Beliefs plays a big role in culture though. And as far as the war on drugs, we're losing because we are doing it wrong. We put non-violent people in jail, while creating a black market culture of violence.
Look at cigarettes, everyone smoked when I was a kid, everyone. Now it's a lot fewer. That didn't happen because we made them illegal, and put people in jail, it happened because it was legal and heavily regulated, all the while as we were changing the culture on how cigarette use was viewed through education.
There's a culture of distrust of the west there, because we try to force things with violence, instead of through free trade and good ideals. We can blame it all on their religion all we want, and keep using force but that's our mistake.
The bible says to stone women who cheat on their husbands. I don't see that happening, and it's not because we wiped out all the Christians, and changed their beliefs. It doesn't happen because our culture has changed.
Actually the New Testament says the opposite. The Mosaic law which was a temporal law, for a specific people, for a specific period of time held that law. That law has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, and it was Christ himself that repealed that law, which has been abbrogated for 2,000 years.