# Why wouldn't Bin Laden's Abbottabad home become a "Shrine"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 3, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627 "2011-05-03T22:02:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/21 "2011-05-04T17:16:29Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#):
>
> … He was killed there. Isn’t that a prime location for a martyr’s shrine?
No. It is the place of burial, for those who practice this way.
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> … They can’t send him to Saudi Arabia. …
I think they could have.
> [@Monty](#):
>
> 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.
The Salafine are against all things that seem like shrines or idols, so the physical location goes verymuch against all who are sympathetic to his ideas. The Sufi are inclined to shrines, but in Pakistan the Salafine kill Sufis so there is no sympathy for him. I do not think the compound shall have any great meaning.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/22 "2011-05-04T17:18:50Z")
**Ramira** : The only idea that jerk’s followers shared was hatred of America and Americans. If you think there’s no sympathy in Pakistan for the deceased scum, then you haven’t been watching the news.
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### Author:  [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/23 "2011-05-04T17:27:00Z")
> [@Monty](#):
>
> **Ramira** : The only idea that jerk’s followers shared was hatred of America and Americans. If you think there’s no sympathy in Pakistan for the deceased scum, then you haven’t been watching the news.
I do not need American media to tell me of this news. I also know that the followers are very violently opposed to all things like shrines, and in Pakistan they attack those who have shrines. It is also not in the habit of Islam to make shrines out of battle sites. The burial, muqabir, yes in Sufi pratice. If only the geographic spot were to be a gathering place, the building does not even matter to it is stupid to destroy it - the geographic spot remains.
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### Author:  [@SmithCommaJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmithCommaJohn)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/24 "2011-05-04T17:27:38Z")
> [@DxZero](#):
>
> 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. 🙂
Your neighbors must love you.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/25 "2011-05-04T17:32:58Z")
> [@Ramira](#):
>
> I think they could have.
It’s hard to imagine the Saudi government wanting his remains buried there given his attitude toward them and Al Qaeda’s attacks in the country.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/26 "2011-05-04T17:35:59Z")
And where did I mention American media?
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/27 "2011-05-04T17:39:00Z")
The Saudi government had revoked his passport and stripped him of citizenship.
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### Author:  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/28 "2011-05-04T17:40:05Z")
[irrelevant commentary removed by author.]
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/29 "2011-05-04T17:46:10Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> 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.
Are you talking about Arlington? The mansion that Lee inherited from his father-in-law? The US government turned it into a military cemetery during the Civil War & we’ve been keeping it well stocked with succeeding wars. And JFK was buried there.
Not everybody who visits Arlington reveres Bobby Lee.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/30 "2011-05-04T17:55:36Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> I wonder how being an ex-Osama hideout effects the resale value.
Well, the upgrades you’d have to do to get phone, internet, etc installed are going to make it a hard sell.
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/31 "2011-05-04T18:16:24Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#):
>
> 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.
You are right-Hitler’s summer retreat was blown p for this reason.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/32 "2011-05-04T18:23:50Z")
Now there’s word that Umar Patek, the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombing, spent some time in Abbottabad too, maybe with bin Laden. Perhaps it’s more ‘on the map’ than we ever realized.
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### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/33 "2011-05-04T18:50:06Z")
In fact, it’s very much on the map. Google Maps has a “historical site” marker on the spot, with over 1100 reviews. (Many of the reviews promote the out-of-the-way location and privacy, and deplore the lack of Internet access and occasional rowdy American gangs.)
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### Author:  [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/34 "2011-05-04T18:52:23Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#):
>
> 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?
Yes! I’d favor building him a magnificent tomb someplace like Baghdad or Cairo, then photograph, finger-print, and DNA-sample every visitor.
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### Author:  [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/35 "2011-05-04T18:56:38Z")
> [@SmithCommaJohn](#):
>
> Your neighbors must love you.
What neighbors? 🙂
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### Author:  [@livinglife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/livinglife)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/36 "2011-05-05T20:40:03Z")
Could be a shrine for a PIG
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### Author:  [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/37 "2011-05-05T21:12:45Z")
> [@Monty](#):
>
> 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.
Or a school. For girls.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wouldnt-bin-ladens-abbottabad-home-become-a-shrine/580627/38 "2011-05-06T07:07:05Z")
> [@lieu](#):
>
> Now there’s word that Umar Patek, the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombing, spent some time in Abbottabad too, maybe with bin Laden. Perhaps it’s more ‘on the map’ than we ever realized.
I’ve read that it was the goto place for terrorists. It was apparently thought to be the greatest hiding place.
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