For decades to come, the story of the Middle East will feature two forces with diametrically opposed goals. One camp is battling for the hegemony of Sunni Islam, especially in the Arab world. The other camp, uniting non-Sunni Muslims and non-Muslims, wants to ensure that no dominant Sunni power capable of uniting the Sunni Arab world, and ultimately the Sunni world more broadly, ever emerges.
A world in ruins
The Sunni world in general, and the Arab Sunni world in particular, lies in ruins. In some cases, quite literally.