Interview with Mads Gilbert
"They are ruthless murderers"
Israeli offensive in Gaza
Israel cannot win
Album review: "Mountain Melodies" by Quraishi
Keeping the voice of Afghanistan alive
Interview with Benno Köpfer
"You're allowed to be a Salafist in Germany"

Interview with Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert

"They are ruthless murderers"

Professor of Medicine at the University of Tromso, Norway, Mads Gilbert is currently working at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He has been volunteering in Gaza on and off for the last 17 years and recently submitted a report to the UN on the state of the health sector in Gaza. In this interview with Roma Rajpal Weiss, Gilbert describes the present situation at the hospital and in GazaRead more

Israeli military offensive in Gaza: Israel cannot winEscalation in the Middle East: Provocation and violenceInterview with Raji Sourani in Gaza: "We are just soft targets: we are very cheap"

Israeli military offensive in Gaza

Israel cannot win

All those whose opinions differ from the prevailing view are considered saboteurs. In this guest commentary, the Israeli writer Etgar Keret describes how the thought police are dominating his homeland and explains why the problems Israel faces cannot simply be bombed awayRead more

Israel's crisis politics: On hope and despair in the Middle EastInterview with Raji Sourani in Gaza: "We are just soft targets: we are very cheap"Etgar Keret and Samir El-Youssef: The Incursion of Politics into the Private SphereInterview with Etgar Keret: The Ambivalence of the Wall

Album review: "Mountain Melodies" by Quraishi

Keeping the voice of Afghanistan alive

Despite the beauty of Afghan rubab music, it is not well known outside the country and, according to Richard Marcus, infrequently heard inside Afghanistan too. On his new album, "Mountain Melodies", the Afghan-born rubab player Quraishi shares the austere beauty and intricacy of this music and demonstrates his virtuosityRead more

Aziza Brahim's CD "Soutak": Music of beauty from a barren landSaladin Ahmed's ''Throne of the Crescent Moon'': An Arab-American Fantasy EpicInterview with Michael Muhammad Knight: ''Religious Laws Can Change''

Interview with intelligence operative Benno Köpfer

"You're allowed to be a Salafist in Germany"

More than 300 people from Germany have gone to Syria to join the jihad. In this interview with Jannis Hagmann, Benno Köpfer of the German domestic intelligence service explains what radicalises young people, why not all Salafists agree with the ISIS caliphate and why he drinks the occasional tea with some of themRead more

Wahhabism and Salafism: Shared foundation – different methodsSalafi Muslims: Doctrinaire SeverityISIS leader in Iraq: The new face of jihad?

Politics

Ruined buildings in the Gaza Strip, 19 July 2014 (photo: DW/Shawgy el Farra)

Israeli military offensive in Gaza

Israel cannot win

All those whose opinions differ from the prevailing view are considered saboteurs. In this guest commentary, the Israeli writer Etgar Keret describes how the thought police are dominating his homeland and explains why the problems Israel faces cannot simply be bombed awayMore

Israel's crisis politics: On hope and despair in the Middle EastInterview with Raji Sourani in Gaza: "We are just soft targets: we are very cheap"Etgar Keret and Samir El-Youssef: The Incursion of Politics into the Private SphereInterview with Etgar Keret: The Ambivalence of the Wall
Memorial march in Tizi Ouzou marking the crushing of a peaceful protest in the Kabylie region in 1980 (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

Ethnic conflict in Algeria

A struggle for power and recognition

Algeria's non-Arab minorities are up in arms. The ethnic conflict between Arabs and Berbers is weakening the already fragile stability of the Maghreb state. By Susanne KaiserMore

Algeria and the Arab Spring: Opting for the Status Quo Rather than ExperimentationInterview with the Algerian Singer Houria Aïchi: Ambassador of Chaouia CulturePhoto gallery: The Conflict in Western Sahara – The Eternal Wait
A street in Kabul (photo: DW)

Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai

Facing an uncertain future

In Afghanistan, people look with nostalgia upon outgoing President Hamid Karzai. But at the same time, they fear the uncertain future that his successor might very well bring. By Emran FerozMore

Presidential election in Afghanistan: Defying the TalibanWomen's rights in Afghanistan: New Afghan law curtails women's rightsAfghan refugees in Iran: Treated like second-class citizens
Salafists handing out copies of the Koran in a German city (photo: dapd)

Interview with intelligence operative Benno Köpfer

"You're allowed to be a Salafist in Germany"

More than 300 people from Germany have gone to Syria to join the jihad. In this interview with Jannis Hagmann, Benno Köpfer of the German domestic intelligence service explains what radicalises young people, why not all Salafists agree with the ISIS caliphate and why he drinks the occasional tea with some of themMore

