Let Muhammad Ali, not bin Laden, represent Islam

Osama bin Laden was an absolute embarrassment to all decent Muslims. Unlike the proud warrior known as the Prophet Muhammad, bin Laden was a cowardly killer of unarmed women and children. People like Muhammad Ali (a great warrior during his time) promote Islam as a respectable religion of peace. This was a common representation before the atrocities of 9/11. Since then blood, savagery and ignorance has tarnished the image.

“Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.” – President Barack Obama

History is filled with heroes and villains. The religions and nationalities of these heroes and villains are not consistent whereas any can be labeled good or evil in absolute terms. 

As we drive on in the present, the forward future is unclear and the past is always fading away. Let us do the best that can in the time that we have to represent our passions in the light of integrity, compassion and friendship while not turning a blind eye to those wishing to harm. Let us hope that right makes might and the scales bent towards suffering will soon balance towards joyfulness. Let us hope that we are represented by the best people, because ultimately it is people that matter more than labels.

“I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.” – Muhammad Ali

James Kirk Wall, Author of Agnosticism: The Battle Against Shameless Ignorance

Photos of dead Osama bin Laden not the only fakes

The wonders of Photoshop

The photos released of the fortified villa in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden died on Sunday night, May 2, show a satellite dish as well as cables and wires snaking along the outer and inner walls. Smashed computers appear in shots of the interior rooms. Far from dispensing with electronic devices and Internet connections as widely reported, the fortress that was the al Qaeda leader's last haven proves to have been equipped with both.

All this up-to-date electronic technology would have opened the six-year old building wide to outside intelligence penetration and surveillance. Bin Laden additionally suffered from a kidney disease and was dependent on dialysis treatment and outside medical care - another porthole into the Bin Laden's establishment.

There was no need therefore to follow the trail of the couriers described as leading the CIA to the hideout of the most wanted terrorist in the world. He occupied a large three-storey building which stuck out on the skyline of the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, 120 kilometers from Islamabad, and towered over neighboring buildings. Pakistani intelligence must have been curious, to say the least, about this sizeable compound when it was built in 2005 just 100 meters from a military academy in a small town housing a military base and generals' residences.

Therefore, the repeated statements by US officials that the Navy Seals' special operation took place without Pakistani knowledge sounds like a hollow attempt to absolve Islamabad of involvement in the killing of the arch terrorist in the eyes of the Muslim world.

The death of true freedom

"To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom...  - Pope John Paul II ('The Gospel of Life,' No. 20)"