Indeed, the Sunni-Shia divide exists in many parts of the Arab world. While Americans saw in Bahrain’s protests in 2011 a people’s democratic aspirations, no one in the region doubted that the real source of the troubles was a restive Shia majority (perhaps inspired by Iraq, or even, as Sunni Arabs claimed, Iran) trying to remove a Sunni monarchy.
事实上，阿拉伯世界的很多地区都存在逊尼派-什叶派分歧。美国人将2011年巴林示威游行视为一个民族的民主觉醒，但在阿拉伯地区，没人怀疑麻烦的真正原因是桀骜难驯的什叶派多数（也许是受了伊拉克的启发，甚至有可能如逊尼派阿拉伯人说的那样，是受了伊朗的教唆）试图推翻逊尼派君主。