Like most Shiite Muslim villages in this wealthy Gulf kingdom, Sitra is hidden away from the glitzy shopping malls, the steel-and-glass skyscrapers, the six-lane highways and luxury seaside hotels. The disparity between the country’s affluent areas and Shiite villages such as Sitra lies at the heart of a potentially bloody conflict in this tiny island nation where a Shiite majority is ruled by a Sunni Muslim establishment. Many fear that any unrest in Bahrain — held up by the U.S. as a paragon of democratic reforms — could spill across the Persian Gulf, including to Saudi Arabia whose Shiite minority of some 15 percent is centered in the country’s east, where its oil fields lie. Full Story
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