The division between Islam's Shiite minority and the Sunni majority is deepening across the Middle East. The split occurred soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, nearly 1,400 years ago.

Bahrain and Sudan sever diplomatic ties with Iran Some analysts draw a rough correlation of the Sunni-Shiite split with the Protestant-Catholic divide.

BAGHDAD, April 13 -- Key Sunni militant groups are severing their association with al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group that claims allegiance to the organization led by Osama bin Laden. The split ...

To the outsider, the differences between the Sunni and Shiite Islamic sects are hard to recognize.The five pillars of Islam – daily prayer; ...

The Sunni-Shiite split is rooted in the question of who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad in leading Muslims after his death in 632.

Iran has long tried to cast itself as the leader of the entire Muslim world, but its regional standing has been undermined by four years of upheaval that split the Middle East along deepening ...

World Sunni-Shia split the Mideast’s new great divide Half of believers in the Middle East and North Africa say religious conflict is a major problem for their countries. How did it come to this?

The Sunni-Shiite split is not the oldest internecine conflict in Islam–the Kharijite secession coalesced earlier and in its emphasis on declaring Muslims of divergent views beyond the pale ...

People are also reading… Over the course of the years, Shiite Islam would split into three different groups and Sunni Islam would develop different schools of thought.

The Sunni-Shiite split originated in a dispute over the succession in the leadership of Muslims after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century.