News

As of late, I have felt a strong desire to expand my intelligence and become more informed about the ongoings of our world. Naturally, this means I have been doing a little bit of research on Osama Bin Laden. I've compiled a list of facts I found interesting.

• It is said that he has married four women, the first of whom he married at 17. By 2002, he is said to have somewhere between 12 and 26 children.
• He wrote poetry in college
• He rejects "chilled water"
• His father was killed in a plane crash, when an american pilot misjudged the landing
• He was described as soft-spoken and mild mannered in demeanor

It appears to me that the reason for his acts of terrorism are linked to the death of his father, but his main logical reasoning, apparently, was the belief that the world should be placed under the Sharia law--the code of conduct of the Islam religion.

Sharia law, though incredibly strict, actually holds up well to my own ideals. Alcohol and gambling is forbidden, as is eating animals that weren't properly slaughtered (ripping out the esophagus or using a blunt blade, for example, would lead the animal to a cruel death and thereby render it impure for consumption); maintaining proper hygiene on all levels is crucial, things of that nature. However, they are incredibly strict on proper dress and sexuality (both in terms of their view on homosexuality and their view on fornication). I believe we--as an american culture--should have more digression about who we have sex with (i.e. you should actually know and like the people you're having sex with), but I don't believe in strictly marital sex.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to get at with all of this is that Osama isn't a particularly bad guy--he's just doing what he thinks is right: "purifying the world", in a sense, of all the things he sees wrong with it (the american culture and democracy, for instance)... Yes, he's incredibly mislead--the Sharia doesn't really have anything in it about the ethics of murdering other people, and he couldn't really figure out on his own that it's unethical--but I'm not fond of the whole, "justice is served" attitude. Yeah, this guy was killed--but that can't really make up for what he did. We make up for what he did by coming together and resolving the problems he caused within our own boundaries--with love and acceptance and kindness and working together to heal our own country, not by going out and occupying foreign territory and hunting terrorists.

...And for the record, the government never made the official decision to murder Bin Laden. He was shot in the crossfire (in the head) during the ambush. Obama called Pakistan prior to the event to let them know he was going to be arriving to assist in the capture Bin Laden--whereupon he would make the decision of whether to take him into custody or put him down... but he was dead when he arrived.

Something I also found nice: they gave him a proper funeral, in the ocean--attempting to keep it in align with his islamic tradition.