As I pointed out it came to stop a long time ago, when Muslims became the majority in those countries. Baghdad was centrally located between Europe and Asia and was an important area for trade and exchanges of ideas. Scholars living in Baghdad translated Greek texts and made scientific discoveries—which is why this era, from the seventh to thirteenth centuries CE, is named the Golden Age of Islam.
Iraq became an independent State in 1932 and this set off an in-house war and the jockeying for power between indigenous Kurds, Assyrians, Persians, Azides, tribal conflicts with Arab Nationalists, which again sparked Sunni Shiite conflicts. It is 94 years later and what has changed??