The problem isn't religion, not inherently, it's the people who use religion to galvanize hoi polloi into such treachery. You remove religion from history then people with power would have found some other boondoggle to trick the weak minded into committing their atrocities for them in order to further their agendas.

In my opinion, modern issues started when the Ottoman Empire lost control over a great part of the Islamic world, so this decentralization allowed to many communities to grow in a certain way, some turned radical while others maintained the same. If I understand correctly though, some people also didn't like the European intervention that started to happen during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Future governments of many countries in the Middle East didn't have absolute control over all the territories, so naturally the radicalism just had to grow. And eventually, of course, American investment during the late 20th century allowed some people to get money and weapons.

Yep seems all religions do this and keep doing it.  Catholics and protestants where killing each other at a much higher rate. Science, the worst is you get proven wrong but in the end the right anwer is the ulitimate goal. Not what someone tells you god wants you to do and they are the only persons to channels gods word.  

Wars have always been about resources, things like religion and ideals are usually just excuses.
The war on terrorism is just a result of America wanting oil, and the fact that the biggest lobbyist in American politics being an arms dealer. The lobbyist spends money on politicians to start wars, they start wars in countries they can something out of so they win twice. While innocent people die all around the world.