Struggles between Sunni and Shia forces have fed a Syrian civil war that threatens to transform the map of the Middle East, spurred violence that is fracturing Iraq and widened fissures in a number of ...

The religious differences that contribute to Iraq's sectarian violence have deep historical roots. We asked University of Michigan professor of Middle East history, Juan Cole, when the split took ...

What are the differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and why are the two denominations fighting each other? – Robert, Sahuarita Dear Habibi,* The origin of the schism between the Sunni and Shia ...

BEIRUT — The Gaza war has pushed together powerful Iran-backed Shia Muslim paramilitaries with militant Sunni factions in what appears to be closer cooperation between groups that differ in religious ...

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Sectarianism has assumed its own dynamic and will continue to define Iraq, says Joost Hilterman of the International Crisis Group. The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, while important, will not end ...

The pitched battles in the Iraqi province of Anbar this week – first between Sunni tribesmen and the government and then between al-Qaeda and the government, which has now brought onside some of the ...