Rivalry to Rapprochement: The Impact of Saudi-Iran Rapprochement on Sectarian Conflict between Sunnis and Shia in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jrsr/2025.4d156Keywords:
Sectarian Conflict, Regional Politics, External Sponsorship, Madrassas, Religious IntoleranceAbstract
The paper focuses on the Saudi Iran rapprochement implications on sectarian conflict in Pakistan, a nation that had been dragged in the center of Saudi Iran rivalry over time. On the basis of the in-depth interviews conducted with academicians, religious theorists, policymakers, journalists, and security personnel, it examines how the decades of external funding which includes backing of the Wahhabi-based Sunni groups by Saudi Arabia and Shia organisations by Iran has consolidated religious identities and destroyed interreligious toleration. The results indicate that although open acts of sectarianism have reduced, its legacy of external patronage through madrassas, religious institutions, radical groups, continues to exist as a latent threat. The sectarian war in Pakistan is not a direct extension of Saudi-Iran rivalry but rather an instrumentation that is perpetuated by local interest groups aimed at attaining political influence. The rapprochement therefore provides a chance to dilute external sources of sectarianism, but unless there are domestic reforms the systems in place that perpetuate conflict and intolerance will continue to flourish.
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