Obviously the recent immigrants are recent. Anything that is recent is recent.

Was there a time in the last several thousand years when there was not a "significant amount of recent X immigrants"?

No there was not. The whole region is layers upon layers upon layers of waves of immigration of different groups.

The Middle East had plenty of wars, religious violence, etc long before the late 1800s. The Crusades are not religious mythology. The Mongols are not religious mythology. The Rashidun Caliphate was not religious mythology. These are just three entries in a very long list of non-peaceful power shifts in the Levant.