Merkel, Christian and cynic

“I am delighted that Osama bin Laden was killed.” Spoken shortly after the announcement of the killing of the leader of al-Qaeda by a US commando, this very public statement, not at all consistent with the principle of loving thy neighbour, puts Angela Merkel in an awkward position. “The Chancellor has upset a lot of Christians,” headlines the Berliner Zeitung, reporting that Merkel, who is also president of the Christian Democrat Party (CDU), has come under severe criticism from the churches and their supporters, who hold that “there no reason to rejoice in the deliberate killing of a person.” “The public cheering at the liquidation of Osama bin Laden shows how close Christian culture remains to the base and archaic instincts of man,” writes the daily in its editorial. “Certainly, the dances of joy [in New York] were a ritual of emotional relief. But it did not render justice: a man has been sacrificed to the instinct of revenge,” adds the daily, pointing out the disgust felt across the West — and not just by German goodie-goodies — at the dancing for joy in the streets of Gaza when the Twin Towers were brought down in September 2011.