But, of course, that is the whole point - Paul isn't a hero, he just plays the role of one for his own purposes (first survival, and then trying to prevent the end of humankind he foresees in the future). Using the Fremen's own religion - by itself, benign, but prone to manipulation as any religion is - to turn them into his fanatical followers is meant to be a bad thing, and it bugs him in the books.
All that’s true. It just seems somewhat risky that you make a movie that points to Osama and says “There, but for the grace of God, go I”. Just somewhat dangerous.
The book was written well before modern terrorism.
The Jihad in Dune had obvious parallels to the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate - previously unknown warriors appearing out of the desert and conquering most of the Roman Empire. So it was based in an era where the idea of holy war was quite different.
On top of that I think that the audience of SF literature are a little more open minded than the average movie goer.
Yes, of course. The Afghan mujahideen were widely acclaimed even not that long ago from now because they were fighting the Russians. But this is a mass-market movie. It can't walk that close to the line in this day and age. It's going to clean up the dirty ends.
From a commercial perspective, it definitely is. From a cultural one, I would argue that the fact that our modern culture gets outraged about such things is a sign of its illness: we are pretending that we can avoid difficult conversations about important things by ignoring them if they make us uncomfortable.
