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!
Hmmm, I never thought of that. It is extremely eerie how well Herbert uses Koranic prophetic devices. The book was published in 1969. If someone published a book of the same sort describing Jihad as responsible for mass murder, they would have fatwas issued against them!
I have thought of this from Dune: "He who controls the spice (or in our world, he who controls the oil) controls the universe! And I have thought of this from LOTR about the War on terror: "Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you *stand, Men of the West!"
I think LOTR applies much better to our situation than does Dune. I love LOTR! I loved the book and the movie. I feel sorry for people who have never read it. Someone wrote that not reading LOTR was like going through life never having tasted an orange. Anyone who reads it and is not moved deeply by the themes of heroism, sacrifice, good against evil, love, faithfulness, long suffering and physical and mental courage has a kind of shallow orientation to life IMHO.