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from the when-elephants-argue-it-is-hard-on-the-ants dept.
Protest in Tehran after Saudis execute Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr
Saudi Arabia said Saturday it had executed 47 people in a single day, including a dissident Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, who had repeatedly spoken out against the government and the Saudi royal family.
Nimr had been convicted of inciting sectarian strife, sedition and other charges following his 2012 arrest.
Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival, summoned the Saudi ambassador in Tehran to condemn the execution, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The Shiite-majority nation issued a statement deploring the execution and warning that Saudi Arabia would pay a heavy price for its policies.
Iranian Protesters Ransack Saudi Embassy After Execution of Shiite Cleric
Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdom's treatment of its Shiite minority.
The executions coincided with increased attacks in Saudi Arabia by the jihadists of the Islamic State and an escalating rivalry between the Sunni monarchy and Shiite Iran that is playing out in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Sheikh Nimr was an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy and was adopted as a symbolic leader by Shiite protesters in several Persian Gulf countries during the Arab Spring uprisings.
[More after the break.]
Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security.
Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia.Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh Nimr".
The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions
So what do you think; Is this another normal spat between regional leaders looking for their interest on the region, or a signal of worse things to come?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @12:46AM
Wikipedia is not a valid source. Anyone can edit it and thus it should and will be ignored. I question your bias by stating that Muslim people gave us Geometry and Trig. Algebra yes, but the rest belong to the Greeks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @01:12AM
Whoa now, I just edited Wikipedia and it says Wikipedia is extremely reliable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @01:29AM
What does it matter if Muslims developed algebra in the middle ages? That was centuries ago. The West developed calculus, split the atom, went to the moon, and much more since then, things that Muslims did not do first nor on their own (up until 1979, the US was helping Iran develop its nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes).
People keep bringing up algebra, one contribution from hundreds of years ago; is it because the Muslims haven't done anything worthwhile or relevant since then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @01:43AM
They've been contributing to global population control you insensitive clod!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @04:52AM
From a species wide sense, we do have a serious population issue. If we don't get it under control, arguing about who invented math systems will be irrelevant as we regress back to the paleolithic or worse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @04:10AM
Looks like someone is censoring anything they disagree with here, just like Wikipedia editors.