Beirut:
The words were not uncommon in angry Arab capitals a decade ago: Osama bin Laden was hero, sheikh, even leader to some. But after his death, a man who once vowed to liberate the Arab world was reduced to a footnote in the revolutions and uprisings remaking a region that he and his followers had struggled to understand.
In the Middle East, reactions to bin Laden's death predictably ran the gamut Monday -from anger in the most conservative locales of Lebanon to jubilation among Shiite Muslims in Iraq, victims of carnage committed in the name of Al Qaeda.
But most remarkably perhaps was the sense in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere that the name bin Laden was an echo of a bygone era, riven by ossifying divides between West and East, American omnipotence and Arab impotence, dictatorship and powerlessness. In recent months, it often seemed the only people in the region citing the name bin Laden were the mouthpieces of strongmen like Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi and former President Hosni Mubarak, evoking the bin Laden threat to justify clinging to power in an Arab world that bore little resemblance to the landscape that be both exploited and helped create.
For a man who bore some responsibility for two wars and deepening American intervention from North Africa to Yemen and Iraq, many say, his death served as an epitaph to another era more than anything. For many in an Arab world where three-fifths of the population is under 30, the bombings on Sept. 11, 2001, are at most a childhood memory, if that.
"bin Laden was the phenomenon of a crisis of another time," said Radwan Sayyid, a professor of Islamic studies at the Lebanese University in Beirut.
He said the Arab world was grappling with different questions now. "The problem is not how you can destroy something, how can you resist something, it's how can you build something new - a new state, a new authority, a new relationship between the public and leadership, a new civil society," he said.
The United States' pursuit of bin Laden has long prompted suspicion in an Arab world that remains deeply skeptical of past American support for Arab dictators and of Washington's unstinting alliance with Israel. Now doubts emerged Monday over the timing of his killing.
Some suggested bin Laden's whereabouts had been long known and that the particular timing of his killing came in the interests of some party - be it the Obama administration, Pakistan or others.
In many quarters, there was also anger and calls for revenge, most publicly by Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister and head of the Islamist movement Hamas, who called bin Laden "a Muslim and Arab warrior." Others insisted that the battle that bin Laden symbolized between the United States and militant Islamists would go on.
"Mr. Obama said, 'Justice has been achieved," said Bilal al-Baroudi, a Sunni Muslim preacher in the conservative Lebanese city of Tripoli. "Let's see how."
"We dislike the reactions and the celebrations in the United States," he added. "What is this great victory? What is the great thing that they achieved? bin Laden is not the end, and the door remains shut between us and the United States."
But even then, the denunciations were often nuanced.
Marwan Shehadeh, an Islamist activist and researcher in Jordan, argued that Arabs would see bin Laden's death through the lens of their antipathy to American policies - interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and support for Israel - without regard to his own views. "Osama bin Laden is a popular charismatic figure for many people, even among the moderates," Mr. Shehadeh said. "They consider Osama bin Laden to be a model for fighting American hegemony. And people see him as a revolutionary struggler, whether they agree with the ideologies that he carries or not."
But at the same time Mr. Shehadeh argued that within the Muslim world, bin Laden's death might come to symbolize a different kind of revolution - a shift away from violence and toward other forms of political engagement, because of the hope for democratic change opened up by the broader Arab Spring. "I believe this news will mark a turning point in the history of the Islamic movement," he said in an interview. "This is a time when extremist Islamic movements are on the retreat, giving way to the more moderate currents that have a more comprehensive vision and political platform."
As if underlining the point, the web site of the Muslim Brotherhood said the with bin Laden's death, "the United States should leave Iraq and Afghanistan."
bin Laden's death will inevitably be seen as another signpost in the evolution of political Islam's relationship with the Arab state. In 2001, bin Laden was often seen as a symbol of an embattled religion, the very personification of people's frustrations at a faith seeming overwhelmed by an omnipotent West. A corollary was Islamist activists' own repression within the Arab world; many have noted that Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, was radicalized in the jails of authoritarian Egypt.
"After the Cold War was over and America was the only power, he was the only one counter-balancing America," said Islam Lofty, an activist and leader of the youth wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest mainstream Islamic group.
Though still tentative, the Arab uprisings, particularly in Egypt and Tunisia, have introduced a new political formula, one in which Islamist currents may have a stake. While great anger remains over American policy and Israel's treatment of Palestinians, attention has often turned inward, as activists debate what kind of state should emerge.
Some worried bin Laden's death would distract from that challenge.
"For weeks we have all been talking about the Arab Spring and the revolutions in the Arab world, dreaming about our new future," Mr. Lotfy said, speaking in Cairo. "Now I am worried about the reaction of groups close to Osama bin Laden, who might bring back the image of Arabs as terrorists who just hate America."
Indeed, Egyptians reading the Web site of the independent newspaper Youm 7 - or Seventh Day --- responded to the killing with mixed emotions. "I do not know if you are a fighter in the name of God or if you are a terrorist who killed many Muslims," one reader wrote.
A few called bin Laden a martyr. "You lived a lion and died a lion," one wrote. "May God have mercy upon you, you hero."
Another promised revenge. "All of America's presidents, the current, previous and future ones, have become a target of Al Qaeda," the posting said.
"He will not be the last American enemy," another wrote. "Yes he did a lot to them, but they are the ones who create their enemies and they will create another bin Laden and another and another."
Many cheered at the turn of a page in history. "It is clear that this year carries a lot of good for the Arabs," one wrote. "Liberating our nations from dictators and terrorists means a push forward toward modernity and progress."
That more optimistic sentiment echoed around the region, insisting that the very empowerment of uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia had rendered obsolete bin Ladin's tactics - both nihilistic carnage and spectacle.
"Now there's a third way," said Mr. Sayyid, the Lebanese intellectual.
"For more than a year, no one really talked about bin Laden," he said. "The theme became, 'How can we pull ourselves out from under these regimes?'"