This is shocking as whichever house controlled Arrakis would have a monopoly over spice production and hold immense leverage over the rest of the imperium

Humans regularly embark on intergalactic space travel and explore different worlds to inhabit.

Spice users also have the cool side effect of having blue eyes!

Spice is only produced on the desert planet Arrakis and passing the stewardship of Arrakis to other houses sets the stage for conflict in the Imperium.

The Fremen value strength and Paul, having trained under the best in House Atreides, proves himself to be an exceptional fighter and earns himself the nickname "Muad'Dib"

It is also very cute.

Jessica reveals to Paul that he is one of the experiments that the sisterhood has planted. She pushes Paul to undergo rituals to unlock his ability to see the future and Paul accepts in order to avenge his Father.

Paul convinces the Fremen masses that he is the messiah and plots to fight back against the Harkonnens and Emperor.

Paul forces his ascension to the galactic throne by marrying the emperor's daughter, but his ascension is denied by the other Great Houses. He then commands the Fremen to attack the other Great Houses and begins the Holy War on the rest of the Imperium.

The devotees exhibit blind faith, extremism and fanaticism which is extremely dangerous behavior.

This draws parallels with certain extremist groups in the Middle East and their ideology on Martyrdom or even fanatical propaganda of the Kim dynasty in North Korea.

This is because of the "Butlerian Jihad" which happens before the events of the first book, where there was an AI uprising and it nearly resulted in the extinction of humanity. Thus it is understandable that the whole imperium would be wary and scared of using AI.

This parallels certain general fears that AI will one day become self-conscious and attempt to revolt against humanity, which is a common theme in many sci-fi works such as "Terminator" and "I-Robot" to name a few.