Osama bin Laden's appeal was lost in the Arab uprisings

Recent events in north Africa and the Middle East have shown that people can rise up without resorting to terrorism

Osama bin Laden (left) with his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri, in pictures shown in October 2001. Photograph: Al Jazeera/AP

Azzam Tamimi-The Guardian.UK

More than eight years before the Americans finally managed to track down and eliminate Osama bin Laden I was approached by Time magazine to write a column about the likely repercussions of such an event. Time's editor informed me that it had confirmation that Bin Laden had either been captured or killed and wanted me to tell readers what the Muslim reaction would be in each case. My column was published, but Bin Laden, as it turned out, had been neither captured nor killed.

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