We all should know by now that the majority population in the Al Saud's family gas station's, Eastern Province, where the oil is drilled, refined (Abqaiq) and pumped (Ras Tanura) is Shia.
But now Bahrain.
Seven vehicles belonging to construction companies were set ablaze on Sunday on the outskirts of Manama, in what Bahraini authorities are describing as the largest arson attack in the Persian Gulf state. The incident follows a string of events that are somewhat unusual for Bahrain: On Saturday, for example, masked youths in Karanah (a predominantly Shiite district of Manama) hurled a Molotov cocktail at a vehicle in which two security officers were riding, wounding them. Riot police, aided by dogs, scoured the area for the assailants, who were believed to number between five and eight.Other incidents included a fake bomb threat that led to the evacuation of a hotel and several other buildings April 28. There also was a scare earlier in the week, on April 26, when a loud sound bomb was detonated in Manama, and police defused a similar device found near a popular hotel in the Hoora tourist district. On the same day, a police vehicle was rushed at a red light in Sitra -- the same district where the construction vehicles were set on fire -- and struck by a Molotov cocktail. Two policemen were injured in that incident.
On the whole, it would appear that the mostly Shiite opponents of Bahrain's Sunni monarchy have chosen their moment -- at a time when sectarian tensions are on the rise in the Gulf region -- to make a push for change. The Shiite majority has done so before: They waged a campaign seeking their political rights during the 1990s. However, the unrest was calmed after Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who became king in March 1999, initiated major political reforms designed to transform the state from a hereditary emirate to a constitutional monarchy.
Tensions have been on the uptick again, however, since December 2005 -- when a leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammed Sanad, returned to Bahrain from Iran.
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