Yes, but back then the Muslim/Islamic Religion was only a quarter of the size it is today. More importantly, the Military powers of that time would have turned a rogue nation like Iran or North Korea into a solar panel.
The rest of the World has now become weak (Especially the USA) and Islam sees this as their big opportunity. You can fall back on those old bias’ all you like. But the modern reality says something quite different.
People are people. There is no “modern reality” at wild variance from what an understanding of humans and human motives over history gains a person.
They would have had to wait a while 17 years or so to do it. LOL