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The REAL Reason Saudi Arabia Hates Iran
Everyone knows that the Saudi Arabia – the center of Sunni Islam – hates Iran because it is the center for the rival Shia Muslim sect.
The Saudis – close U.S. allies – also hate Iran because it is allied with Russia.
But there is a third, little-known reason why the Saudi government hates Iran.
As the Gulf Cooperation Council – the official council for the Arab Gulf States, comprised of the monarchies of Saudi Arabi, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman – writes:
More than any other single factor, the Iranian Revolution helped to coalesce the security concerns of Saudi Arabia and the other monarchies in the Gulf region. As the largest Arab monarchy, Saudi Arabia was in a position to lead the others toward cooperative efforts. The impact of the Iranian Revolution on Saudi Arabia was manifold. The revolution destroyed the most powerful monarchy in the Gulf area. It was the second revolution to send shock waves throughout the Gulf region, the first being the revolution in Iraq that destroyed the monarchy in 1958. The Iraqi revolution had been followed by deteriorating relations between Riyadh and Baghdad, when the Baathist regime tried to subvert the Gulf monarchies. The Iranian example, however, appeared more menacing. The balance of forces seemed to have changed further against the monarchical regimes in the region because Iran, like Iraq, replaced the monarchy with a republic. Whatever course the new Iranian republic took, its very existence would threaten Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies.
In other words, the Saudi government hates Iran because it is a republic, while Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are monarchies.
Indeed, Vijay Prashad – Professor of South Asian History at Trinity College, Connecticut – said today (starting at 33:22) that the Saudis want to crush Iran so that it cannot set an example showing that Muslims can live in a republic without a monarchy.
Prashad points out that the “Saudis made claim that a Muslim country has to be a monarchy”, and Iran’s very existence undermines that claim.
Why does the U.S. support Saudi Arabia and not Iran?
As Lawrence Davidson – author of Islamic Fundamentalism, and professor of history at West Chester University – explains:
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy without representative institutions. Iran, though ideologically authoritarian and possessing the dictatorial office of jurisprudent, is a republic with a parliament and an electoral process. Saudi Arabia strictly forbids female participation in the public realm, whereas Iran leaves some space for women in this regard.
Given these comparisons, it would seem that, in terms of institutions and their potential for “democratic evolution,” the Islamic Republic in Iran has much more to recommend it to the West than does Saudi Arabia. Why then, one might ask, is the United States so much more hostile to Iran than to Saudi Arabia?
***
For decades, the United States supported the shah’s monarchy in Iran and continued to do so even after it was clear that it was unpopular, corrupt, and oppressive. When the shah was overthrown, the fundamentalists who took power identified the United States with the deposed government. The new Iranian government’s predictable hostility made difficult any reconciliation between the two powers and fueled continued American animosity.
Indeed, the U.S. supports virtually all of the dictatorial monarchies in the Arab Gulf.
And, of course, there is oil and pipelines play a big part.
Postscript: By way of background, the CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the moderate, suit-and-tie-wearing, Democratically-elected prime minister of Iran in 1953. He was overthrown because he had nationalized Iran’s oil, which had previously been controlled by BP and other Western oil companies. As part of that action, the CIA admits that it hired Iranians to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its prime minister.
If the U.S. hadn’t overthrown the moderate Iranian government, the fundamentalist Mullahs would have never taken over. (Moreover, the U.S. has had a large hand in strengthening radical Islam in the Middle East by supporting radicals to fight the Soviets and others).
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Obama and the progressives who claim to be in the vanguard of women's rights seem to love the Saudi's, even bow to them. The Saudi's seem to hate women. A lot of hypocrisy goin' around just trying to secure some more votes to hold on to power. They know the sheeple are too stupid to question this. Do you think any of our dear leaders will live in muslim communities? No but they want you to.
Fuck every one of these cocksuckers in DC. The time is coming you will have to decide what you will do to save your country
"Saudi's seem to hate women"
Seem?
Don't lump "progressives" in with Barry and Reggie.
Yes, just like the Neo-cons took over the Republican party, then the Tea Baggers, Neo-liberals (old Republicans in Democrat clothing) have coopted the Democratic party.
Either way, they are both the epitomy of corruption and deciept, and I fully agree with you ...
