From KCRW in Santa Monica and PRI, Public Radio International, this is To the Point.

Violence and the politics of religion in the Middle East.

Hello again, I'm Mormon-Aulny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

They look at the issues Americans care about most.

Two years of bloody violence in Syria have awakened the ancient rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

It's pitting neighbors against each other in Syria and across the region,

and it's accentuating hostilities between nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Terrorist organizations like Shiite Hezbollah and Sunni al-Qaeda are threatening chaos to advance

their competing agendas.

Is it partly an undetended consequence of America's occupation of Iraq?

Is there anything the U.S. can do to contain it?

On reporter's notebook later on, is it too late to get serious about gun control?

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Hello again, Warren Al-Nalny, back with To The Point.

The rebellion against Syria's al-Assad regime and its bloody response have aroused hostilities between Sunni and Shiite Muslims,

a religious conflict that goes back hundreds of years.

We'll hear how it's spreading from Syria to the rest of the Middle East and what the consequences might be for a volatile region and for the United States.

On reporter's notebook, the president wants Americans to tell Congress they want gun control, but polls show the momentum is slowing down.

First is news update to American B-2 stealth bombers were anything but stealthy today on a 13,000-mile

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