A while back I reported on riots in the Bahrain capital of Manama by the islands Shias against the Sunni ruling elite. The island is two-thirds Shias, but the Sunnis emir denies the Shias many of the privileges that the minority Sunnis receive. Although the island is very wealthy, many Shias live in slums while hardly any Sunnis do due simply to state discriminatory policies. That is not all though. The Shias also face unfounded accusations of disloyalty to the state in favor of nearby Shia Iran.

Bahrain was the only nation that saw such Shia protests against a Sunni government. In Saudi Arabia - where Shias account for 10% of the population - riots also broke when a member of the Saudi infamous religious police recorded Shia women attended pilgrimage. The husbands’ of the women complained about the invasion of privacy and instead of criticizing one of their own, the religious police instead arrested some of the protesting men. Riots then broke among the nation’s Shias. The riots have since subsided.

The Shias are an oppressed minority in the Gulf. They are denied the equal rights and in an fundamentalist Saudi Arabia are often vilified as heretics. During the Saudi riots, Sunni extremists - mostly Saudi - took to Arab news sites to vilify Shias. Calling them “rejectionists” in Islam and calling for a Saudi “iron fist” to be used against them. One vile commentator even calling for driving the Shias into the Persian sea.

I confronted one Sunni extremists on IB who left dismissive comments on my story calling for supporting the Shias in Bahrain. These people are fundamentalists whose racism for Shias is not shared by most Arabs.

The answer to dealing with conflicts between Shia masses and the Sunni political establishment is simply and obvious: get rid of Sunni-exclusive privileges and embrace Arab nationalism.

Shia Arabs are proud Arabs just like most Arabs. The Arab spirit: language, history, food, culture, music, the experience is a strong force that pulls in all in the region [with the exception of those Lebanese Christians who follow the fascist philosophy of the Phalange party]. When Iran recently stated that Bahrain is an old Iranian island and implicitly implied that it should be again, the same Shias oppressed by the Bahrainian government strongly rebuffed Iran and stated their proud Arab identity. Their response caused Iran to apologize to Bahrain. Shias also “[joined]a chorus of Arab protest that led some commentators to remark pointedly that several Iranian provinces happen to house large Arab and Sunni populations.”

As The Economist [cited above] further notes: “Considering local, regional and international variables, a clash between the Saudi regime and its Shia citizens is a matter of time, reads an ominous analysis on a popular Saudi website.”

Shias have every right to riot in Saudi Arabia until they earn their proper rights. All Arabs nations - and this applies to just the Gulf countries and Lebanon - need to put aside such lines of division and embrace the all-inclusive Arab identity. Only this will starve off any conflicts between Sunnis and Shias.

Arab nationalism is still the identity that stirrers Arabs into unity: the unites Arabs behind Palestine and made them cry out for Iraq. Arab nationalism is the answer for Arabs.