in the early 20th century, the baháʼís were seen as being non-conformist in a society looking for unanimity and fearful of losing its perceived unique shiʻa culture due to threats from outside its boundaries. during the 1940s the clerical and governmental groups started stating that the religion was entirely manufactured by colonialists and imperialists to destroy the "unity of the muslim nation" and that those who did not share the beliefs of the muslim nation were agents of foreign powers.