My View of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden's Death Through the Harry Potter Series

   I was in fourth grade when the World Trade Center on September 11th (a.k.a. 9/11) was hit by two jumbo jets. It was a normal day I got on the bus to go to school in Brooklyn from my Manhattan home. During recess I heard whispers about a bomb in the World Trade Center, but I just could not comprehend what was going on, seeing as that I was somewhat in my own world. I was then asked by a classmate whether I lived near the World Trade Center. I responded to the question by saying that it was quite a walk. After recess the Hebrew principal  called for an assembly and told us about the WTC being hit by airplanes and to say Tehilim (Psalms). I am not one to believe that Psalms actually have power, but I sometimes feel like saying them when it is a last resort. However, the tool that helped me most was the Harry Potter series, since the attacks occurred around the same time as I started reading the series.

  I was told that the city was shut down and had no idea how I would get home. I went to someone's house until my father was able to pick me up. I was somewhat scared of traveling on the trains because, I was scared that the trains might be shut down when I was still on one. I could not comprehend what was going on, despite the fact that I was told. I kept asking questions and drawing airplanes going into the Twin Towers. Soon after a video by Osama bin Laden came out saying that he only thought that the top part of the World Trade Center would be destroyed. For the next few months or possibly a year all I spoke about was Osama bin Laden. I was quite affected seeing as that I was breathing in the smoke from the collapsed buildings  for months and, that I could not see the towers when I looked where they would have normally been.

  Osama bin Laden, to me was not a real person. To me he was simply a fictional character such as Lord Voldemort was, except that to me Lord Voldemort was more tangible, because aside from trying to comprehend the recent occurrence I was also obsessed with Harry Potter. The thing that made bin Laden less tangible than Lord Voldemort was the fact that, although we did see videos of him, Harry Potter, the protagonist of the series had encounters with him that were direct encounters throughout the series. Also the first Harry Potter movie came out about two months after the attacks. I did not quite understand the implications of terrorism and the philosophy of Al Qaeda. Bin Laden the leader of Al Qaeda declared war on the Western world, also known as fatawa, so according to bin Laden, non-Muslims (infidels) and Muslims who do not do Jihad are susceptible to attack, just like those in the Harry Potter series who were Muggleborns, Muggles and those who opposed his ideology. When I heard that bin Laden was killed I was somewhat shocked. Seeing that I viewed bin Laden as Voldemort I thought that he was in a way a powerful wizard who would never be caught and was impervious to death, just as Voldemort was until his Horcruxes were destroyed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 In the first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, everybody everybody lost all their common sense and nearly exposed themselves to the Muggle (non-wizard) population, all because Lord Voldemort suffered defeat, after trying to kill Harry Potter as baby. They dropped every responsibility they had so they could celebrate. One wizard even said to Vernon Dursley ,Harry Potter's  Muggle uncle that even Muggles like him should be celebrating "this happy, happy day." This wizard did little to maintain his secrecy he was even donning a cloak, which is a wizard garment. I can compare the circumstances with the celebrations that happened right after the  announcement of Osama bin Laden's death. People were dancing and celebrating by Ground Zero. However like in the Harry Potter series, I believe that the enemy has not actually been eliminated, and that celebrating by screaming U.S.A. was idiotic and irrational.Voldemort had not actually been killed. At the end of the fourth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort comes back to power and has his minions, the Death Eaters kill many more people and target Harry Potter. Although I do assume that Osama bin Laden is literally dead, I do not believe that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have died along with him

   In the Harry Potter series the Ministry of Magic kept the population in the dark about Voldemort's second rise to power. Today President Barack Obama decided to keep a post-mortem picture of Osama bin Laden  from being seen by the masses. What we have to realize is that there is a threat of attack just from the U.S. Government for announcing that Navy SEALS shot bin Laden down. It might quell conspiracy theorists and also discourage terrorist from attacking the U.S. Cornelius Fudge decided not to make up a conspiracy theory that Harry Potter was simply fame hungry and that Dumbledore was either senile, or wanted to take his position as Minister of Magic. When the truth was revealed, Cornelius Fudge was sacked from his position. I feel that we as U.S. citizens should be told the truth and we should have access to such proof.

   Osama bin Laden and Voldemort were similar in that if they wanted the right to live then they should have respected other people's right to live, although I do not view Osama bin Laden's death as justice, I simply view it with awe in a way that I do not know exactly how to feel besides that although everyone is celebrating.  Osama bin Laden was the poster boy for Islamic terrorism, just as Voldemort is the poster boy for evil in the Harry Potter series. What I do not like about the depiction of both their deaths is that everybody whether in real life or the Harry Potter series acted as if both Islamic terrorism and Voldemort's ideology were gone with their deaths. I feel that the celebration is irrational and that bin Laden's death will not bring back the lives that he has taken. I also find that Harry Potter was a tool that was useful in analyzing my surroundings, despite the fact that it is fictitious.