People completely demonize bin Laden, but they forget that his sole goal is not to kill off America. Bin Laden sees us as the enemy that oppresses his people, much like many leaders around the world have done for the span of history. I'm not in any way condoning his actions, but instead trying to remind people that it's his perspective that drives his actions--not some deep seated force that simply wants to kill people. He wants to liberate his people for a Muslim world, and I'm sure he'd like a clean Muslim world.
As to Garfield's question, a lot of Muslims care about what he thinks because they see him as the leader of the fight against Western oppression, and believe me that is a real perspective. Just like the colonists saw the British as savages, someone is always going to be demonized. The people on the other end are not evil simply because they demonize us, but just have a different perspective. If we demonize them right back, we show that we are really no different overall.
