No one — not Washington, nor the establishment press — seems ready to confront the Sunni-Shia conflagration that threatens to rock whatever narrow foreign policy hold the U.S. has in the region, ...

The twelve Imams according to Shia Islam are the twelve descendants of Muhammad beginning with Ali bin Abu Talib and ending with Muhammad ibn al-Hassan or the Mahdi. According to them, these were the ...

Shia identity is rooted in victimhood over the killing of Husayn, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, in the seventh century and a long history of marginalization by the Sunni majority. Islam's dominant ...

Last Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s minister of defense and deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, declared that the improvement of his country’s relations with Iran was impossible with this startling ...

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for ...

This video is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ InfoGuide Presentation, "The Sunni-Shia Divide." An ancient religious divide is helping fuel a resurgence of conflicts in the Middle East and ...

This is because the Shia view American policies without a balance between regional Sunni and Shia actors. Under Trump, America is going all in with the pro-confrontation camp led by Saudi Arabia and ...

Taking their positions side by side, in multiple rows, a few hundred Shia and Sunni Muslims offered their Eid al-Adha prayers together after which they met with local Hindu, Sikh and Christians. "In ...

ASSIRIYAH, Iraq -- Sunni and Shia tribal sheiks, local government leaders, senior Iraqi Army officials and local Iraqi Police officials from throughout the Taji area, met here Dec. 6 at the prayer ...

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 ...

The fifth major difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims is regarding Mohammad Mahdi who is believed to be the descendent of the Prophet Muhammad and is the twelfth Imam according to Shias. They ...