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I don't even get what you doubt. Bin laden was a leader of an international organization dedicated to his ideas. Their agenda is extremist by most, but that lea

by zaat 5y ago

I don't even get what you doubt. Bin laden was a leader of an international organization dedicated to his ideas. Their agenda is extremist by most, but that leaves big group of people, arguably even a country, that welcome it as the true will of Allah. They have papers and they publish books. There's a place for many people on the fringe. I just read the Economist's Obituary someone linked above, which is good and somewhat disorienting. The last sentence is a quote of him with exact negation of what you say about cheering - (spoiler alert - it is probably better to read the whole thing before the quote) - The difference between pure Muslims and Americans, he said, was that Americans loved life, whereas Muslims loved death. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2011/05/05/osama-bin-laden https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2...

kennywinker 5y ago
All that says is that bin laden himself was proud of his legacy. I'm sure his followers are too. But of all the people in the world, his followers are a fraction of a sliver of a hair - and there is no country that is ruled by his followers. L. Ron Hubbard had thousands of followers, but to conflate an internal Scientology paper obituary with "any obituary published where it matter to his family and close friends" would be a mistake.
- zaat 5y ago
  What you say is true, luckily. But I honestly don't understand what are you are arguing for, you mean that you believe that his wives and followers couldn't find solacing obituary to read? if so than I'm firmly believe that you are wrong, but I'm not going to search for it as this isn't the kind of things I want to engage with - the Economist's was more than enough for me. And if you are right on this and I'm wrong, well, even better. Edit, in response to OP edit: I am not sure if Hubbard is comparable, I don't know if his family and followers cared about what the NYT write about him, for example. But Bin Laden's followers don't care much for the approval of outsiders, that's pretty obvious.

by zaat 5y ago

kennywinker 5y ago

All that says is that bin laden himself was proud of his legacy. I'm sure his followers are too. But of all the people in the world, his followers are a fraction of a sliver of a hair - and there is no country that is ruled by his followers. L. Ron Hubbard had thousands of followers, but to conflate an internal Scientology paper obituary with "any obituary published where it matter to his family and close friends" would be a mistake.

zaat 5y ago
What you say is true, luckily. But I honestly don't understand what are you are arguing for, you mean that you believe that his wives and followers couldn't find solacing obituary to read? if so than I'm firmly believe that you are wrong, but I'm not going to search for it as this isn't the kind of things I want to engage with - the Economist's was more than enough for me. And if you are right on this and I'm wrong, well, even better. Edit, in response to OP edit: I am not sure if Hubbard is comparable, I don't know if his family and followers cared about what the NYT write about him, for example. But Bin Laden's followers don't care much for the approval of outsiders, that's pretty obvious.