Bin Laden’s death cheered in heart of Arab America

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At the lunch counters in Dearborn, Michigan on Monday the talk was all about the death of Osama bin Laden.

“It’s the best thing that has happened,” said Sam Elhaf, 44, who was just leaving Joe’s Top Dog Coney Island. “Everyone is celebrating.”

Dearborn, a middle-class suburb of Detroit, has emerged as a symbol for Islam in America over the past decade as an established Lebanese-American community was joined by more recent arrivals from Iraq and elsewhere.

The city, which reported a 30 percent Arab American population in the 2000 census, includes the largest mosque in the United States as well as the headquarters of automaker Ford Motor Co. Demographic figures from the 2010 census are not yet available.

Ben Nia, 56, captured the mood of quiet relief in a city of about 100,000 with the densest Arab population in the United States.

“I’m very happy,” Nia said. “He was ruining the name of Islam.”

The CIA has advertised with billboards and in newspaper advertisements in a bid to recruit Arabic speakers here. Blocks along Warren Avenue in Dearborn feature almost as many signs in Arabic as in English.

On Sunday night, cars drove up that business strip honking their horns, witnesses said.

In 2006, Iraqi expatriates rallied on the same street to mark the execution of Saddam Hussein with an impromptu street party.

Hussein Shukr, a 21-year-old Dearborn resident and nursing student, said he posted an Internet message Sunday night saying, “Osama’s dead. Party at my house. Woo Hoo.”

Shukr and about 10 friends and family members gathered at his house to watch President Barack Obama’s announcement

“We’re all excited and we’re thankful and really happy with what Obama said yesterday,” Shukr said. “When he said it’s not a war against Islam, we all cheered.”

But Majed Moughni, a 40-year-old Dearborn attorney who on the eve of September 11 last year burned an effigy of bin Laden in his backyard, said he was worried about reprisals because of the killing of the al Qaeda leader.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Moughni said. “I am happy that he is gone, but I’m terrified of the consequences of what his people are going to do in response.”

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy and civil liberties group, released a statement welcoming the death of bin Laden at the hands of American commandos in Pakistan, saying he “never represented Muslims or Islam.” Reuters

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7 responses to “Bin Laden’s death cheered in heart of Arab America”

  1. antar2011 Avatar
    antar2011

    rightly so…the end of a misguided soul.

    truely he has never represented islam in the correct way…this is something that muslim scholars and sheikhs around the world have said over and over again since sept 11th but that was not enough for Bush. he used the criminal acts of Bin laden to attack the religion.

    in contrast to what Obama has said in his speech yesterday, Bush had indeed blaimed islam for the acts of bin laden. Bush deserves to have an end just like Bin laden for misleading.

    1. LIBNAN Avatar

      with all due respect @antar2011, right after 9/11, Bush said this in his speech to the American Congress:

      “…I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated”

      1. antar2011 Avatar
        antar2011

        he says a lot of things… but it does he mean them….

        plz read the following:

        http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3351

        btw there is no such things as “Radical Islam”

        the use of the word “crusaders” on many occasions means volumes to any muslim. especially when it is backed by the realities on the ground ….Guantanamo Bay and iraq war are few examples.

        there is a reason why muslim americans who voted for him in 2000 have turned away from him disgusted with him.

  2. antar2011 Avatar
    antar2011

    rightly so…the end of a misguided soul.

    truely he has never represented islam in the correct way…this is something that muslim scholars and sheikhs around the world have said over and over again since sept 11th but that was not enough for Bush. he used the criminal acts of Bin laden to attack the religion.

    in contrast to what Obama has said in his speech yesterday, Bush had indeed blaimed islam for the acts of bin laden. Bush deserves to have an end just like Bin laden for misleading.

    1. LIBNAN Avatar

      with all due respect @antar2011, right after 9/11, Bush said this in his speech to the American Congress:

      “…I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated”

  3.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    rightly so…the end of a misguided soul.

    truely he has never represented islam in the correct way…this is something that muslim scholars and sheikhs around the world have said over and over again since sept 11th but that was not enough for Bush. he used the criminal acts of Bin laden to attack the religion.

    in contrast to what Obama has said in his speech yesterday, Bush had indeed blaimed islam for the acts of bin laden. Bush deserves to have an end just like Bin laden for misleading.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      with all due respect @antar2011, right after 9/11, Bush said this in his speech to the American Congress:

      “…I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated”

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