The US government said it buried him at sea so there wouldn’t be a grave site that might later become a martyr’s shrine.
I’ll bet his Abbottabad home already has the beginnings of a shine to him.
He was killed there. Isn’t that a prime location for a martyr’s shrine?
Thought I heard they blew it up on the way out. Still, I suppose the rumble could be a shrine.
Too be honest even the chances of his grave becoming a shrine weren’t all that high as the kind of veneration is very strictly opposed in the sects of Islam to which Bin Laden was most strongly aligned.
Nope. For one thing, they left a number of non-combatants (women and children) behind when they left. It would have been a bit tacky to blow them up just to keep the compound from becoming a shrine.
IMHO there wasn’t much they could do about that one. If the compound becomes a shrine, the compound becomes a shrine.
Yeah, I just read that they left the building intact. I guess I thought the Seals were just pulling the tried and true method of blowing everything up before you leave. Thats how I live my life anyway. 
You’re thinking of the downed chopper. They blew that up on the way out, for obvious reasons.
The thing about the shrine excuse is that it’s not really the main reason, I don’t think. It’s more to do with the religious implications of burial. The US wanted to be very careful that they didn’t appear to be anti-Islam so they had to observe all Muslim customs. That includes burying the body quickly. But then there’s the problem of a location. What country would accept the remains? They can’t send him to Saudi Arabia. They can’t just bury him in Afghanistan. They certainly don’t want to take him back to Pakistan. And what Prime Minister wants to so before his people (who, by the way, all hate UBL too) and say “We really didn’t have anything to do with this operation, but we figured we’d be welcoming and allow him to be buried in our soil.”?
So the ocean it was.
You mean a single place in the world where Bin Laden’s followers and al Queda members would periodically come, so anyone watching could clearly identify them?
I don’t think it would be a great location for a shrine. Its cushiness probably isn’t worth a lot of martyr points. It could end up as a monument to the opulence enjoyed by the corrupt Al Qaeda leadership while the grunts have to live in much more spartan conditions. Not exactly a good recruiting tool.
I wonder how being an ex-Osama hideout effects the resale value.
It seems some–both on and off the boards–forget that it’s not the practices of the sect to which the late jerk was aligned; it’s the practices of the people who want to revere the scum. Personally, I hope the Pakistani government razes the place after they get all the evidence to be gotten and then build a sewage treatment plant there.
I’ve also always figured that, at least in the context of some of the Nazi sites in Europe, the “shrines” argument also applies to morbid curiosity-seekers as much as the believers in whatever causes. The concentration camps and battlefields are acceptable tourist attractions because they pay testament to the evil deeds they did and their victims, but sites that just play off the celebrity value (for lack of a better term) of the Nazi bigwigs themselves are not.
I think there are many people in the world who would be upset if either the Osama grave or death compound were accessible to lookey-loo tourists, even if they aren’t sympathizers.
It won’t become a shrine if Obama continues the Bush-Cheny war on Islamofascist terror and make them losers. People don’t generally flock to sites of losers. How much tourism business does Linz, Austria get for having Hitler grew up there?
There was a bad experience with the body of the dead Che Guevara returned to Cuba in 1997 and it’s become a shrine for the Michael Moore feces-heads who think terrorism and dictators are cool
For some reason, I’m picturing Luke and Leia blowing up Jabba’s complex as they sped away, in ROTJ.
I’ll bet that blowing yourself up to kill a bunch of civilians is also very strictly opposed by those sects, too. Terrorism and terrorists can’t just be explained in terms of religion.
Dunno, but according to wikipedia, the once home of Robert E Lee has had some 600,000 visitors. So being a looser doesn’t seem to categorically prevent people from making a tourist destination out of your former houses.
It is still there.
Looking at the other headlines on that page, I am not sure that the “MailOnline” would be the place to go for my news. :rolleyes: Just my opinion of course.
Killing all of the innocent slaves still trapped inside, it should be noted. The movie skipped over that little detail.
I agree with you. I was just linking for the pictures.
I’m speculating, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Pakistan destroys the compound. It wouldn’t have been an option for the Navy Seals because there were civilians there (I think Pakistan has moved them all out) and because they were trying to leave in a hurry.