Nivell Rayda – In many ways, Jakarta was a bit of a culture shock for Afghan Fatimah (not her real name) when she arrived in 2004.
The high-rise buildings and marble-clad shopping complexes were a far cry from her war-torn country, which her family left in 1999 when the then-ruling Taliban began targeting her father, a staunch regime critic.
She found refuge in Europe, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001 brought a wave of discrimination against people from Afghanistan. Three years later, she immigrated to the world's largest majority-Muslim country.
In Jakarta, Fatimah – now 29 – no longer has to worry about armed men raiding her home or being caught in cross-fire or heavy artillery shelling. She is free to go out and explore the town's nightlife on her own while wearing jeans and high heels, an impossible thing to do under the Taliban's rule.
But to her horror, even halfway around the world she couldn't escape the image and influence of Osama bin Laden, adored by many Muslims here.
"I see his pictures everywhere, being sold in the streets or in the markets. I see Muslim children and their parents wearing T-shirts with his picture. It brings me so much pain that I occasionally shed tears," Fatimah said.
"It is sickening and horrifying for me. I can't see why people do that. Don't they know who he is and what he has done?"
Even for those who have not been directly exposed to his teachings or don't have links to militant networks, Bin Laden is considered an inspiring leader.
"Bin Laden was popular mainly because he stood up against the United States, and everyone loves a David versus Goliath tale," wrote Indonesian National Defense University lecturer Yohanes Sulaiman in May.
"He had been able to outwit the strongest nation on earth, his supporters said. He thus inspired many restless youths and offered them hope – hope that his type of struggle would also work to overthrow the secular, corrupt and infidel Indonesian government backed by the United States that they hated so much."
Some Muslims in Indonesia mourned the death of the world's most wanted terrorist in May. Local radical Islamist groups Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid and the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) called Bin Laden a martyr.
Even hard-line groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), often described as moralist vigilantes, offered prayers to Bin Laden and thanked him for his "service to the Muslim world."
Another Afghan woman who once sought refuge in Indonesia and chose to be identified as Sulha for safety reasons said although she realized that Bin Laden had supporters in other countries, she still struggled to comprehend how openly some in Indonesia idolized Bin Laden.
"The fact that some fundamentalist may see Osama as a hero bothers me a lot," Sulha said. "Religion forbids the killing of innocent people. Therefore, I believe that those who see Bin Laden as a hero are very misguided."
Fatimah said Indonesian Muslims might have a different perception of Bin Laden had they been exposed to the atrocities and violence that took place in her native country when Bin Laden backed the regime in power.
"My sisters and I weren't allowed to go to school and they would beat us if we were caught wandering the streets. Young boys were forced to pick up arms and sent to war, there were mothers who cried on the streets tending to their dead husbands who were massacred by the Taliban," she said.
"I am a Muslim too and I don't think Bin Laden deserves to be called a defender of my religion. If anything, he should be remembered as one who defiles Islam."