by Julie Shaw
Philadelphia Daily News
Members of the Arab and Muslim communities in Philadelphia yesterday said they were thrilled that Osama bin Laden was killed and that they hope his death brings a new page to Americans’ relations with Muslims.
“I hope, deep inside, this thing brings all of humanity close to each other,” said Ibrahim Ahmed, 46, a member of the Masjid Al-Jamia of Philadelphia, who came to this country from Ethiopia.
Standing outside the large tan-brick West Philadelphia mosque before the early-afternoon prayer service, Elagib Abushama, 41, added: “It’s good for us, too.”
Abushama, originally from Sudan, said: “It means peace . . . I’m glad he’s gone. That’s number one.”
Many Muslims stressed that most people of their faith are peaceful. Some said they initially didn’t know if the news was true, but like many around the world, they watched the news on CNN and Al Jazeera, and checked the Internet.
“I was shocked like everyone else,” said Mutaz Elemam, 37, president of the mosque, on Walnut Street near 43rd.
“When it became affirmed the DNA is his, I feel happy. More people now would have a different feeling of Islam. All the army in Afghanistan should withdraw.”
Marwan Kreidie, executive director of the Arab American Development Corp. and spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, on Germantown Avenue near Jefferson Street, in North Philly, said people he has spoken with are “all thrilled. It’s a happy occasion. Like every American, we’re happy they caught him.”
Kreidie, born in the United States to a Lebanese-American Muslim father and a German Catholic mother, considers himself “not very religious.”
Politically, he believes that bin Laden’s “ideology has become irrelevant.” He said he urges President Obama to take the step now of working out a Middle East peace during this time of the “Arab Spring” of popular uprisings that have swept the region, all despite bin Laden.
Moein Khawaja, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Philadelphia, who was born in the United States and whose parents are from Pakistan, said: “I’ll never forget the day my country was attacked so brutally. I’ll also never forget that at the same time my faith and the religion of over a billion people was tarnished in such a manner that one of the most recognized Muslims in the world ended up being Osama bin Laden.
“I’m confident that my fellow Americans know that Islam isn’t and never was bin Laden or his ideology.”
He said bin Laden’s death “feels like a very strange bookend – the first one being 9/11. This one doesn’t close everything out, but it’s a smaller type of bookend . . . We’re tired of being associated with this man.”
