As news of Osama bin Laden’s death rings at Portland State and across the world, President Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that photographs of Bin Laden’s dead body won’t be released met with a gamut of reactions.
“If I were one of the people from the U.S., I might be happy. But because I’m a Muslim, I’m not supposed to be happy,” said Hashem Almarzouk, a PSU student from Saudi Arabia. “Every Muslim is a brother to me, even if he’s bad.”
Almarzouk has lived in the U.S. for less than two years, and he said that strangers regularly asked him if he knew bin Laden.
“Muslims’ reputation were bad,” he said.
On Wednesday, history professor Patricia Schechter began her women’s studies class at PSU by telling students about the e-mail she sent to Obama when she heard the news of bin Laden’s death.
“I used to work in Two World Trade [Center] back in the ’80s,” she said. “Tonight I feel as if an anvil has been lifted off my chest.”
Portland made international news earlier in the week when the Oregon Muslims Citizens Alliance cancelled plans to hold a commemoration of the death of bin Laden in Pioneer Square. Saba Ahmed, the organization’s spokesperson, said that she was afraid of backlash after reading online comments about bin Laden’s death.
“[The event] was going to be a solidarity gathering to heal together after 9/11, but we thought we’d wait until things calm down,” she said. “There were general remarks, like ‘All Muslims are terrorists,’ the usual thing.”
PSU’s Muslim Students Association declined to comment. A spokesperson said that the group’s aims aren’t political.
An update on the PSU Facebook page Monday night read, “Osama bin Laden is dead. What are your initial reactions, Portland State Facebook fans?” Sixty-seven users responded. Rachel Niten wrote, “I’ll believe it when I see a body!”
CBS News reported on Wednesday that Obama decided not to release photographs of bin Laden’s body, apparently because the images would offend Muslims. Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on Tuesday that he was sure the photos would be presented to the public.
Tugrul Keskin, professor of international and Middle Eastern studies at PSU, said that he thinks the federal administration should release the photos.
“The state does not ‘kill’ people,” he said. “The state brings people to justice in front of the entire world. If they’re not hiding anything, they should show the pictures.”
He compared the killing of bin Laden to the 1999 arrest and trial of Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish militant leader who founded the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK). The conflict between Turkey and the PKK resulted in 40,000 deaths.
“The trial was on public TV,” Keskin said.
Shamsi Ali, a member of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York and a New Yorker from Southeast Asia, said he would doubt the validity of images of bin Laden.
“I know photographs can be made up,” he said, adding that he and fellow Muslims are glad about bin Laden’s death. “We feel, as other Americans feel, that we are safer. We are relieved.”
The celebration by students on the White House lawn Monday night was inappropriate, Ali said.
“I think Americans should celebrate the death of this evil, but not this person,” he said.
Almarzouk said he would be offended if Bin Laden’s photograph were shown to the world.
“It would make me angry, because it’s against the Muslim people,” he said. “What would you think if somebody showed you a picture of your brother dying? You’d react badly.”
No official celebrations of bin Laden’s death have been staged in Portland. According to Peter Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture, the mood in New York is similarly thoughtful.
“We have a daughter and grandson who were right next to Ground Zero on 9/11,” he said. “My daughter just forwarded us a survey of the people in the neighborhood taken after the news of [bin Laden’s] death came out. What was interesting was that they did experience relief and closure, but there was very little celebration. People who were close to [9/11] are somber about it, much less given to an exalted reaction.” ?