Al Qaeda lately has shifted its attentions to Pakistan, where it still enjoys high approval ratings, bringing the suicide bomb to its old allies, the Taliban. “New clusters of Arab militants are re-gathering in Pakistan,” Miller said. Significantly, bin Laden’s audio statement last week focused on Pakistan’s efforts, approved of by President Obama, to drive the Taliban out of Swat Valley.

That’s worrisome, but not as much as it would have been in the Bush era, when 49 per cent of Saudis told pollsters they admired their errant countryman, offers of marriage poured in to him, and Osama at one point was the first name of choice for newborn boys.

Barack Obama’s Cairo speech may not succeed in changing the Middle East, but it will at least have persuaded many skeptical Muslims that he cared.