It's ideological manipulation, the more uneducated a society is the easier it is to manipulate as most manipulation is an appeal to the emotive but that only touches on the most obvious. Even in western civilization we see the appeal to the emotive being effective on a daily basis especially in the realm of politics and among even highly educated peoples so we don't need to imagine it's effect among peoples who have been taught the Koran almost exclusively like the affect exerted upon most Christians hundreds of years ago.
Look at the wars that resulted from the Reformation; "the true faith is under attack" when in reality it was the authority and power of the Catholic Church which was under attack, now draw similar associations to today's ME only the Islamic power brokers are also using; "our lands are under attack by the infidel" along with; "our faith is under attack". The power brokers want to not only drive the infidel back but ultimately (by the sword or assimilation) create a world wide Caliphate.
As always it's a relatively few individuals manipulating a huge number of people.
