Bin Laden speaks in the vivid language of popular Islamic preachers, and builds on a deep and widespread resentment against the West and local ruling elites identified with it. The lack of formal outlets to express opinion on public concerns has created [a] democracy deficit in much of the Arab world, and this makes it easier for terrorists such as bin Laden, asserting that they act in the name of religion, to hijack the Arab street.

Buzzwords such as ‘fundamentalism’ and catchy phrases such as Samuel Huntington's ‘West versus the rest’…obscure or even distort the immense spiritual and intellectual ferment that is taking place today among the world's nearly 1 billion Muslims.