&gt; The Islamic Republic of Iran, a Shiite theocracy, claims leadership of the Shiites, which make up roughly 13 percent of Muslims worldwide. For both regimes, religion is an important tool of power.<p>That is mightily misleading. It is more important what part of the shiites make out of Middle East muslims. Because large parts of the muslim populations live in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh - and from bird&#x27;s eye - they don&#x27;t seem to care much about sectarian struggles.