Before 1979, Islam was completely off the radar, no one thought that much about it at all. Israel’s conflict was seen as a conflict between Israel and Arabs and not as a conflict between Jews and Muslims. Terrorism was confined to the PLO and the IRA, and PLO terrorism was seen as being related to IRA terrorism and not to Islam.

In the West, it was a time of increasing secularization and it was assumed that religion was not as important as it used to be. Leftists in the West admired the atheist Soviet Union.

What happened in 1979? The Iranian revolution and the beginning of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

People who considered themselves as having a more sophisticated understanding of Islam than the masses probably assumed that Iran had nothing to do with the rest of Islam, because Iran was Shia and the rest of Muslims (then called Moslems) were Sunni. But that would clearly be wrong. It seems to me that the Iranian revolution inspired a lot of fervor on the part of Sunni, even though Sunni and Shia would fight each other with just as much hatred as they would fight against Jews or Christians.

Of course, the event that really put Islam on the map and made everyone obsessed about it was 9/11. Before 9/11, no one really spent much time worrying about the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban was seen more as a human rights problem than a threat to anyone outside of Afghanistan. I think the first time the Taliban ever got a lot of attention in the American news media was when they destroyed those ancient Buddha statues. (And now, in the United States, SJWs are going after Confederate statues with the same fervor that the Taliban went after Buddhist statues.)

Even though we tend to focus on big events that effect the United States, like the Iranian Hostage Crisis and 9/11, there has been secular trend (secular as in long-term non-cyclical and not secular as in non-religious) dating back to before I was born over which time the Islamic world has been becoming more religious and more extreme. Comparing pictures in Islamic countries from earlier in the 20th century vs. today, you will see a lot more women wearing Hijab, Niqab, and Burka. I never even heard of a Burka before 9/11, but these days I see women wearing them in Manhattan (which is always freaky, it feels like you just walked past a terrorist).

I see no evidence that the secular trend has reached its peak or is about to reverse. Unless a reversal happens, expect worse stuff to happen in the future. Expect more majority-Islamic countries to be taken over by Islamist governments with philosophies similar to ISIS and the Taliban. Expect more Islamic terrorism.