Local Muslims Glad Bin Laden Gone, But Some Not Thrilled With Method
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City's Muslims reacted to Osama bin Laden's death with conflicted feelings.
CBS 2's John Metaxas spoke with worshipers at a mosque in the Astoria section of Queens on Monday.
The message on the door of the Masjid el Ber of Astoria is not a violent one. It prays that peace be upon the messenger of Allah. It's through that lens that people here viewed the life and death of bin Laden.
Worshipers emerged from midday prayers at the mosque with split opinions about the killing of the world's most wanted man.
"I feel very good when I hear about him dead," Yemeni-American Hasam Muhammad said.
"He should be killed more earlier," said Mohammad Amin, originally from Bangladesh.
Though some said bin Laden got what was coming to him, others objected that violence was used against him.
"Human beings should not kill any human beings because we are all creatures of God," said West African Baldeh Abdullah.
Farouk Abdul, an American citizen originally from Egypt, was troubled that the mission against bin Laden came just a day after the reported killing of one of Moammar Ghaddafi's sons by a NATO airstrike.
"All right, catch him and take him to court and see what happens, but it's not okay we kill somebody every day," Abdul said.
Several people said bin Laden gave Muslims a bad image they do not deserve.
"Some people they think we are terrorists, terrorist people. And that's the trouble I'm talking about," Assad Seliman said.
Seliman told Metaxas it's because of bin Laden that he must remove his shoes at airports and he is watched when he speaks on a cell phone.
And there was no support here for bin Laden's use of violence.
"He didn't base on Islamic rules to do what he did," one worshipper said.
"You saw the protest in Egypt when you get rid of Mubarak, there was no violence there. He transferred his own way to fight the world and he killed a lot of innocent people," Egyptian-American Robbie Alexander said.
With the democracy uprisings in the Middle East, bin Laden seemed perhaps behind the times for some Muslims -- a man who caused more pain than gain for their people.
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