JERUSALEM (CBN News) — Since September 11^th, many questions have been raised about the religion of Islam. Is it a religion of peace or war? What do the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world believe? And what is the Islamic theology driving Osama bin Laden and his followers?

Islam is a word that means submission to Allah, and a Muslim is one who submits to Allah. While many have called Islam a religion of peace, for more than twenty years a growing and more violent Islamic theology has spread through the Islamic world.

In 1979, Islamic fundamentalism, also known as Islamism or radical Islam, burst onto the world stage. Ayatollah Khomeni’s Islamic revolution in Iran overthrew the ruling shah and birthed a fiery and messianic brand of Islam. Since 1979, this Islamic revolution has engulfed the nations of Sudan and Afghanistan and found disciples throughout the Islamic world.

Moshe Sharon has studied Islam for 35 years, and he believes Americans need to understand the fundamentals of the faith. "They ought to know that Islam divides the world into two parts: one part that is already under the rule of Islam, the other part which must come under the rule of Islam in the future. And this can happen either if the rest of the world, which is non-Islamic, succumbs to Islam or is conquered by Islam."

This division of the world was reflected within bin Laden’s recent statement. He said, "These events have divided the whole world into two sides. The side of believers and the side of infidels."

As early as 1999, bin Laden declared that jihad means holy war on America. But why do bin Laden and others like him hate the United States and seek to destroy it?

David Parsons, the editor of the Middle East Digest, said, "Osama bin Laden, this master terrorist, he has set forth a plan to his followers, a plan to conquer the world for Islam within a hundred years. And the main obstacle to him and others who share his beliefs, very prevalent within the Islamic world of world conquest, the main obstacle is the United States. Americans need to understand that."

Just over a month ago, Americans might have thought the idea of Islamic world conquest a fanciful idea. But Malcolm Hedding, the executive director of the International Christian Embassy, says we should take the believers in radical Islam at their word. "People have said, ‘They don’t mean it, it’s just rhetoric.’ Well, I think the world has now woken up to the fact that these people indeed mean every word they say," Hedding said.

"These religious ideas become a political agenda. That is the most important thing. The religious ideas are there. They can be found everywhere: in the Koran, in tradition, and in the writing of religious leaders in Islam all through the ages. But now it has become a political agenda," Sharon said.

He continued, "This is exactly what is happening today. Those parts of Islam which are part of the religion of Islam, they are taken out. And there is now the military [message] which is very simple and very clear: fight America, this is the head of the snake which represents the western civilization, the hated western civilization which we cannot accept."

This kind of message is preached in many parts of the Islamic world. For example, the mufti of the Palestinian Authority in a sermon just two months ago prayed, "Oh Allah, destroy America and its supporters and collaborators. Oh Allah, destroy Britain and its supporters and collaborators."

And in an 11^th grade Palestinian textbook it says, "There is no escape from a new civilization… we do not claim that the collapse of western civilization, and the transfer of the center of civilization to [Islam] will happen in the next decade. Nevertheless, [western civilization] has begun to collapse and become a pile of rubble."

While most Muslims are not fundamentalists, today Islamic fundamentalists make up a significant minority in the Islamic world. One expert estimates their numbers in the millions and believes 10 to 15 percent of Muslims are fundamentalists. Other estimates range in the hundreds of thousands. Whatever their numbers, their influence casts a huge shadow over the Islamic world and now the entire world.

Many see it as the ascendant brand of Islam, growing in influence and gaining support particularly among young Muslims. Its influence is spread and maintained by Imams and preachers in mosques throughout the Islamic world. They gain power through an old, but effective weapon — terror.

History has shown that when Islam dominates a nation, it often puts Christians and Jews at risk. For example, in many Muslim countries — such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and even Egypt — sharing the gospel is illegal. This explains the plight of the eight Christian aid workers in Afghanistan who stand accused of proselytizing. A Muslim who converts to Christianity can be put to death.

With the growing militant mentality within Islam, Sharon sees a long battle ahead for the West. "For the first time we are talking about the war between the two civilizations coming to a certain point which I regard not as the peak, but a certain point where the cards are laid on the table."

There does not seem to be an end in sight for this conflict. Fundamentalists see the last days as a time when Islam will rule the world. They are engaged in a life and death struggle with the Christian West and the Jews. While Americans and many in the world watched in horror at the devastation on September 11^th, for Islamic fundamentalists it was an astounding success, a time to celebrate, and a recruiting bonanza for thousands more young Islamic militants who live to die on the jihad trail.