. ‘Ali Gum’a and Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, claimed that Islam forbids burial at sea and requires that bodies be buried in the earth. [Onislam.net, May 3, 2011.]
The vice president of Al-Azhar University, Dr. Taha Abu Kuraisha, said that the casting of bin Laden’s body into the sea was tantamount to mutilating his corpse.[Onislam.net, May 3, 2011.]
In his column in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Daoud Al-Shiryan, editor of the Alarabiya.net website, questioned the U.S. claim that bin Laden had been given a proper Islamic burial:
“Sources from the Pentagon said that [the Americans had] adhered to all the rules of Islam in performing the prayers over bin Laden’s body, but did not mention any details regarding the ritual cleansing of the body.
Was the body washed by a Muslim?…
It would seem that it was not, since the body was torn to shreds or burned, or because there was not enough [fresh] water, as the washing took place aboard a ship…
The statement discussed the details of the prayers [said over bin Laden’s body], and said that an officer had recited the prayers [in English], which were [then] translated to Arabic.
We do not know why the translator himself did not recite the prayers himself, if he is fluent in Arabic.
Perhaps the officer was a Muslim and the translator was not!
If this were the case, how did they permit the translator to attend the prayers, and how many people recited the prayers over body?”[Al-Hayat (London), May 4, 2011.]
I saw the video of the POTUS in the NYC firehouse. POTUS did not mention OBL by name. I don’t think he said his name in any pronouncements in NYC. Any thoughts or comments why? As far as the treatment of the corpse of OBL, an autopsy would have been my choice first. Bending over backwards to show “respect for Muslim sensitivities” in this situation is absurd. We should have flown the body to Saudi Arabia on a C-130 and made them take custody of it. They preach all the hate, let them sort it out. They “refused the body”?? I would have left the box on the tarmac in Ryadh. As far as the photo of OBL after he was terminated with extreme prejudice, it will be released anyway some time in the future through FOIA requests by many. It should be released ASAP.Get it over with. We paid for it in the blood of our sons and daughters, may they rest in peace knowing we have done what must be done.