Selected Excerpts Compiled by Scott Weiner, PhD Student, Political Science
The George Washington University
Translated from Arabic
Emphasis and brackets have been added.
Addustour
"Even before [the assassination], he was not the key man in the organization because al-Qaeda operates on ideas, not on its structure. The first beneficiary will be President Obama who will be very much assisted by this in his election campaign to be re-elected for a second term!"
"Was it a coincidence? Was 'Osama' exhausted in his role and function? Do I feel regarding his death that the date of his passing was really recorded three months ago at least and they had to release it this time exactly? [Is there any coincidence]...in the beginning of the era of people who are searching for freedom, and the end of the age of the "warlords," those who have inspired the world to invent this so-called "war" under the pretext of fighting terrorism?"
"They did not stop Bin Laden for over ten years and his name became a symbol of the danger to America and the West, until the day came when the American "knights of windmills" [Don Quixote reference] killed Bin Laden, and they terrorized the American people with his name for over a decade...It saves the popularity of President Obama who enjoys popularity today at a level unreached by an American president. And the President's popularity increased after the news of salvation from Bin Laden, which could prove the foundation for his reelection in a year and a half..."
"Bin Laden was not effective as a leader in his last years, proving that he was cut off from the world, and that this access to his head has symbolic meaning on both sides. The Americans and the West generally recount [stories of] him, and his admirers and colleagues focus on the symbolism of his legendary death as a martyr who approached his life with holiness, and is worthy of modeling."
"For starters, the armed action against the regimes is a marginal impact. Second, it is rejected by the masses, especially after the success of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and the outbreak of other revolutions mentioned earlier [in the article]. The impact is that the killing of the Sheikh [Bin Laden], (May he rest in peace) will not clarify or add to the audience and the symbolism of a man who fought American imperialism without being stopped, just as the case with Guevara before, with the difference being the religious dimension in the case of Bin Laden."
Al-Jazeera
"To clash with the Arab regimes is not an integral path in al-Qaeda's program which turned from Jihad of the near enemy (systems) to the far enemy (the United States)."
Asharq al-Awsat
"He died in his style of "Leader of the Mujahideen" in his luxury house, and not on the battlefield, or in Jihad...he died with his wife, and three individuals, the opposite of how he had betrayed our people, and the Muslim people whom he sent to die one after the next for years, he and the sheikhs of evil and terrorists."
"Finally, Obama was victorious in this epic moment, which is what the previous president George Bush himself [had wanted]. But fortune came to Obama, whom the American far right accused of being "Half-Muslim" or a secret Muslim!"
"It was strange when yesterday Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas movement, in response to the announcement of the death of Bin Laden, described him as a Mujahid and condemned his killing, since we had not heard before that jihad allows randomly killing civilians, explosions, and sabotage."
"Muslims will not continue a strong effort in purifying their references, writers, and sheikhs from the toxins found in some of what they say...and we will return to the original 'important' questions like origins, and nationality. And things like this are not found in Arab culture, or some of it."