The vast Muslim world of nearly 2 billion adherents, has two main denominations – Sunni and Shiite. Throughout Muslim history they have often been bitter enemies.

Before the Iranian revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini in February 1979, the status of Shiite Muslims in the Middle East (about 20 percent of all Muslims) was very inferior. In many countries like Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Shiites were liable to be executed without trial. In other countries Shiite Muslims were forbidden to build mosques because in the eyes of Sunni Muslims they were infidels!

Khomeini’s rise was the watershed. He promised that the Shiites in the Middle East would no longer be oppressed. Indeed, since the coup in Iran, the status of Shiites in the region has not only been strengthened, but has gone from oppressed to oppressive. Today, four decades later, the Iranians control four Arab countries: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. And they are gaining influence in other countries as well. But the worst thing is that they are...