oh, i guess i don't confuse religion with al qaeda. they're a criminal outfit. while i don't want to say that religion has nothing to do with it, i'd say that you can probably figure that al qaeda, as a criminal network willing to use terrorism to obtain their ends, and that, while religiosity is used to recruit the organization now operates like a bureaucratic machine. they operate like the CIA, iow, except they fund themselves through financial fraud, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, etc. the manifest goal is rhetoric about getting the US the hell out of the ME, but my guess is that the organization has become detached from the ideological goals, like any bureaucratic machine, and it works quite nicely without whipping up fanaticism, just pedestrian resentments and moderate devotion.
i refuse to call them fanatics. most of these guys were doing a job. they're like the mob. they were given assignments. they had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. they are not supposed to know. though they may guess. they are told to settle into community. get jobs. orders come in to take flying lessons. they do. they're told to rent a car and visit boston logan. they do. etc. etc. etc. Atta probably opened a "Good Morning Mr. Phelps" note when he got up for morning prayer in the hotel in Maine. At that point the only thing he could do was follow instructions or be killed.