Terrorism
Terrorist acts frequently have a political purpose. Some official, governmental definitions of terrorism use the criterion of the illegitimacy or unlawfulness of the act. to distinguish between actions authorized by a government (and thus "lawful") and those of other actors, including individuals and small groups. For example, carrying out a strategic bombing on an enemy city, which is designed to affect civilian support for a cause, would not be considered terrorism if it were authorized by a government. This criterion is inherently problematic and is not universally accepted, because: it denies the existence of state terrorism. An associated term is violent non-state actor.
Middle East and globalization
Rather than reflecting a specific ideology, terrorism represents nostalgia (for pre-modern civilisation) and has been the result of a clash between modernization and tradition. Though violent, it can also be seen as an unacceptable response to destructive imperial national policies which themselves must be transformed if a world without terror is possible. 
Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network represents bad globalization and the perverted use of technology but in a sense the Al Qaeda Jihad is the reverse image of McWorld, which imposes its Jihad on local culture and tradition, wanting to create the world in its own image. Just as Al Qaeda dreams of imposing a radical Islam on the world, taking over and destroying Western infidel culture, McDonald’s wants to destroy local and traditional eating habits and cuisine and replace them with a globalized and universalized menu.