South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin writes for Voice of America on the regional implications of Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Saudi Shi’ite cleric:
Just when a U.S.-led coalition in Iraq appears to be making headway against the group that calls itself the Islamic State (ISIS), Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Saudi Shi’ite cleric threatens to harden the sectarian divide fueling the region’s conflicts.
Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who led Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite minority in protests during the 2011 Arab spring, did not advocate violence.