I agree with most of what you said. However, I would flip your basic premise on its head. That is, the terrorists are attempting to focus only on those elements of Islam that can be used to support their twisted view of Jihad. As I said, as a Christian I believe Islam is a false religion. I studied Islam and Islamic civilization for several years as an undergraduate religious studies major. However, Islam is no more false than Buddhism, Hinduism, and a host of other false religions. Imagine if a terrorist organization identified itself with Christianity or Judaism or (pick your religion). In the case of Christianity, there are plenty of verses in the Old (Hebrew Bible) and New Testaments that said hypothetical terrorist organization could focus on to justify their terror campaign. Without getting into too much detail, any practicing Christian or Jew would instantly realize that this particular terrorist group is taking Bible verses out of context to justify murder. In other words, the terrorists would not be allowing God's word to interpret itself. Now imagine these Christian or Jewish terrorists were conducting their terrorist actions against populations that only had a very limited understanding of Christianity/Judaism. What would be the reaction of that population? If we step back and study the goals and methods of terrorism, it is not usually the terrorist action itself that causes the real damage. Rather it is the public's reaction to the same. This should prompt us to ask ourselves, what kind of "reaction" are the terrorists trying to provoke in the US, Europe, and the Muslim world? After many long hours of study, I think I know what their "game" is (I, of course, recognize I could be wrong). I would it post their game right here and now, but I would like to give my fellow Freepers a chance to think about it for a while.
Hinduism and Buddhism have no doctrine of Jihad, religious conquest, so they are OK by me.
I have noted, throughout history, a seeming tendency of Western countries, the US in particular, to become very absorbed in the procrustean monstrosity de jeur, rather than fighting against the procrustean mentality and tendencies per se. Given that, I then must conclude that this current wave of Islamist terrorism *may* be designed to keep us from focussing on certain other procrustean evils, any or all of which may be the most pressing grand geopolitical threats to the West. In any case, I call upon the West to broaden the War on Terror to become the War on Procrustean Evil.