Saudi Arabia vs Iran? A Plague on Both Your Houses Both Saudi Arabia and Iran commit huge numbers of human rights abuses and there is no reason to take either side in the present spat. By Elliot FriedlandND
http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/saudi-arabia-vs-iran-plague-both-your-houses
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran following protests over the execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Riyadh expelled Iran’s diplomats on Jan. 3, citing attacks on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran in which protesters set part of the building on fire. Saudi ally Bahrain followed suit in cutting off relations on Jan. 4 as did Sudan. The United Arab Emirates has downgraded ties.
It is not known how far tensions will spiral out of control. Saudi Arabia and Iran back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen and also have very different attitudes on Iraq, where Iran funds, arms and trains Shiite militias, which have been accused of sectarian atrocities against Sunnis.
It is important to remember both Saudi Arabia and Iran are states which implement sharia as state law. Both carry out executions of gays, alleged blasphemers and adulterers. Both implement strict dress codes for women and enforce them with roaming bands of morality police.
Both sponsor extremist ideology worldwide, the Saudis sponsor puritanical Wahhabism through international networks of mosques and Islamic centers. Saudi Arabia funds Islamist militias such as Jaish al-Islam in Syria. Iran for its part, sponsors terrorist groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as militias that fought America in Iraq.
There are many, many more examples of human rights abuses by both countries. Clarion Project has detailed much of the information on our website and facts about both countries and their respective support of terrorism and Islamist extremism are well known and widely reported. The main difference is that Iran is Shiite and Saudi Arabia is Sunni, so their rivalry is fueled by sectarianism as well as being a power struggle for control of the region. There is also an ethnic element since Iranians are not Arabs and have a history of conflict with Arabs. Neither side is more moral than the other.
As atheist writer Ali A. Rizvi wrote on his Facebook page, “Saudi Arabia & Iran are both contemptible. There’s no need to pick sides.”
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