I appreciate your optimism. From what I read, Arafat was not an Islamic zealot in the Taliban sense, and wasn't very religious at all. His wife was raised as a Christian. Stranger things have happened.
I believe that people can be saved on their deathbeds. My husband went to visit a pastor who was ill in the hospital. The pastor asked him to pray for the man who was in a coma in the next bed. He went over to him, prayed for him, and the man came out of the coma! He accepted Christ as Saviour and went back into the coma. Now THAT is God's grace. What a wonderful thing that was for my husband. It really built his faith and it made me believe that nothing is impossible for God. He sends people at the right time to the right place and it's not His desire to see anyone perish. We may never know another person's final fate.
Hussein wasn't a religious man either. He pretty much left Christians alone but now they're being hunted down by zealous Muslims. Hard to figure, huh?