As millions of Americans sat glued to their television screens to hear President Barack Obama utter the words, “Justice has been done” in May, some Ohio University students learned about the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden while outside the United States.
Students participating in OU’s study-abroad program described varying reactions throughout the globe to the news of the terrorism mastermind’s death and to their status as Americans abroad.
On the evening of May 1, just months before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks for which bin Laden took credit, Obama announced that a U.S. Special Ops team had killed bin Laden in Pakistan.
Soon after the confirmation of bin Laden’s death, OU’s Office of Education Abroad sent an email to all students and faculty who were abroad. The message detailed the travel alert that had just been issued and encouraged students to proceed with caution during the next few days.
“As always, we encourage you to remain alert and aware of your surroundings,” the message said. “It is especially important that you avoid political demonstrations as they may possibly have an anti-American or anti-Western sentiment and could become dangerous to your safety. Maintain a low profile and avoid displaying obvious affiliation with the United States.”
Students studying around the world said, for the most part, they did not feel threatened by the people in their host countries and that local reactions varied from indifference to interest in their opinions.
Mary Forfia, a senior studying Spanish, was studying abroad in Brazil when bin Laden was killed. She said her professors there, much like those at OU, used the news to facilitate conversations in class.
The main response she received from people in Brazil was mere curiosity, Forfia said.
“I wasn’t grouped in with the chanting multitudes, and I’ve been very honest in regards to what I think about what happened,” Forfia said in an email. “To wit: Our history is littered with the bodies of foreign leaders who have been thoroughly demonized and promptly disposed of. The fact that our (president) is immediately taking credit, however, is a new development.”
Chris Lampe, a junior studying marketing, was in Spain when the news of bin Laden’s death broke. His initial response was disbelief.
“It seemed too perfect of a mission, and there was no evidence,” he wrote in an email.
Both Lampe and Forfia said they did not feel unsafe as Americans in foreign countries.
“In terms of safety from terrorism, I feel like it’s safer (in Spain) anyways,” Lampe said.
Alex Huffman, a senior studying philosophy and linguistics, was studying abroad in Lebanon when he learned that bin Laden had been killed.
Huffman said he didn’t agree with the celebratory response across America that he noted in the news.
“It struck me as ridiculous that people were partying in the streets in the U.S. for a man’s death, even if it was a man who had done some pretty horrible things,” he wrote in an email.
As with many of the other students studying abroad, Huffman noted that the Lebanese people were generally unsympathetic toward bin Laden.
“The Lebanese weren’t lynching me in outrage for America,” he said. “I read in the news that some radical Sunni cleric was calling for people to pray for bin Laden outside the American embassy, but I just get the sense that it’s not going to be a big deal.”
rm279109@ohiou.edu
