Professor Tarek Masoud joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the Middle East. What's the origin of the conflict between Israel and Palestine? What are the most significant moments leading to the current geopolitical climate of the Middle East? What makes the Houthis of Yemen such a difficult adversary? Why is Islam unfairly associated with terrorism? Answers to these questions and more await on Middle East support.EXPERT'S NOTE: My edited response to the question about the roots of the Sunni-Shia divide seems to suggest that a civil war broke out immediately upon the death of Muhammad. In fact, the prophet Muhammad’s cousin, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, was passed over for leadership three times, before finally becoming Caliph about 25 years after Muhammad’s death. His rule, however, was highly contested. A civil war broke out, and Ali was ultimately assassinated, setting in motion the split between Shias (the partisans of Ali) and Sunnis that persists to this day.