The article examines the influence of the Islamic factor on various spheres of the Middle East societies, as well as on the process of transformation of the regional relations subsystem. A special attention is focused on the exacerbation of relations within the Islam world, especially between the followers of the two main trends - Sunnis and Shiites, which accompanies the struggle for leadership in the Middle East. It is emphasized that a distinctive feature of the modern situation in the Islamic countries is a high potential for social explosion and a significant level of conflict, which has an extremely negative impact on the ensuring national and regional security. © 2020, Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist. All rights reserved.