Odd, I was just thinking earlier how the Kurds are kinda like Fremen.
Eh. It's a white guy's take on Saudi Aramco bedouins circa '64. You will not be at all surprised that the white guy is the messiah of prophecy destined to lead those beknighted but noble brown people out of savagery, nor that he immediately exceeds their skills at their native crafts while also charming their women (all one of them). The bad guys, on the other hand, are straight out of the Dutch East India Company, with the Catholic Church circa Pope Pious IX thrown in for good measure. I fucking hated Dune.
I wish I could get through dune, holy crap that book is dull. And there's like 40 of them.
In all fairness, I thought Dune was... okay. I finished it and was eager to start the second one because it looked like Herbert was building up an interesting world. Then I started Dune Messiah and by halfway through the book I wasn't finding a whole lot that was interesting anymore.
Don't let kb's dislike prevent you from reading it. It's well worth reading, IMO.