Religion in third world countries and many developed countries is resurging. This has intensified the role of religion in politics. In the United States, the separation of church and state is acceptable. In other countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world, the two are not separated. Since religion plays a large role in many Muslim countries, the impact that it has on politics is more obvious. Some religions have more power in politics than others. Since most people are Muslim in Muslim countries, religions like Christianity and Buddhism have little effect on politics.
Many of the Muslim countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan base their political system on the Koran. Countries like Turkey do not base their political system on the Koran.
Many fundamentalists of the Muslim faith should not be considered terrorists or people that support terrorists. Many fundamentalists want to just support Islam. Even though many Muslims supported the actions of Osama Bin Laden, many condemned them. Many Muslim fundamentalists have the goal of reviving their faith.
Radical Muslim fundamentalists support Jihad (another name for war), against those that want to corrupt their faith. Osama Bin Laden and his followers would be an example of this. Conservative fundamentalists want to protect their religion and keep it from outside influence. However, this is not seen as a war.
The Iranian revolution has its roots in an ongoing resistance to secular modernization. The Shah introduced many western ideas. This fast suggestion of western ideas and change caused instability and a complete turnaround in policy by the opposition leader. The country quickly adopted this new way of life. Iran became increasingly hostile to the outside world and adopted an aggressive foreign policy. This was the beginning of a holy war between the radical fundamentalists and the west. They believed that it was because of western ideas that their country was moving further away from traditional Islamic values.
The majority of the Muslim world would be considered conservative in their beliefs towards the west. They are not looking for a Holy war and do not support the actions of Osama Bin Laden. They believe that his actions go against the teachings of Islam. Radical fundamentalists believe that they are in a war against the western world and want to see western ideas destroyed by any means necessary. Their main intention is to take a stand for Islam. They want to spread their faith and not have western ideas influence their way of life. They supported Osama Bin Laden because he was a radical fundamentalist. He believed that the only way to gain support of the Islamic faith was to destroy western ideas by launching a war or an attack. This lead to the attack on the world trade center that is known as 9/11.
Since Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan did not take any military action against the United States, many radical fundamentalists believed that Osama Bin Laden was a hero. He took military action that their countries political system did not take. Even though radical fundamentalist Muslims could not pressure their governments into attacking America because of their western ideas, Osama Bin Laden did. They felt a sense of relief that what they wanted to happen, finally happened. He vowed to protect Islam no matter what the costs were going to be. He believed that the only way to have peace in Islam was to destroy western ideas and democracy through war. He believed that Islam was the only correct way of living.