Osama bin Laden– scurtă recapitulare a unei istorii recente

The study aims to emphasize the dual image of Osama bin Laden. While during the anti-communist war in Afganistan he was sanctified because of his piety, heroism and struggle for the reunification of the Umma, in the post- 9/11 world he was perceived as a demon. Al-Qaeda’s brutal crusade caused a lot of damege not only to westerners, but also to the Muslim world, by killing hundreds of innocent Muslim civilians, provoking the so-called islamophobia or fear of islamic believers in the West and by transforming Irak and Afganistan in battlefields of the war on terror. Bin Laden lost his positive popularity and a huge amount of followers, Al-Qaeda became attractive only for a small number of fanatics. The news of bin Laden’s death was perceived and celebrated by Americans as a victory of Good over Evil, and received as a relief by most of Muslim Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the members of an islamic party protested against the US and the Al-Qaeda promised revenge for the „martyr of jihad”.