It is not a coincidence that Iran is firing missiles at the Arab Gulf states. The fundamental difference between them is what this current war is really about. They represent two opposing worldviews, one based on a militant and radical version of Islam and the other on a liberal practice. Their battle is one of ideas. Radicalism was inherited from the revolutionary decades of the 1970s and 1980s and the anti-imperialist movements opposed to the US. The other side is liberal, allied to the West and the US and in tune with its world order.