THE SCENE from atop the World Trade Centre in New York was simply breath-taking.  The colossal sculpture on Liberty Island appeared tiny from that height. It was the high point of our visit to the US.

The previous day, my wife and I were introduced to a lady who worked at the WTC when we attended the Sunday service at the Epiphany Mar Thoma Church in New York.

A few weeks later, on September 11, 2001, when the twin towers were brought down by terrorists, she was one of the nearly 3000 people killed.

I was shocked when I heard about her tragedy. And I wondered what she and others who perished had done to merit this gruesome end.

Justice finally caught up with Osama bin Laden, who had masterminded the attack which would have been catastrophic if the two other planes involved in the attack had hit their targets – the Pentagon and the White House. Again, had the towers been hit an hour or so later when they would have been swarming with people, the casualty figure would have been much more.

Providence was definitely not on Bin Laden’s side that day, though it was done in His name. Among the victims were Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews, agnostics and atheists. Providence was, again, not on his side when on May 2, four US helicopters flew from Afghanistan to Abbottabad in Pakistan, less than 80 kms from Islamabad, with information that he was hiding in a fortified $1-million mansion.

It took the raiders all of 40 minutes to ferret out Bin Laden, shoot him at close range and carry away his body to be “buried” in the sea. Of course, it would have been a better option to catch him alive, try him at the International Court of Justice and give him just desserts.

The image of Osama I had in my mind was that of a bearded, fiery leader fighting the US army in the mountains of Afghanistan. Why this image got stuck in my mind was because of the video tapes that the Al-Qaeda used to release now and then showing Bin Laden clutching at his AK-47 or aiming at his target.

Far from fighting shoulder to shoulder with his cadres, Bin Laden had been leading a comfortable life with his fifth wife and children in a three-storied building so close to a military academy that it is difficult to believe that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had no clue about his stay there. Here was a leader who encouraged suicide missions enjoying creature comforts! And from the accounts available so far, he did not even fight when the US forces surrounded him that night.

Was Bin Laden any different from Saddam Hussein, who instead of fighting the “invaders”, hid in a rat hole to save his skin, until he was smoked out, arrested, tried and punished? Is it any wonder that the Arab streets remained peaceful after his killing? Of course, there were some prayers for Bin Laden at Karachi in Pakistan and Kashmir in India. However, conspiracy theorists continue to harp on the lack of photographic evidence of his killing but they, too, know that he will never again walk on this earth.

I ask, what did he give the Muslim world? He preached violence. He had a warped understanding of religion. That is why, following 9/11, he declared that "this war is fundamentally religious. Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For, the enmity is based on creed."