Osama Bin Laden is Dead

As I am watching the three hour old news about the recent success of the American mission in Pakistan, I am struck by conflicted emotions. The leader of Al Qaeda, the man responsible for the death of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, was killed at the hands of the CIA. After nearly a decade of hunting, the man responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been killed during a raid on his compound by U.S. Navy Seals. I find it somewhat odd that after so much death, pain and suffering that the American people are so ecstatic over more death. I completely understand the jubilation that people have about the complete neutralization of the man responsible for killing 3,000 American citizens and countless military but I, for one, am sick body bags. I'm not going to celebrate the murder of a murderer but I will celebrate that this is one step closer to being finished.
I also think that this is a good time to remind the American people that the Al Qaeda faction is a very small portion of the Islamic people. Jihad is Arabic for "struggle." In Islamic teachings, there are two types of Jihad. The first is internal. It is the internal struggle that each person has concerning his own holiness and the search to become more Islamic, e.g. more kind and worshipful. The second is less significant and is the quest to make one's outward surroundings more Islamic.
The second type of Jihad is the one that is misinterpreted by Islamic extremist parties, called Wahhabi s. They take the term Jihad and the famous Verse of the Sword, from the Quran, to mean 'purifying' the world of non-Muslims and Muslim enemies. Extremist parties, such as Al Qaeda, use this theory to for the explanation of terrorism. Debate comes when it is deemed right to use violence in the process of achieving Jihad.
Most Muslims teach that the killing of innocent people is wrong; completely, unarguably, and inherently wrong. The Islamic religion's fundamental teachings are similar to Christianity and Judaism. Muslims do not condone the death of innocent people. "Islamic extremism for the majority of Muslims is an oxymoron. It is a fundamental contradiction in terms," says Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the religious leader of the Ground Zero Mosque. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has, himself, been a bridge between the Islamic people and Americans. He has dedicated his life to neutralizing the stereotypes between Americans and Middle Easterners. We should not dredge up our previous anger toward the Mulsim people as a whole. Our anger should be placed in the misinterpretation of such a holy and pure faith. President Obama, in his address tonight, said "Our war is not on the Muslims. Osama Bin Laden was not a Mulsim leader. He was a mass murder."
I hope that this new step in the War on Terrorism and the American people's reaction does not further increase the global tensions between America and foreign nations. Murder should never be celebrated, however, I hope that with this death can come peace.