Shortly before his death, Osama bin Laden recorded a message praising the Middle East protest movements and predicting that revolutions would spread across the region.
"I think that the winds of change will blow over the entire Muslim world, with permission from Allah," bin Laden said in the 12-minute message released online Wednesday.
The message was released as a video, but it contains only an audio track and a photo of the terrorist leader.
Though both bin Laden and the West have generally supported protest movements in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, their goals are very different.
The West hopes the protests will lead to democratic reforms. Bin Laden and his followers saw many Middle East governments as corrupt and hoped their collapse would lead to government based on their interpretation of Islamic law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/18/osama-bin-laden-recording-released_n_863946.html
