Max Rodenbeck raises the possibility:
Earlier last year he had blamed the West for global warming, blasted Pakistan’s efforts at relief following deadly floods, and railed against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad—five years after the images first provoked Muslim protest. …
Back in 2001 the calm, saintly, bearded visage with the wide eyes, the slender fingers caressing a Kalashnikov, and the combat jacket worn over a long white robe had seemed to some the epitome of jihadist cool. … Ten years later, such heroic posturing looks rather dated to a younger Arab generation that—in places like Tunis, Cairo, Muscat, and even Riyadh—is highly urbanized, increasingly sophisticated about the ways of the world, and impatient for gains in the here and now.
Imaginationland is a powerful thing.
The Dish 