In May 1998 Jonathan Miller, then a reporter with ABC News, now a consultant on terrorism for Los Angeles, interviews bin Laden, who believes that he is a servant of Allah and that his primary mission is to spread by fighting the religion of light.
I am one of the servants of Allah. We do our duty of fighting for the sake of the religion of Allah. It is also our duty to send a call to all the people of the world to enjoy this great light and to embrace Islam and experience the happiness in Islam. Our primary mission is nothing but the furthering of this religion. ...
In November 2001, after 9/11, bin Laden allows an interview with Hamid Mir, the editor of an Arabic-language journal. The terrorist pulls back a little from his wish to slaughter innocent people, though he has said in numerous other statements and interviews that he is justified in doing so. His mission is to spread the Quran:
Hamid Mir: Can it be said that you are against the American government, not the American people?
Osama: Yes! We are carrying on the mission of our Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him). The mission is to spread the word of God, not to indulge [in] massacring people.
In December 2001 bin Laden records a video in which he and a sheikh extol the 9/11 attacks. He wants everyone to utter the first of the five pillars of Islam, a confession of faith that is the first step in accepting the "true religion," the one for which that bin Laden is fighting.
I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.
In the same video bin Laden reports that after the attacks many converted to Islam, and many others were at least curious about true Islam, possibly converting to it.
Some of them said that in Holland, at one of the centers, the number of people who accepted Islam during the days that followed the operations were more than the people who accepted Islam in the last eleven years. I heard someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say: "We don’t have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam." This event made people think (about true Islam) which benefited Islam greatly.
On September 11, 2004, the three-year anniversary of 9/11, al-Zarqawi assumes that spreading Islam around the world is difficult, but that the holy warriors should not give up:
As for you, fighters who came from afar, by Allah, missions of da'wa [the propagation of Islam] have never been a road lined with roses and sweet basil; the price of da'wa missions is heavy, and the price of bringing principles to the land of reality is a lot of torn limbs and blood. The light of dawn shall not be lit in this darkness save by Jihad fighters and shahids.
Thus, in the words of these two visible terrorists the ultimate goal of Islam is to spread the message and ways of Allah around the world because Islam is the gift of God, the greatest seal and capstone of inferior Judaism and Christianity. How is this goal best manifested and carried out? In following the Quran and sharia (Islamic law), which expresses God’s will and ways in a pristine form.
Ultimately, violent and non-violent radicals want religious world domination.
Where do bin Laden and al-Zarqawi get this goal of spreading Islam around the world? Out of thin air? Why do not Evangelical Christians use violence and other extreme means to spread their message? After all, Christ said to his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Matt 28:18-20). What is the difference between the two religions in their outlook and methods of promulgation?