Arab springs, Arab falls | Ian Black
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/on-the-middle-east/2013/aug/25/saudi-bahrain-kuwait-sectarianism-shia-sunni
In the end however it is more about power than faith. Matthiesen observes that the official discourse surrounding the alleged meddling of (the Shia) Iranian state and the transnational (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood is actually very similar. And these allegations, he concludes, “are often about finding a scapegoat to deflect attention to an external enemy.” Saudi policy towards Bashar al-Assad — still one of the more opaque aspects of the Syrian crisis — includes the encouragement of vicious anti-Alawi rhetoric from Gulf-based Sunni clerics. (Alawis are an offshoot of Shi’ism). In Kuwait, official prejudice is directed against the Brotherhood (as it is, in spades, in the UAE), as well as the tribes and the stateless Bidoon.