By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: While some Egyptians described the death of Osama bin Laden early Monday as “insignificant” compared to the problems facing Egypt following the January 25 Revolution, and some mourned his death, others were oblivious to the news altogether.
Karim Ahmed, a computer science student, downplayed the death of bin Laden.
“I didn’t hear anything about this news until now,” Ahmed told Daily News Egypt. “Others like [bin Laden] will emerge in no time.”
“We just had a revolution and we have more important things to think about than the death of bin Laden,” he added. “Whether bin Laden is alive or not, it makes no difference to us.”
“I am saddened [by his death],” Sherif Ahmed, 31, told DNE, “He’s the only who stood up to America.”
“Bin Laden is an important figure to us and he’s the only person who intimidated the United States,” Ahmed added.
Mohamed Omar, 48, said, “As a Muslim, it was sad to hear the news, may God bless his soul.”
“I realize that the rest of the world might be comforted by his death as everyone believes that bin Laden is the reason behind [most of the problems] in the world,” Omar said.
“However, America is the one convincing the world with these false accusations that aren’t true,” he added.
Mohamed Amin, 57, agreed saying, “There’s this false image created for bin Laden by certain countries.
“I see bin Laden as a normal person who doesn’t deserve all this attention, whether in his life or death,” Amin added.
“[His death] will affect the entire Arab world and more terrorist groups will emerge and instead of having just one bin Laden, we will have 500 of him,” Amin said.
Foreigners visiting Egypt reacted more positively to the news.
“I’m glad that justice was brought to him at some point,” Josh Leffler, a 25-year-old American history student, told DNE.
“But it wasn’t worth the billions of dollars, all the lives that were killed [and] all the destruction that has been brought in Afghanistan and Iraq for this one man.
“I don’t know if this means anything other than publicity for [Barack] Obama’s presidential election campaign,” he said.
Robert Curlits, a Canadian tourist, said, “I’m absolutely shocked, never thought it would happen.”
Osama bin Laden was killed in a two-story house 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy when four helicopters carrying US anti-terror forces swooped in the early morning hours of Monday.
