This pattern of anti-Muslim violence in the wake of extremist attacks has become all too familiar in Britain over the last decade. The public has grappled with angry backlashes to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the London transport bombings of July 7, 2005 and now the murder in Woolwich.

Successful public diplomacy directed toward the Muslim world must be firmly grounded in the recognition that Islam is a dominant factor in the daily life of hundreds of millions of people and in the public sphere of many countries.

As Barack Obama gave a speech defending the US use of drone attacks abroad, Pakistanis talked back on Twitter. On Thursday, the US president addressed criticism of his administration's use of drones in counterterrorism policy and proposed new policy guidelines for strikes.

The Arab Spring was not about creating utopia, nor indeed quick-fix solutions to anything in particular. It was about articulating the massive problems holding the Arab world back, and putting them out to a global audience.

As Obama pointed out in his speech, drones do an incredibly effective job of killing America's adversaries, do not violate the laws of war, and -- a fact he didn't adduce -- enjoy the overwhelming support of the American people. Obama was reacting to public opinion -- but less in the United States than in Pakistan or Yemen. And the fact that this is so tells us a great deal about the changing face or war, and of statecraft.

Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi underlined that the world public opinion is in favor of the diplomatic settlement of the crisis in Syria and Tehran is due to hold a conference later this month to this end. He stressed that the world public opinion is very much interested in seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria but certain countries fanned the flames of the proxy war in Syria and caused a true crisis there through financial and arms supports to terrorists groups.

People's opinions of the UK have improved markedly since 2012. That suggestion is based on a BBC World Service survey of more than 26,000 global citizens, whose positive views pushed the UK into third place, behind Germany and Canada.

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service...They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.