Shia Islam in Saudi Arabia

Recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities, Iran is suspected of performing, further deepened hostilities between the two countries.
The 10-year long conflict between Riyadh and Tehran and Iran is further burdened by religious differences - Iran is dominated by Shiite Muslims, while Saudis see themselves as the leading Sunni Muslim power, the BBC reports.

Masked men threw firebombs at an intelligence service compound in the city of Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, activists said on Jan. 11, in an apparent reprisal for the execution of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric earlier this month. 

The region is going through its worst sectarian crisis in the last three decades. This conflict, which will certainly have a long life span, had cast its shadows long before.