USA: North Jersey Muslims react with mix of elation, relief

The news also comes as the Arab world is swept up in popular uprisings for democratic and economic reform. Those movements are a rebuke to Osama’s violent extremism, said Muslim community leaders.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: New Jersey | The Record
By Zach Patberg | May 2, 2011

When Khader Abuhamda heard late Sunday night that Osama bin Laden had been killed, he and his family danced.

To them, bin Laden was an Islamic terrorist who had plotted the worst attack on American soil and dragged a whole religion through the muck of fringe extremism. It was time to celebrate a new start.

“I wish to hug the man who shot him,” the 62-year-old from Clifton said Monday, smiling from the steps of his mosque.


North Jersey Muslims reacted with emotion ranging from elation and relief to shrugs about the demise of the world’s most wanted man. Many saw it as a big win in the war on terrorism and wished to use it as a springboard to repair the Islamic image in the U.S.

“We are hoping that now that we have snuffed out the head of the snake, the onslaught on Muslims will also come to an end,” Aref Assaf of Denville, president of the Paterson-based American Arab Forum, said, referring to such recent controversies as congressional hearings on Islamic extremism and protests over a mosque near Ground Zero.

Some were more measured, viewing the climax to a 10-year manhunt as long overdue and carrying little impact.

“It’s just one terrorist dead,” said Sema Kilic from behind the counter at Yayla Pastahanesi, the Paterson Turkish coffee shop where she works. Some patrons shrugged at the news.

Still, pockets of Arabic and Turkish Muslims could be found in coffee shops and bakeries for much of Monday morning with eyes trained on TV coverage of the al-Qaida leader’s last moments.

Memet Com paused, groceries in hand, to watch an Arabic news channel in a Paterson bakery on Main Street. He recalled the dark years after the 9/11 attacks.

“Now everyone is happy,” the 38-year-old said.

From a nearby table, Mesut Abayhan, 51, added, “Bad people deserve to die.”

Yet several Muslim leaders warned that more work is needed to stamp out Osama’s influence and rebuild Islamic support.

Levent Koc of Elmwood Park, a Muslim and head of the Interfaith Dialogue Center in Newark, greeted Osama’s death as “very critical and important for the image of Islam.” But he stressed the need for better education to steer clergy away from extremism — “If you eradicate the ignorance, you will diminish the violence,” he said.

For Dr. Kashif Chaudhry, a physician at Englewood Hospital and youth leader in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, now is the time to embark on an Islamic public relations blitz — an opportunity missed, he feels, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

“We shouldn’t repeat that mistake,” Chaudhry said. “This is a chance for us to go out and tell our American friends: “We are even more happy than you are.’”

Salaheddin Mustafa of Clifton, president of the New Jersey chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was at a supermarket when his daughter texted him the news. He was elated that the “ultimate evil” was gone and further encouraged when President Obama’s described bin Laden as “not a Muslim leader,” but a mass murderer of Muslims as well.

“Good riddance to him and his ideology,” said Mustafa, a banker who works five blocks from the World Trade Center site.

At a Monday night news conference in Clifton, Ali Chaudry, president of the Basking Ridge-based Center for Understanding Islam, said bin Laden’s death was a chance for Americans to see Muslims in a new light.

“We hope now that the justified elimination of this mass murderer will finally de-link the faith of 1.5 billion Muslims from the radical and violent views of a tiny group of extremists,” Chaudry said.

The news had special significance for Muslims in the region he said were victimized twice: They lost family and friends on 9/11 and then, while grieving, felt blamed for terrorism.

“We hope our nation will see that it is this group of people who are responsible — bin Laden and his cronies — and that we the American Muslim community have nothing to do with it and just want it to go away,” Mustafa said.

For Waheed Khalid, former president of the Dar-ul-Islah mosque in Teaneck, bin Laden’s death left him reflective.

“I’m glad it’s over,” he said. “But it really makes you sad to think how many innocent people were destroyed in the process.”

The news also comes as the Arab world is swept up in popular uprisings for democratic and economic reform. Those movements are a rebuke to Osama’s violent extremism, said Muslim community leaders — “What we saw with the Arab revolution is people are seeking change by peaceful means, and that resonates with a lot of people,” said Mohamed El Filali, executive director the Islamic Center of Passaic County.

James Yee, executive director of the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Osama was a marginal leader and noted it was Muslims who helped the U.S. find him.

“You haven’t seen coming from the Muslim world American flag-burning and anti-American rhetoric following this announcement,” said Yee, of Edison. “That’s an indication that, obviously, he was not someone who had popular support in the Muslim world.”

Yee hoped Muslims would now be viewed as loyal Americans and victims of terrorism, too.

“I’m hoping this will help turn the page and help our nation move forward and heal,” he said.

Staff Writer Erik Shilling contributed to this article. E-mail: patberg@northjersey.com


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