Who are the GCC states and\u00a0what unites them?<\/p>\n
They are the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
All six are monarchies, with Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE absolute or (in the case of UAE) federal monarchies. Denominationally, Bahrain has a Sunni king\u00a0ruling over a Shia minority. \u00a0Qaboos bin Said Al Busaidi<\/a><\/strong>, the Sultan of Oman, is an Ibadi Muslim. \u00a0Oman is more or less equally split between Sunni and the ascetic Ibadi. \u00a0Kuwait is two-thirds Sunni and one-third Shia. \u00a0Its rulers complain the Iran is inciting its Shia minority<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0An attack by Islamic State on a Shiite mosque in June 2015 led to calls for unity which were led by its Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad, a Sunni.<\/p>\n The United Arab Emirates was formed from seven sheikhdoms<\/a><\/strong>, of which Dubai is the largest, followed by\u00a0Abu Dhabi. \u00a0The others are Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah. The Emirs are all Sunni Muslims, but\u00a0Shia Muslims are granted freedom to worship, and maintain their mosques<\/p>\n Qatar is also a Sunni-Muslim-majority kingdom. \u00a0Its Shia minority also have freedom to practice their religion. \u00a0Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is the current Emir and his Sunni Al Thani family own the TV news station Al-Jazeera, now reported to be in financial trouble<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Qatar is\u00a0one of only\u00a0two Salafi states in the Muslim world.<\/p>\n The other Sunni-Muslim Salafi state is Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n None of the six GCC states is ruled by a Shia Muslim.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who are the GCC states and\u00a0what unites them? They are the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. All six are monarchies, with Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE absolute or (in the case of UAE) federal monarchies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8897","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t