1.
One of the most sensational consequences of the current war is the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and other Sunni targets. This is a theological, religious, and political earthquake, shattering the cooperation Iran built with the Sunni world while camouflaging its divergent theological outlook. This is a rare historical moment where the masks (the "Taqiyya") have been removed, and the regime in Tehran has returned to its roots: a frontal confrontation with the Sunni world. This pushes Sunni nations against the wall, forcing them to take a clear and overt stand against the regime in Tehran. While Israel and the U.S. strike the bloody regime—which threatened to destroy the Jewish state and sowed terror and murder globally, Including an assassination attempt on President Trump (!) —history awakens from its slumber in the Muslim world as missiles meet theology. Thus, the normalization insights achieved over years between an Iran striving for hegemony and the Islamic world collapse with a deafening noise.
2.
From the perspective of Sunni Islam, the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia is not merely a military or political event, but a sacrilege. Saudi Arabia is the beating heart of Sunni Islam, and an attack on its soil is perceived as an assault on the entire "Ummah." Within hours, the dust was shaken off the historical hatred between Islamic factions. Consequently, the religious terminology of Sunnis against Shiites as "infidels" is openly returning. Saudi Arabia was established based on the 1744 agreement between the ruler Muhammad bin Saud and the theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The fusion of military and political backing with religious legitimacy eventually birthed Saudi Arabia.
The founder of Wahhabism expressed himself thus regarding the Shiites: "Know that this sect is the most evil of the Ummah's sects... our scholars have ruled that they are infidels... while they worship others besides Allah... their turning to the dead for help and prostrating to graves is a great idolatry that expels its practitioner from the religion." Inverse texts exist among the Shiites; in prayers such as "Ziyarat Ashura," recited in memory of Hussein, explicit curses appear against those who usurped the inheritance rights of the Prophet's family. For the Shiites, this is not a mere dispute over governance, but a claim of total disruption of God's will on earth.
3.
For years, Iran marketed to the Sunni world the "Unity of Muslims" centered around Jerusalem and the war for its liberation, despite the Shiites having no religious connection to Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque were built towards the end of the seventh century AD by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan — the sworn enemies of the Shia, those who massacred Hussein ibn Ali at Karbala. In memory of that massacre, every year Shiites beat themselves until they bleed during the holiday of Ashura.
The bombardment of Muslim countries by Iran, especially the Custodian of Mecca and Medina, stripped this card from its hand. Iran never really intended to liberate Al-Aqsa, but rather to rule the Sunni world through this concept. The Shiite organization Hezbollah joined the fray, opening a front against Israel and threatening to drag all of Lebanon into the Iranian fire. Opening a front against Sunni states evokes the biblical "War of Gog and Magog" (think about Armageddon, it's similar) against a Sunni world perceived in Tehran as "American Islam" or "Western mercenaries" in Riyadh. Thus, in a historical irony and paradoxical fashion, Israel is seen as the defender of Sunni Islam against Shiite extremism. We can expect persecutions against Shiite minorities in Sunni countries.
4.
These are historic days. For decades, the regime in Tehran acted as a master of strategic "sleight of hand," certainly toward the West and also toward the majority of the Muslim world. It flooded the streets of the Sunni world with posters of "Liberating Jerusalem" to hide its true plan: establishing a Shiite empire at the expense of Sunni nations. In recent days, as Iranian missiles struck the heart of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the Iranian lie collapsed inward. Will we now be wise enough to forge an alliance between Jerusalem and Riyadh? Time will tell. Israeli and Western diplomacy must take these theological accounts into consideration when formulating regional and global policy.
