I highly recommend these short articles from Newsweek, 10/15, for background on the current Arab-Muslim predicament. They cover the last forty years or so, from the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser and hopeful anticipation of modernism and globalism, to now.
The Roots of Rage – Tracing the origins of Islamic fundamentalism and the causes of anti-American sentiments
The articles are part of a larger special section by Fareed Zakaria. I have pointers to other similar articles on my wiki.
Two small excerpts:
“America thinks of modernity as all good - and it has been almost all good for America. But for the Arab world, modernity has been one failure after another. Each path followed — socialism, secularism, nationalism - has turned into a dead end. While other countries adjusted to their failures, Arab regimes got stuck in their ways. And those that reformed economically could not bring themselves to ease up politically.”
“America stands at the center of this world of globalization. It seems unstoppable. If you close the borders, America comes in through the mail. If you censor the mail, it appears in the fast food and faded jeans. If you ban the products, it seeps in through satellite television. Americans are so comfortable with global capitalism and consumer culture that we cannot fathom just how revolutionary these forces are. Disoriented young men, with one foot in the old world and another in the new, now look for a purer, simpler alternative.”