ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the plight of various Shiite communities, in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon, their reactions to the Arab Spring, and what all this mean for the future of the Shi'a in the Arab World. The image of the Shi'a as a transnational threat to the stability of the Sunni-majority Arab world is a largely recent phenomenon, stemming from the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. The Shi'a of Bahrain initially saw the Arab Spring as an opportunity to end their marginalization and to earn political freedoms, social justice, and equality. After the violent crackdown, Saudi intervention, overall Arab silence, and international complicity, their worst nightmares have been confirmed: unless they rise up to the occasion and achieve some measure of success on their own, they are destined to live under the oppressive Sunni rejectionism of al-Khalifa as perennial outsiders, second-class citizens, heretics, and infidels.
