Southern Californian Muslims glad bin Laden dead

Southern California Muslims say they welcome the news of Osama bin Laden’s death.

Muslim leaders say they’ve always opposed bin Laden.

They point out that his victims include Americans and Muslims, too.

Imam Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini, with the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa, says American Muslims celebrate bin Laden’s death along with the rest of the country.

He says bin Laden was not a Muslim leader and that it was easy for Muslims to establish that from the start.

"Bin Laden does not represent Islam," al-Qazwini said. "The ideology of terror and wreaking havoc is not condoned in the Islamic faith. So our job was easy right from the beginning."

But al-Qazwini admits that the ob of distancing Southland Muslims from bin Laden-sponsored terrorism will be a little easier now that bin Laden is gone.

Muslim leaders say that what matters the most is the next direction people take.

"While our troops have wiped out the face of terrorism and global terrorism, they haven’t wiped out the representatives of all forms of hatred in this country or across the world," said Ameena Mirza Qazi, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in the greater Los Angeles area. "And I think it would be irresponsible for us, as an American people and as the public, to say that all of our problems have been solved because this one person is gone. Personally, I don’t want to give him that much credit. And I think that we can do more and we can do better as a country."

He and others pointed to vandalism at a mosque in Maine after word surfaced about bin Laden’s death. Vandals spray-painted “Osama today, Islam tomorrow” and other phrases on the walls of the mosque. Southern California Muslim leaders say such hate crimes like are a form of terrorism that bin Laden’s demise won’t wipe out.