Answer:
The construction of the Suez Canal
Here is some more info:
The Colonization of the Arab World is the singular most crucial event in creating the Nationalist, Communist, Arab Socialist, and Islamist movements in the Middle East. It was the strong rejection of colonialism and Imperialism in the Arab World that led to these movements as different ways of creating a modern Arab identity.
I know for a fact trade routes were the biggest way the Islam spread many centuries ago. And the construction of the Suez Canal brought a lot of people to the middle east