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There absolutely is an economic aspect to it, especially in Saudi Arabia, where the oil boom of the late 70s was used by the Saudi Royals not to properly develop the country, but to instead primarily enrich themselves and in the process create a huge chasm between rich and poor.
When I mention religious intolerance, I meant it in the context of the institutional rejection of moderate forces being allowed to take hold. I'm talking about Wahhabi clerics stifling islamic reform, while simultaneously spreading the call to jihad. I'm talking about oil profits being used by the clerics to spread their intolerant and anti-Semitic rhetoric with impunity, pouring billions into the establishment of Wahhabi schools and mosques around the world.
As further background material, I would recommend historian Bernard Lewis' "The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror ".
In it, he argues that such factors as the repressive nature of many Arab governments and the sense of aggrievement that has plagued Muslim societies since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire plays a part in fueling virulent Islam. He also goes on to say that radical Islam holds, for some, the attractions of any other faith: a world view, a strict discipline and order to life, a reason to live and an alluring vision of an afterlife.
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