By Ghelawdewos Araia, PhD
Dec. 07, 2013
On December 3, 2013, Hassan Nasarallah of Hezbollah said,
“Saudi Arabia seeks to impose itself as the leader of the Arab world, and
refuse any friend and companion. It wants all the governments of the Arab and
Muslim world to follow (its) orders,” as reported by AFP. Clearly there is no
united front of the Arabs or Muslims to clash with the West, and it is
important to underscore the commonality and differences of the Arab world
before we entertain the foggy idea of ‘clash of civilizations’. There is no
doubt that Arabs are united by a common language, similar cultures with slight
variations, and to large measure by Islam (all Arabs are not Muslims), but
denominations within Islam have greatly divided Arab societies. “A situation of
great danger and complexity existed in countries with large Shi’i populations:
Iraq, Kuwait, Bahryan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Lebanon,” says Hourani, “The
Iranian revolution seemed likely to arouse a stronger sense of Shi’i identity,
and this could have political implications in countries where government was
firmly in the hands of Sunnis.”
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