Holy Shiite!

This Iran-centric map of west Asia, is also a Shiite-centric view of that part of the world.  And, it appears that the Shia versus rest of Islam violence is edging up.

This is certainly not the kind of development that will bring peace and stability to the people in that region.

Particularly when such violence occurs against a backdrop of ongoing struggles to form a government in Iraq; the floods in an already unstable Pakistan; the fragile start to the Israel-Palestinian talks; ...

In recent days alone the following have been reported:
In neighboring Pakistan, in the city of Quetta (notice it close to the Afghan border?):

A suicide bomb blast targeting a Shiite procession in the southern city of Quetta on Friday killed 58 people and injured more than 100 others, police said. The explosion came two days after bomb attacks killed 35 people during a Shiite march in another Pakistani city.

Shiites were marching near Meezan Square, a busy shopping area in the heart of Quetta, to express solidarity with the Palestinian movement when the blast occurred.  

Continuing on in a counterclockwise direction, in Lahore, which is very close to the Indian border:

Pakistani officials said two attackers detonated explosives as the gathering was dispersing on Wednesday, scattering bodies into the streets and sowing panic among the thousands observing an annual Shiite day of mourning. A third bomber struck about 20 minutes later in a packed city square as many of the worshipers were leaving.

Next stop in the map: Tajikistan, where while the Islamic militancy does not have any overt Shia-Sunni conflict, yet, Iran is stepping up its game:

On August 5, Teheran was hosting the fourth trilateral summit of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The three countries reached an agreement on the expansion of economic and cultural ties. During this summit, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed the use of a single currency by the three countries and the launching of a joint TV station.

Besides promoting regional extremist terrorist groups and stepping up its clandestine nuclear-weapons program, Iranian leaders are nurturing a false sense of Greater Persia. “The people of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, whose countries were parts of the Greater Persia in ancient times, consider Iran as their cultural homeland and believe the Iranian nation is the inheritor of their paternal legacy, the Persian Civilisation,” wrote the Tehran Times on August 28.

 The struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan are, well, by now even an elementary school kid ought to be aware of them.  A few days ago, I blogged that the treatment of the Shia population in Bahrain could be a barometer of what the future holds.

If you read until here, you deserve a bonus (from two weeks ago):

A car bomb exploded Monday in a town northeast of the Iraqi capital while a bus full of Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims was passing, killing five people and wounding nine, security officials said.