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 has a majority Shia Muslim population, but the ruling al-Khalifa family is Sunni. The Shia have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Khalifa rulers.

Sunni, Shia split means US troops might be in Iraq indefinitely© Top photo credit: Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, appears during a vote in Sudani's cabinet at the ...

Seattle author Lesley Hazleton's "After the Prophet" is a cogent explanation of the historical split between Sunni and Shia Muslims, an enmity which has driven much of the recent history of the ...

The sectarian character of the Sunni-Shia split, Cole said, became firm after Hussein's death in 680. The Sunnis continued to follow the caliphate for several centuries.

The sense of martyrdom that still marks Shia Islam does have real historical roots, in the massacre by Sunni forces of the last Shia claimant to the caliphate in 680, along with most of his family.

Bahrain has a majority Shia Muslim population, but the ruling al-Khalifa family is Sunni. The Shia have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Khalifa rulers.