Islamists claim to wage jihad against the modernism and globlization of the outside, mostly Westernized world. Such a message resonates in the socially and largely economically stagnant Muslim countries, where the blame for all ills is traditionally inculcated against Jews and the prosperous Westernized societies.
Of course, while the people of the region may be poor, the Islamist movement isn't. Huge oil profits filter throughout the Muslim world, enabling Islamists to act on their rhetoric, build mosques, attract followers, and to compensate the families of the suicide bombers, even as the large majority continue to live in hopeless squalor, and Western aid is diverted to the pockets of jihadists and corrupt leaders.
There is still another reason for the rise of Islamists: They sense a new hesitation and uncertainty of purpose in the West.
Westerners appear to them to be weak an...