A sectarian cloak for Middle East wars

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-210214.html



A sectarian cloak for Middle East wars
By Frederic Wehrey
Feb 21, '14

Sectarian tensions have become a major part of political life in the Gulf Arab states, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Shi'ites in each state suffer varying degrees of religious discrimination and political marginalization. Tensions are typically portrayed as a spillover effect of sectarian strife elsewhere in the region (the Iraq War, and, more recently, the Syria conflict) or Iran's deliberate incitement of local Shi'ite communities in the Gulf. But they are only part of the story.

The roots of Shi'ite-Sunni tensions in the Gulf are more complex and ultimately more local. They are deeply woven into the political fabric of individual states. Sectarian identities have been further sharpened by uneven access to political and economic capital, official and quasi-official discrimination, and the absence of truly inclusive governing structures. This is true in virtually every field: government bureaucracies, the security sector, the labor market, clerical establishments, the legal system, provincial development and so on.

The recent rise in tensions is particularly tied to the failure of reforms promised at the turn of the millennium that has left young Shi'ites deeply embittered and frustrated. Young activists claim that their generation is susceptible to sectarian mobilization because it is shut out of the social compact, deprived of access to economic and political capital, and instilled with a sense of "otherness".

During the Iraq War, Gulf regimes - particularly Bahrain and Saudi Arabia - increasingly viewed Shi'ite demands for reform as a security threat. Tensions reached an apogee after the 2011 Arab uprisings, when Sunni clerics and Gulf media attempted to portray initial demands for democracy as narrowly Shi'ite in character and inspired by Iran. This strategy created fissures within the reform movement by exacerbating Shi'ite-Sunni identities, as it implicitly highlighted the ruling families as arbiters over a fractious and divided citizenry.