Some views and responses in the world cyber space expressed suspicions about actual death of the Al-Qaeda founder and leader. It might be interesting to see if the assumption is based on intelligence data and reflections, or inertia of human perceptions. However this is a side topic which is not supposed to be a subject of this posting. More questions and deliberations were found on the Osama bin Laden’s legacy and implications of his death on further developments of the face-off with Islamic radicalism.
Controversial opinions are in the range from a belief in weakening of international terrorism and mitigation of the contest to expected revenge attacks by more influential terrorist groups, which have actually superseded the strength of al-Qaeda. One more widely debated issue is how the US operation happened to take so long to achieve its goal? The questions are around “why” in the past and “what” in the future, but what has changed now in contesting forces and trends?
A person, who belonged to immensely rich family, who has voluntarily chosen the ascetic life of faith struggler, who challenged the superiority and declared a war against the West and the US, and who served a model for those who were mislead by their grievances and determined to violently struggle for their belief - is dead! Who can take his place now? Hardly any Moslem radical leader can do. The ideas might have survived, but vivid embodiment has gone away.
Thousands of people in Moslem world reckoned Osama as a hero not only because they thought it was the US to be accused in disappointments of the their sense of justice and dignity but also, or mostly because they were disappointed of their governments and regimes that failed to bring the peace, establish the justice and struggle poverty elsewhere in Moslem world – oil rich and non-oil countries altogether. Those governments used to be the US allies, and two sources of grievances overlapped in eyes of marginalised and silenced masses of simple citizens.
Insurrections in Arab world have shaken authoritarian regimes. Active citizens are a power that strives to public sphere. The western allies of rulers do not seem supporting the regimes any longer but are they confident in ideas and intentions of activated new generation of reformists in Middle East? Competitive ideas are in struggle for the young brains, who are seeking to get rid of corrupted governments that bored the people decades but did not lead to dignity and prosperity. Is the Islamic radicalism as attractive option as before? The death of dedicated warrior Osama bin Laden will weaken the idea anyway whether al-Qaeda played the outstanding role in terror operations over the world, or not. However will the West regain the confidence of young Moslems depends on the progress of those issues that caused disappointments and insurrections against former allies to the West – anti-democratic regimes. And the range of those challenges is about domestic reforms and regional security and conflicts.
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