Portland, OR - USA: Local Muslims react to Bin Laden death, call off rally over concerns

“Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He wasn’t a leader of Muslims. He was a leader of extremists. He was a mass murderer and he led a political ideology. So this is not an attack on Islam.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: KATU | Portland City Center
By Dan Tilkin | May 2, 2011

PORTLAND, Ore. – Local Muslims had planned to hold a rally Monday evening at Pioneer Courthouse Square to mark the death of Osama bin Laden but then they called it off for safety reasons.

The rally was planned to run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. They were going to celebrate bin Laden’s demise and to call for unity and peace.

Saba Ahmed of the Islamic Society of Greater Portland, who had planned the rally, said there’s been no specific or direct threat to local Muslims. But after vandalism to a mosque on the East Coast and reading angry Internet posts aimed at American Muslims, they were concerned someone with bad intentions might come to the square. They didn’t want to put anyone in harms’ way.


Ahmed said stereotyping is something Muslims deal with constantly.

“Every time I go through the airport I have to be extra screened because of my head scarf,” she said. “There’s always that element of fear that people see whenever they see me, but we really need to move beyond stereotypes, and I think Muslim-Americans can help America fight the war on terror much better than if you alienate ourselves from each other.”

There are a handful of mosques in the Portland area and Muslim leaders said their cell phones began going off about an hour before President Barack Obama made his speech formally announcing bin Laden’s death.

People were spreading the news by word of mouth or word of text.

“Osama bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He wasn’t a leader of Muslims. He was a leader of extremists. He was a mass murderer and he led a political ideology,” said Harris Zafar with Portland Rizwan Mosque. “So this is not an attack on Islam. If anything we as Muslims should desire that our own community be cleansed from these bad apples that are not only giving Islam a bad name, but more importantly, they’re taking innocent lives.”

Muslim leaders said they hope bin Laden’s death will make it easier for them to be accepted by non-Muslim Americans and that there will be less stereotyping and more unity.



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