SXU Professor: 'Osama bin Laden Misrepresented Over 1 Billion Muslims'

On the surface, he was a tall man, seemingly malnourished, with an unkempt beard. He often carried, over his camouflaged shoulder, a Kalashnikov rifle, which he'd acquired from a Soviet general, who was killed during the Soviet War in Afghanistan.

As revered leader to his jihad fighters, he went by Abu Abdullah, or “father” and “servant of god” in English.

To the American public, however, Osama bin Laden will forever be a mass murderer, the face of 21st century terrorism.

And for over 1.4 billion Muslims throughout the world, bin Laden misrepresented the Islamic faith, said Hamdi Yasin, professor of Middle Eastern studies at .

“Bin Laden subscribed to a harsh interpretation of political Islam,” Yasin said, “that everything has to be done by force.”

In a span of six years, bin Laden spearheaded attacks on Americans in Riyadh, Yemen and the U.S., where nearly 3,000 people were killed during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Al-Qaeda, the Islamic fundamentalist organization he led, quickly dispersed after 9/11 to over 60 countries throughout the world.

“I think he was a criminal who killed innocent civilians,” Yasin said, a native of Jordan. “If you want to wage your own war with a country, you do it on a battlefield with soldiers. They are military men, they are ready to fight.”

The man, his beliefs and his demise

Bin Laden's holy war with the U.S. began, some believe, in February 1998, with the infamous declaration in Al-Quds al-Arabi, a Muslim newspaper published in London.

“By God's leave,” bin Laden wrote in sweeping prose, “we call on every Muslim who believes and hopes for reward to obey God's command to kill the Americans....”

In this fatwa or Islamic ruling, bin Laden connected sharia – which for many Muslims, is God's law – to the jihad movement.

“I don't think his beliefs aligned with mainstream Islam,” Yasin said. “I think it was his personal belief. Many Muslim clerics spoke out against [his] point of view.”

Yasin noted Christianity, which took 300 years after its inception to become a theocracy in certain parts of the world, is less politicized than Islam, which took 13 years after its inception to become a theocracy. And it's this rapid development that's fueled the argument over interpretation of the religion ever since.

“The religion did not take time to mature as a spiritual faith,” he said, “more than a political [one].”

Because of the idea that Islam and the state are inseparable, he argued, certain factions of Islam believe politics cannot thrive without religion.

“If you really believe in the religion,” he said, “you do not have to have a mediator between you and the god you worship. Take the thing that really suits you and look deep into the religion.”

What does it mean for the United States, then, now that bin Laden is dead?

Shortly after 9/11, the man hunt began, the United States offered a $25-million-dollar reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture, which eventually doubled in 2007.

By then, bin Laden had become a figurehead, Yasin said. Aside from the occasional audiotape and video clip on al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language news network, he had hardly been in the political theater.

“From an operational standpoint,” he added, “bin Laden had been dead for such a long time.”

As for the actual death of bin Laden at the hand of U.S. forces in Pakistan, it's an “emotional victory” at best, Yasin said -- one that isn't likely to change the war in Afghanistan or the intent of terrorist organizations directly or indirectly linked to Al-Qaeda.

“It's the symbolism,” he said. “There is a lot of sympathy, and people hoping...that this will bring closure to the emotions for Americans since September 11.”