Nik Aziz: World is not safer with Osama’s death

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said Osama bin Laden’s death would not make the world safer as the United States was still terrorising Muslim states.
“Those who say the world is safer with Osama’s death are being careless and simply positioning themselves as American supporters. If the world is safer with Osama’s death, then is it also safer with the existence of America?” he asked today.
Bin Laden was killed yesterday in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan, US President Barack Obama announced this morning, who added that his body was recovered.
The militant’s body was later brought to Afghanistan and buried at sea.
In a statement released today, Nik Aziz (picture) said he was not convinced that bin Laden was dead but added that his involvement in terrorism was not proven but only driven by US propaganda.

“If he was really involved in terrorism, then definitely I do not support it. Although Osama’s involvement in terrorism still remains unverified, the involvement of the US in terrorism is already proven,” he said.
He said this was clear from the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq that has “destroyed both countries with the intention of finding weapons of mass destruction that were never found up to today.”
He added that the US not only failed to act against Israel for its aggression against Palestine but supported the Jewish state.
“If Osama is considered a terrorist, then Israel is more aggressive and its backer, the US, also cannot run away from being called terrorists,” he said.
Nik Aziz said that when the American Ambassador visited him on April 28, he told the diplomat that “not even a pair of slippers can be seized from its rightful owner, much less a sovereign state like Palestine, especially by Israel.”
It has been reported that al Qaeda leaders had met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss potential attacks, and reportedly included the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Besides September 11, Washington has also linked Osama to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.
He also said that he will pray that Allah shows mercy and forgiveness to Osama bin Laden if it is true that he was killed by United States troops.
The Kelantan mentri besar said that no matter how much wrong the al-Qaeda leader has done, asking forgiveness for a fellow Muslim was required in Islam.
“If Osama bin Laden was truly killed by United States soldiers as announced by President Barack Obama yesterday, then as a Muslim I pray the mercy and forgiveness of Allah be shown to Osama bin Laden who is a fellow Muslim,” he said.
Bin Laden’s death is expected to draw retaliatory attacks from jihadists, who have vowed to avenge his death, as well as trigger attacks Western security agencies suspect may have been planned for such an eventuality.
Police will also increase its presence at strategic locations across the country as a precaution following news of the terrorist leader’s slaying.
“Police have also heightened security measures in sensitive areas,” police spokesman ACP Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama.

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