In recent days, Saudi Arabia’s decision to execute a prominent Shiite dissident has been assailed around the world as a rash act of provocation, inflaming sectarian tensions across the Middle East. Yet for many Saudis, the act was simple justice: The elimination of a man who was widely viewed as a traitor, and a dangerous one at that. In a country where most people feel that they are literally under siege by Iran, the execution appears, by every available measure, to have been enormously popular, even with some who have been critical of the Saudi government. Some Saudis go further, saying that the beheading of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric, allowed the Saudi government to steal the thunder of the Islamic State — and perhaps begin to wean away some of its sympathizers — by claiming the mantle of mainstream Sunni resistance to the Shiite challenge. “People were waiting for these executions, and the vast majority of Sunnis and Shiites approve them,” said A
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