ISLAMABAD
–
A religious school for women in the Pakistani capital Islamabad has
renamed its library in honour of slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The seminary is run by controversial hardline cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz,
the imam of the city’s Red Mosque, once notorious as a hideout for
hardliners with alleged militant links.
The
mosque was the scene of a week-long military siege against radicals in
2007 which left more than 100 people dead and unleashed a wave of
Islamist attacks across Pakistan.
Now
the Jamia Hafsa seminary connected to it has named its small library,
stocking Islamic texts, in honour of bin Laden, who masterminded the
9/11 attacks in the United States.
“It is true that we have named the library after Osama bin Laden,” a source told AFP Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He might be a terrorist for others but we do not consider him as a terrorist. For us he was a hero of Islam.”
A small printed sign stuck over the library door gives bin Laden’s name and refers to him as a “martyr”.
Bin
Laden was killed in a US special forces raid in the Pakistani town of
Abbottabad in 2011 and for some radicals in the country he is a heroic
figure.
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