I'm more inclined to believe that Dune was written after the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia (comes from a water planet, trains the Fremen to overcome the Harkonnens (read the "Turkish Empire")), etc.
Most definitely! Just like LOTR is more a critique on the over industrialization of the Western world and losing the innocence and beauty of the rural lands.
It was also used to epitomize the fight against Communism.
I was just taking the author's analogy a bit further into the plot of the story instead of the devices used!