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Islamic burials for al-Baghdadi and Bin Laden – however not Gaddafi? Cynical actuality undermines US message in ‘struggle on terror’
Citing “respect for Islamic customized” to speedily organize burials at sea for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Osama Bin Laden makes little sense, and the US try and win over hearts and minds within the Muslim world is worse off for it.
In keeping with the US authorities, the self-proclaimed “caliph” of Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS) killed himself when he was cornered by US particular forces operatives in Syria’s Idlib province on Sunday. His stays have been taken to an undisclosed facility for DNA testing, and after optimistic identification dropped into the ocean at an undisclosed location. Islamic spiritual rites have been administered beforehand, nameless US officers advised Reuters.
It’s unattainable to verify any of this, because the Pentagon just isn’t disclosing any recordings or pictures. The world will simply need to take Washington’s phrase for it. Hassle is, this is similar Washington that has falsely claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Russia meddled in its 2016 presidential election, and that Turkish-backed terrorists holding Idlib have been really anti-IS “reasonable rebels,” to call however a couple of examples.
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Whereas it does fan conspiracy theories by destroying proof, burying a terrorist chief at sea has one apparent benefit: it denies their followers a bodily location they might use as a rallying level. Within the case of Bin Laden, allegedly killed in the course of the 2011 raid in Pakistan, it could have additionally been handy; the raid was launched from a US island base within the Indian Ocean, and the funeral reportedly occurred on board the service USS Carl Vinson.
Right here is the place issues get greater than a bit cynical, although. Saying in public that each Bin Laden and Al-Baghdadi got correct funeral rites quantities to selective respect for Islamic customized – the faith requires a burial on land when in any respect doable, for one factor. Secondly, each terrorist leaders claimed to have been appearing on behalf of Islam, and the official descriptions of their demise went an extended strategy to paint them as dangerous Muslims – from the speak of Bin Laden’s pornography stash to saying al-Baghdadi “died like a canine.”
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Exhibiting respect for a fallen enemy is a noble factor. Nonetheless, what if the enemy in query is a terrorist answerable for all kinds of atrocities – dedicated within the title of faith, no much less? Arguably, a partial observance of spiritual proprieties would appear to validate their trigger and sign weak spot, greater than something.
Then there may be the matter of inconsistency. Simply months after saying it went to nice lengths to watch Islamic customs in Bin Laden’s burial, the Obama administration prolonged no such respect for Muammar Gaddafi of Libya – in truth, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton infamously cackled with glee when she acquired the information that Gaddaffi had been gruesomely murdered by US-backed militants.
Bin Laden had as soon as been an keen participant within the US-backed jihad in Afghanistan. Ever since he turned on his former allies, the US has gone out of its strategy to level out that its “struggle on terror” was not a struggle in opposition to Islam as an entire. Making an enormous deal out of observing Muslim burial customs has clearly been a part of that messaging technique.
As the next rise of the “caliphate” headed by al-Baghdadi graphically demonstrated, nevertheless, all too many within the Muslim world remained unconvinced.