"Fuck every one of these cocksuckers in DC. The time is coming you will have to decide what you will do to save your country"!!!
Stop "participating" in the scam, help create alternative economies (barter, cash, cooperative communities) and with time the cocksucker leeches will die off!
Not just USA USA but time has come for people to save humanity.
More like civilization...
Democracy is the antithesis of monarchy. Theocratic government supporting a monarchy denies religious freedom. Wahhabism denies equal rights to non-Muslims and women. Wahhabism denies every right in the UN Universal Declaration of Rights. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Barack bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, the largest financier of Wahhabism world-wide. Barack supports all the Arab monarchies. This hypocrite and liar claims to support universal human rights, democracy and implied therefrom rights. He lies. Saudi Arabia is his evil perversion.
Barack's Kenyan family has two foundations that fund scholarships to a Saudi Wahhabi university.
we know how the great britan monacrchy is working. billions to a few, yup thats what i want...
merica has the same stealth, facist monarchy by exec order. ha, spread the billions to a few moar, thats all folks. fed res. monarchy with mic twist til dolla regime is defeated, til then how is your trickle down working? trickle as in in snap payment for voting appropriatly...
No, it's all Sunni/Shia.
The Saudis hate Iran because the Eastern province of the KSA is majority Shia. They know what's coming. The loss of most of their oil reserves to a Arab Shi'a superstate. The Iranians dislike the Saudis for their meddling in Iran's Khuzestan province, Iran's Arab shi'a province.
This is the other additional reason...
iranian women most beautiful
the globalists, aka rothchild zionists, set up israel as a strategic location to take over the middle east...They used and are still using the twisting of the bible to make stupid ass christians think that God would actully care about some desert land. Truly, do you think God cares about a small piece of land in the middle east when supposedly He created the universe? Jesus condemnded Israel to the max, read it yourself. If israel was blown off the planet of this earth, nothing would change. Because the rothchild zionists would just come up with another idea. Israel is nothing but a small appendage of the rothchilds. And I dont beat up jews because most of them have no clue either.. I dont judge on race, creed or beliefs, I just judge on how stupid and ignorant they are.
lumberJack...+1000 for that Iranian women link. Yes, Persian women are stunners.
Spot on!
I always heard it was the Argentinian women.
per the ZH pics, its the Brazilian women...
You mean world best photoshop retouch artists?
They hate Iranians for the same reason they hate Jews.
They are jealous of any group which has bigger and uglier noses than they do.
how blind do you have to be to not know the reason the US hatest Iran is because Hezbollah is considered to be a cats paw of Iran and Hezbollah is the only serious foe of Israel and in the US the tribe tells us who our strategic enemies are.
You might want to research the family tree of the House of Saud. You may surprised at that which you find. Hint: the Saudi's are buddies of a certain tribe in the ME. You migt call them 'kissing cousins'.
FUCK me.
Just spewed my feshly mixed screwdriver all over the keyboard.
Grey Goose.
Fuck.
Vodka? Now it's for breakfast?
Sure, why not?
"Just spewed my feshly mixed Grey Goose."
As you should. Fuck Grey Goose Methanol!
"Titos" [Texan] or die!
Close second, Chopin [Polish]!
The owner of that distillery was a client of mine.
Cheap bastard probably cuts it with anti freeze.
Adulteration, its whats for dinner.
glassify the whole region, before they exterminate orthadox christianity.
simple fucking choice, now or later, the ultimate war...
Did we miss your proclaimation making yourself God.
You ,my friend, probably require hospitalization somewhere very secure.
Overall I agree with what you said, George. There's just this one statement that bugs me (but doesn't detract from your overall thesis):
"...Everyone knows that the Saudi Arabia – the center of Sunni Islam – hates Iran because it is the center for the rival Shia Muslim sect..."
This is a gross over-simplification. Saudi Arabia has religious sites important to Sunni and Shia Islam, so it has purely geographical significance to all muslims by that virtue. Several hundreds of the pilgrims trampled to death at the Hajj this year were Iranian Shia, so it's not like Saudi Arabia has some special significance for Sunni vs. Shia - it's the most important religious site for both branches. The Saudis just own all the real estate there. Iran is not the center of all Shia Islam. There are some holy sites in Iran, but nothing like Mecca. Non-Iranian Shia attach no special significance to Iran other than there are a lot of Shia there and many of the top Shia scholars (Grand Ayatollahs) live there.
