Best Posts in Thread: Muslim Sunni vs. Shiite

Doing my best to shift my mind away from the horrific murder at Zanzibar, I tuned into the Saudi Arabia execution of some Sunnis and the reaction from Iran and Iraq. Not sure of the outcome if they went to war against each other but better them than western armed forces.
So where are sunnis and where are shiites and what is the population split? I found the attached website interesting.
Mapping the Global Muslim Population | Pew Research Center

 

PatO
I spent a bit of time living in Bahrain/KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and the situation there is probably going to get very interesting and possibly very bad as a result of that execution.

As for "who is who":
KSA is a Sunni ruled and Sunni Majority country. There is some disharmony from the minority. The Shia minority has been kept quiet (happy) by the Royal Family providing a lot of social welfare/development programs to everyone.
Bahrain is a Sunni ruled and Shia Majority country. There are a lot of problems with the Shia majority. Bahrain is more or less controlled by KSA by KSA providing a lot of oil to Bahrain everyday because their oil wells are dry.
Iran is a Shia majority country ruled by Shia's. Sunni's are not having a good time there right now.
KSA has financial problem due to low oil prices. Recently they issued $5 billion in bonds to balance their budget.
I am GUESSING that they need some instability in the Middle East to force oil prices up.

Here is a story about the backlash from todays newspaper;
Bahrain cuts ties with Tehran as Saudi-Iran crisis widens | Toronto Star

 

This past year the Saudi king died and they now have a new guy. The new guy is much more militant than the guy that died, (what i've read), and he has also appointed more militant family members into positions of authority, some of whom are trying to be more harsh than the other guys. Kind of like a competition for winning the tallest midget contest.

 

I agree they get a pass largely because of oil, but also because they are willing to be "friendly" to US interests. If the US started applying pressure, at what point does Saudi just say OK, up yours? Then they double down on terrorism support and the problem is worse. Politics, yuk.