On June 4, 2009, Barack Obama brought the vast promise of his young presidency to a stage at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University for a much-heralded address to the Muslim world. In stirring language , Obama vowed “to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” But as some commentators noted — and I noticed myself, sitting in that grand auditorium — Obama’s Egyptian audience offered a surprisingly muted reaction to his speech, responding mostly with polite but quiet applause.

Perhaps it was a cultural thing. Or maybe it was an omen. One year later, Obama has made precious little progress toward his goal of improving America’s standing in the Muslim world. A new Gallup survey of several Muslim-majority nations finds that in Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt and the Palestinian territories, America still has a dismally low standing, one that ranges from approval in the mid-teens (among Palestinians) to 30% (in Algeria). (The lone happy exception among those surveyed is strategically inconsequential Mauritania.) Worse, after rising in mid-2009, perhaps on the early excitement around Obama’s arrival and George W. Bush’s departure, all those numbers have dropped again to roughly Bush-era levels. And in other crucial Muslim-majority nations not polled by Gallup, such as Turkey and Pakistan, there’s scant evidence that America is held in much higher regard.    »»» TIME

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