All for the sake of winning an argument over religion.

[kwassa]

14. Read more world history.

This isn't cynicism, this is realism. The desire for power and self-advancement is universal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitioning_of_the_Ottoman_Empire

Read the history of European powers in the Middle East after the Ottoman empire dies in World War I.

The League of Nations granted French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and British Mandate for Mesopotamia (later Iraq) and British Mandate for Palestine, later divided into Mandatory Palestine and Emirate of Transjordan (1921-1946). The Ottoman Empire's possessions in the Arabian Peninsula became the Kingdom of Hejaz, which was annexed by the Sultanate of Nejd (today Saudi Arabia), and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. The Empire's possessions on the western shores of the Persian Gulf were variously annexed by Saudi Arabia (Alahsa and Qatif), or remained British protectorates (Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar) and became the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.

In other words, Britain and France turned much of the region into colonies, and into separate countries where they had not existed before. Iraq was one such invention.

Here is the history of the discovering oil in Saudi Arabia. See how many world powers are involved;

In 1922 King Abdulaziz met a New Zealand mining engineer named Major Frank Holmes. During World War I, Holmes had been to Gallipoli and then Ethiopia, where he first heard rumours of the oil seeps of the Persian Gulf region.[1] He was convinced that much oil would be found throughout the region. After the war, Holmes helped to set up Eastern and General Syndicate Ltd in order, among other things, to seek oil concessions in the region.

In 1923, the king signed a concession with Holmes allowing him to search for oil in eastern Saudi Arabia. Eastern and General Syndicate brought in a Swiss geologist to evaluate the land but he claimed that searching for oil in Arabia would be “a pure gamble”.[1] This discouraged the major banks and oil companies from investing in Arabian oil ventures.

In 1925, Holmes signed a concession with the sheikh of Bahrain, allowing him to search for oil there. He then proceeded to the United States to find an oil company that might be interested in taking on the concession. He found help from Gulf Oil. In 1927, Gulf Oil took control of the concessions that Holmes made years ago. But Gulf Oil was a partner in the Iraq Petroleum Company, which was jointly owned by Royal Dutch/Shell, Anglo-Persian, the Compagnie Française des Pétroles, and "the Near East Development Company, representing the interests of the American companies.[3] The partners had signed up to the “Red Line Agreement” which meant that Gulf Oil was precluded from taking up the Bahrain concession without the consent of the other partners; and they declined.[1] Despite a promising survey in Bahrain, Gulf Oil was forced to transfer its interest to another company, Standard Oil of California(SOCAL), which was not a bound by the Red Line Agreement.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_oil_industry_in_Saudi_Arabia