I don't think I do agree with all of it. Islam was, for a time, more in the background of the countries in which it was the major religion... more like a backdrop of religious culture behind the struggle of the people in the Middle East to try to gain the same kind of self determination that the industrializing countries had already accomplished. This was being thwarted on all sides by major powers of the West such as Britain, France, and ultimately, the US.

We have no way of knowing how the countries of the Middle East would have progressed had they not been interfered with to the degree that they were. Iran does, however, give us some idea of how they might have developed, since it did, for a short time, have a fledgling democracy. That was stopped in its tracks by outside forces (powerful countries of the West). The sense of frustration that the people of the Middle East feel is probably far more a product of never having the chance to determine their own destiny (with the rejuvenation of the Muslim religion that would inevitably have accompanied it... as has happened with the other world's major religions as they have progressed in self determination during the modern era).

It should not be surprising that the Muslim religion as it is found in the Middle East would be lagging behind Islam as found in liberal democratic countries, and the other major religions as they are found in liberal democratic countries. The people and countries of that region have been interfered with too much to have had a chance to find their place in the developed world. And now, extremist Islam is being embraced as a way to accomplish what could not be accomplished through other means. Self determination.

Yes, Osama probably does not have that as his motivator... his motivator is probably more a sort of beatific madness. But that is what Muslims are increasingly turning to extremism in order to get, and the motivator that people like Osama are using to manipulate people into doing their bidding.