States outside of Saudi Arabia act mainly out of Self Interest not religious solidarity

Al-Nimr stated that the United States (US) "wants to humiliate the world."^[1] In August 2008, he said that he saw US citizens as a natural ally of Shia as the thinking of both US citizens and Shia is "based on justice and liberty".^[1]
He believed that the Saudi state is "particularly reactionary" and that "agitation" is needed to influence the state in general and the Saudi state in particular.^[1] According to John Kincannon, Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Al-Nimr made statements "perceived as supporting Iran".^[1] In August 2008, he stated that he believed that Iran and other states outside of Saudi Arabia act mainly out of self-interest, not out of religious solidarity.^{[1]
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Wikipedia:Nimr al-Nimr

I thought that his perspective of States outside of Saudi Arabia acting mainly out of self-interest and not out of religious solidiarity a very interesting one. As someone who lives far away in the U.S. I tend to think of Nations functioning from either a Sunni Perspective or a Shia one in the Middle East. But, I can see from reading this that I might be wrong. 

Maybe it's just like the U.S. with it's secular Christian base of thought where neither Protestant or Catholic or any other religion is pre-eminent in thought even though we are a primarily Protestant secular nation and mostly founded originally by White Anglo Saxon Protestants.