Ammon News - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have become battlegrounds for religious and ethnic wars. The suicide attack near Iran's embassy in Beirut that killed and injured scores of people is the latest manifestation of such wars. In 2004, Jordanian King Abdullah II claimed that a "Shia crescent" had been created in the Middle East, from Iran to Lebanon, that threatened the Sunni Arab nations of the region, and warned that Arab leaders must be wary.

Transforming deeply rooted social and economic problems in the Middle East into a confrontation between Shia and Sunnis is extremely dangerous for the region, and the world. In the past, the influence and power of various nations of the regions had never been defined based on religion and ethnic groups and, thus, this new phenomenon will have a lasting effect.

Throughout the 20th century, the governments of Muslim countries considered themselves socialist, nationalist, liberal, etc, and were allied either with the United States and the West, or with the old Soviet Union. In other words, the political identity of such nations was not defined based on the Shia or Sunni sects of Islam, because even Shia and Sunni political groups were defined in terms of left, right, nationalist, etc.

From allies to cold war

Before the 1979 revolution, Iran and Saudi Arabia were both allies of the US and considered communism and the Soviet Union as the biggest threats to peace and stability. The Iranian revolution had an anti-US character. The dominant discourse of the revolution, in which the Marxist forces played a major role, was anti-imperialist.

*ALJAZEERA