Islam predates Fascism by twelve centuries or so. The Koran is largely written in gibberish, which I am guessing is at least as unintelligible to most modern Muslims as the KJV of the Bible is to most Christians. Mohammad was a violent pedophile, but then again he lived in times that were even more violent than he was, and at least as pedophilic. But ritual is the most important feature of pretty much every religion after several centuries pass. What one wears to Church is certainly more of a concern to many Christians as giving all to the poor and following a guy in sandals, especially since there are few guys in sandals to follow.
I think you can trace the rise of Wahabbi fanaticism, which is at the core of the Islamic Fundie movement to two things: the failed attempt of the Soviets to take over Afghanistan in the 1970's and the sharp drop in oil prices in the 1980's. The Soviets, triggered by the Shiite revolution in Iran, decided that Afghanistan was a threat to them in their own "stans": Uzbekhistan, Tajikistan, Khirghistan and Azerbaijan. There are a lot of Azeris in Iran, and the Tajiks are poor cousins to the Persians.
Of course, the Iranian Revolution was at least partially due to the US deposing the democratically elected secular Mohammad Mossadegh back in 1953. When the Shah of Shahs got colon cancer and no doctor dared examine his regal fundament to diagnose him ad treat him in time, then he got very ill, and the Ayatollah was standing in the wings to replace him with something that the CIA could not replace.
One could say that the Islamic "revival" is a case of the CIA's chickens coming home to roost.
The Saudis usually were able to provide make-work jobs for a lot of undereducated young men in various industries, but the the price of oil declined to where they could only subsidize jobs in what the Saudis call the Commission for the Protection of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice (Mutawas)
http://amislam.com/mutawas.htm, and instead of learning how to process bureaucratic forms or supervise Pakistani and Filipino immigrant workers, these young shebobs learned religious fanaticism. Imagine what the Klan or our local fundies (guys like Farrakhan or the 700 Club) might spawn if it were subsidized by the government .
It would be nice if the Saudis, now enriched like never before, would stop all government assistance to the Mutawas. I am not sure how the US could pressure them into doing so. But I think it would do more toward improving security for Americans than bombing Iran.