*  *  *  In this shrinking global village internet chats, cable TV, talk shows and transmissions through satellite dishes have made perceptions more powerful than realities in influencing public opinion.
There is a widely held perception in Pakistan - right or wrong - that the popular American view of the U.S.S.R. as an evil empire and communism as a threat to economic and social stability of the world is beginning to resonate itself with Islam replacing communism and Pakistan and other Muslim countries, standing in for the USSR.