To claim all Shia 'obey' Iran is like claiming all Catholics obey the Italian government. To claim all Sunni obey Saudi Arabia is like claiming all Catholics obey Guyana because that's where Kool-Aid spokesperson Rev. Jim Jones lived.
The second way this over-simplifies things is that Saudi Arabia is predominantly Wahhabi - an ultra-conservative, extremist form of Islam that was originally created by Sunni religious thinkers a few hundred years ago and adopted (almost exclusively until now) in Saudi Arabia, nowhere else. But the vast majority of Sunnis on earth reject Wahhabism as a repressive, extremist offshoot of Sunni Islam. Most Sunnis hate Wahhabis (or at least the religion) and would never live under it's laws. Even conservative Sunnis reject Wahhabism as extreme. They also reject it because Wahhabism functions much more like a state control tool for the Saudi royals than it does as a nutty, ultra-conservative offshoot of Sunni Islam.
In fact, if you want to piss of an average Sunni (all 1.2 billion or so), tell them that they're just like the Saudis "...because you're all Sunni, right?" You'll probably get punched in the face. Most Sunnis refer to Wahhabists as 'Saudis' - they don't even consider them 'Sunnis' because they're such a small, nut-job offshoot.
There is no animosity between Sunnis and Shia for the vast majority of muslims on earth. That's like trying to gin up a claim of animosity between Lutherans and Mormons or Evangelicals and the Amish - it's preposterous. They don't try to recruit or annihilate each other. Wahhabism is different - it's half-religion and half-Stazi for the Saudi royal families. It hardly qualifies as a religion - it's a psychopathic offshoot of Sunni Islam usurped by the equally psychopathic Saudi royals as a control tool.
The Saudi royals/Wahhabi clerics hate all other Sunnis, they really hate Shia and they absolutely despise the Iranian Shia. If you're using Brand X religion as a control tool, you naturally don't like any countries that are mostly Brand Y. What's the biggest threat to any psychopath? The inability to control - as your artilce implies.
The reverse is not necessarily true. Shia (and most Sunnis) don't think much of Wahhabis, but are fine with them as long as they stay the hell out of their yard. Wahhabis are not like little old ladies from Jehovah's Witness knocking on your door and offering you a pamphlet. They're bearded thugs with AK-47s that kick in your door at 3 A.M. and demand to see the pamphlets you're suppose to be reading already. Then they chop your head off anyway. Jehovah's Witness ladies NEVER do that.
The DHS Stazi will be doing it soon, but you're not suppose to know about that yet - there is gag order on the plan and I'm not suppose to talk about it. It's for your own protection though, so it's OK.
Having in mind USSA's democracy spreading in MENA in the last 50 years, that's exactly the same sentiment that MENA populace nurtures towards USSA and its servants.
Exceptional idiots calling for "glassifying of whole regions" usually don't tend to make things any better...
You mean dropping American made bombs,from American made planes, on a local
population for 60 years,not 50, doesn't win their hearts, and minds.
Shocked, I am.
US Planes for Saudi Oil. Great!
Is that like saying the Saudi's hate Iran for their freedoms?
Actually, the Iranian (Persian) women are 1000x better looking then the Saudi hags. Esp those with mixed blood from when Alexander the Great and thousands of his blue-eyed troops mixed with the local Persian gals; the results are sometimes breath taking.
The first thing those Saudis will go for are the young tender Persian boys and then their women ... I guess followed by their goats. It's hard to take that goat attraction out of those Saudis.
They only like goats 'cause the camels are too fast.
Winnie, you spent some time with camels. Weren't you involved with the relief of Khartoum? Given that background, I thought you would say the problem with camels is you would need a ladder.
Mixing me up with Pasha Gordon old chap.
I may feel ancient, but that was a little before my time,
If they hate Iran for being a Republic, then their alliance with the west, dominated by Republics, would be , ahhh a glitch in the matrix?
It looks like they're mostly worried about Muslim thinking that Muslims can live in a republic.