Clash of the Titans: The West and Islam
It has been on the slow burner since the 80s, and now, it seems to have quicken the pace greatly since 9\11. In the 80s, the West clashed with Islam in Afghanistan, where the Soviets were defeated after eight years. The true terrorist of today was born then in many followers. In the 90s, most of the clashes were with the US and its policy in those countries that were Islamic. It was not just the US policy they hated, it was our culture and customs. They were and still are intolerant of them. After 9\11, everything escalated 10-fold, and to many, a clash of cultures and worlds was happening between The West (North, South America, Australia, Russia, Europe) and those countries where Islam reigns (all of North Africa and most of the Middle East, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India).
The customs and culture of Islam seem to directly affront most Western countries in religion, in its legal system, it's dress for women and other customs. Most Western countries are tolerant but since 9\11, the populations have little tolerance for Muslims whenever Western values are threatened. In France, the government banned the Burqa as being non-western. In New York, Islamists want to build a 15 story mosque towering over the ground zero site where 3000 Americans were killed (a few hundred were Muslim). Morocco banned all western missionaries, Iran is nuclear bound despite the West's efforts to punish them, and Turkey, a country that tries to be secular and Islamic is turning more toward Iran than its former partner, the USA. They diluted the efforts to sanction Iran and indicated that Israel was no friend.
In 2003, Saudi Arabia was reported to have spent $2 billion dollars a year for the past 30 years in efforts to promote the Islamic way of life, while Western efforts are almost nil in comparison.
The war between Western civilization and Islamic civilization has been happening for years as more mosques are being built in the US than ever before. The next step will be introducing milder forms of their "Sharia law".