The Death of the Symbol and the Legend

Osama bin Laden will continue to be controversial. His admirers agree with him and his opponents disagree with him, but everyone at least agrees that, all his life, he had a fierce fire and that he died carrying a weapon. He fell to a legendary Apache helicopter; nothing else could have done it.

Osama bin Laden was a man who reached the status of a legend, as he was the wealthy son of a billionaire who left the good life for his convictions and left palaces to live in caves. He plundered the minds of tens of thousands of young people and was able to spread terror in the capitals of the world. A short speech from him would mobilize intelligence networks all over the world.

The U.S. overcame bin Laden, killing him with bullets to the head. They made a corpse out of someone who had terrified the nations of the world by burying him at sea. They announced that they had buried him there — contrary both to reason and Islam. By doing this, the U.S. mistreated the body of a man who had been a legendary figure and a worthy opponent.

Bin Laden was not effective as a leader in his last years — and it has been proved that he was cut off from the world — but his message and his public persona are symbolic for both his admirers and his detractors. Americans and the West generally castigate him, and admirers and his colleagues have grasped his symbolic role as a martyr who is acting out his life of holiness in a way worthy of following.