In the middle of the twentieth century, the Muslim world was dominated by three major religious traditions: Sunni, Shia, and Al-Muslim. This was the case not only in the Muslim world, but also in many other parts of the world, including Europe, North America, and South Asia. The majority of the Muslim population was Shia, while the Sunni religion was the second most prevalent in the world after Islam.

With the rise of Islam in the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Islamic Renaissance in the fifteenth century, the majority of the Muslim world was occupied by the Sunni religion. During this period, most of the Muslim world was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was formed by a Turkish clan that was converted to Islam.

The Ottoman Empire fell apart in the early twentieth century, when the main powers of Europe began to compete with one another. As a result, the Middle East was divided between the Sunni-dominated Great Ottoman Empire and the Shia-dominated Iran. In the middle of the century, the Iranian government adopted a policy of anti-Islamic republics, which were hostile to the idea of an Islamic state and were instead based on the idea of an Iranian theocratic empire.

With the establishment of the Republic of Iran in 1979, the Middle East was once again divided between the Sunni-dominated Iran and the Shia-dominated Iraq. Today, the three countries are again in conflict with one another, and the conflict has not been resolved.