It is true that Bin Laden's popularity has waned dramatically in the Arab world, and among the Palestinian Arabs as well. But you will be hard pressed to find a Western media outlet pointing out that over a quarter of Palestinian Arabs still view Al Qaeda favorably or that over one third had confidence that Osama Bin Laden was a good Arab leader.In the months leading up to Osama bin Laden’s death, a survey of Muslim publics around the world found little support for the al Qaeda leader. Among the six predominantly Muslim nations recently surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, bin Laden received his highest level of support among Muslims in the Palestinian territories – although even there only 34% said they had confidence in the terrorist leader to do the right thing in world affairs. Minorities of Muslims in Indonesia (26%), Egypt (22%) and Jordan (13%) expressed confidence in bin Laden, while he has almost no support among Turkish (3%) or Lebanese Muslims (1%).
Al Qaeda also received largely negative ratings among Muslim publics in the 2011 survey. Only 2% of Muslims in Lebanon and 5% in Turkey expressed favorable views of al Qaeda. In Jordan, 15% had a positive opinion of al Qaeda, while about one-in-five in Indonesia (22%) and Egypt (21%) shared this view. Palestinian Muslims offered somewhat more positive opinions (28% favorable), but about two-thirds (68%) viewed bin Laden’s organization unfavorably.
I know - let's reward Bin Laden's biggest fans with a state - one that is ethnically cleansed of Jews!
(h/t Ha'aretz)