Happy Birthday Osama bin Laden!

Whilst realising that birthdays are neither
considered important nor generally celebrated
in the Muslim world, and also realising that there
is doubt whether he was in fact born on a date
equivalent to 10 March 1957 in the Gregorian
(solar) calendar, which would be 8 Sha'baan
1376 AH in the Islamic (lunar) calendar (some
"experts" claim he was born on 30 July 1957),
and also realising that, if you count lunar years
which on average are around 11 days shorter
than a solar year, he did in fact turn 50 about
18 months ago - nevertheless, despite all that,
I would like to say:

Wherever you are, I hope you are safe and in
good health and may Allah protect you for at
least another 50 years - you are an inspiration
to many around the globe.

See also my brief post:
The Face of Osama bin Laden .

NOTE:
When above I call him an inspiration it is to be
understood in the following context:
Having been born into a very wealthy and well-
connected family, the logical path we might have
expected Osama to take would have been to
participate fully in the family business, do and
say all the right things at the right times to the
right people, drink tea and be seen with members
of the Royal House of Saud whenever that
privilege was on offer.
Instead, he decided to give up all that and went
to Afghanistan to fight the brutal Soviet invaders
and occupiers, spending much of his own money
in the process, living in caves and, in his own
words, it is a miracle that he came through it
all alive.

That he is now equally determined to drive the
new but equally brutal invaders and occupiers out
of that achingly beautiful but ravaged country
should be applauded by all good and decent
people everywhere, regardless of creed, colour,
culture.

As for Islamic militancy against the West,
again in the words of Osama, it is only:
"Your goods returned to you".