Certain Islamic leaders see themselves as the new fundamentalists of the world. They see it as their duty to expand by conquest the portion of the world ruled by Islam until all the world will be under the rule of Islamic law. The attacks in New York and Washington are, therefore, no more than a warning to the United States and the countries of the western world meant to terrorise them so much that they will not stand in the way of fundamentalist organisations as they expand their sphere of control.