Wahhabism and Salafism: Shared foundation – different methodsSalafi Muslims: Doctrinaire SeverityISIS leader in Iraq: The new face of jihad?
more Politics »

Society

Dr. Mads Gilbert tends to a child in al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza, 2009 (photo Getty Images)

Interview with Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert

"They are ruthless murderers"

Professor of Medicine at the University of Tromso, Norway, Mads Gilbert is currently working at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He has been volunteering in Gaza on and off for the last 17 years and recently submitted a report to the UN on the state of the health sector in Gaza. In this interview with Roma Rajpal Weiss, Gilbert describes the present situation at the hospital and in GazaMore

Israeli military offensive in Gaza: Israel cannot winEscalation in the Middle East: Provocation and violenceInterview with Raji Sourani in Gaza: "We are just soft targets: we are very cheap"
Inside the El Ghriba synagogue in Tunisia (photo: dpa)

The Jewish community in Tunisia

"Everything is ok; we don't have any problems"

Once numbering over one hundred thousand, Tunisia's Jewish community has dwindled over the years. Its members practice discretion, but certainly have no desire to hide. By Sarah Mersch in TunisiaMore

Interview with M'Hammad Bennaboud: The Muslims and Jews of TétouanInterview with Benjamin Stora: The history of relations between Jews and MuslimsChristians in Tunisia: Cause for Concern
Still from an ISIS propaganda video (photo: picture-alliance/abaca)

ISIS propaganda and use of social networks

The online jihad

The terrorist group ISIS (which now refers to itself as Islamic State) has been conducting a massive propaganda campaign via social networks on the Internet. In addition to intimidating opponents, the group wants to establish its own media brand. By Nastassja SteudelMore

ISIS' cultural vandalism: A trail of destructionISIS leader in Iraq: The new face of jihad?The Iraq crisis and the West: The ugly new order in the "Fertile Crescent"
more Society »

Culture

Quraishi (photo: Evergreene Music)

Album review: "Mountain Melodies" by Quraishi

Keeping the voice of Afghanistan alive

Despite the beauty of Afghan rubab music, it is not well known outside the country and, according to Richard Marcus, infrequently heard inside Afghanistan too. On his new album, "Mountain Melodies", the Afghan-born rubab player Quraishi shares the austere beauty and intricacy of this music and demonstrates his virtuosityMore

Aziza Brahim's CD "Soutak": Music of beauty from a barren landSaladin Ahmed's ''Throne of the Crescent Moon'': An Arab-American Fantasy EpicInterview with Michael Muhammad Knight: ''Religious Laws Can Change''
Cigdem Aslan (photo: Handan Erek)

Portrait: the singer Cigdem Aslan

Songs of the outcasts

Rebetiko is a musical genre that describes the emotionally charged songs of Greeks who were expelled from Turkey in the wake of the population exchange of 1923. Cigdem Aslan, a young Kurd from London, lends her powerful voice to the stories behind these songs. By Marian BrehmerMore

A Musical Traveler: Muammer Ketencoğlu: Building New Bridges with MusicAziza Brahim's CD "Soutak": Music of beauty from a barren landInterview with the composer Marc Sinan: A modern-day Bartók of Turkic music
Protest rally in Istanbul, one year after the Gezi demonstrations. Photo: Ali Yildirim

A literary anthology of the Gezi protests

Gezi lives!

In "Gezi – A Literary Anthology", a volume of essays that was recently published in German, 19 Turkish authors and a photographer reflect on the motivation and dynamics of the Gezi movement. By Astrid KaminskiMore

Turkey a year after the Gezi protests: The dream is overPortrait of the Turkish writer Emrah Serbes: "Politics is made on the street by the people"Book review: "Taksim is everywhere": "This was a social uprising"Tahrir and Taksim – Part I: A New Culture of Protest
more Culture »

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Most Recent Photo Essay

In 532, the Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of an awe-inspiring church in his residence, Constantinople, "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again." Around 10,000 workers were involved in its construction. For a millennium, the basilica on the Bosphorus remained Christendom’s biggest church.

The belle of the Bosphorus

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has become a bone of contention. Since it was secularised in 1935, it has been a museum. Now Turkish nationalists want to turn it back into a mosque - while the Patriarch of Constantinople wants to use it as a church again. A photo essay by Klaus Dahmann.

In the shadow of an icon

Since 2012 there have been repeated violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar. Human rights activists accuse the government and state security forces of ethnic cleansing, murder and persecution. Charlotte Wiedemann reports on the fate of the country's Muslim Rohingya peopleMore

A Test of Willpower

Kristiane Backer on German TV show 'Menschen bei Maischberger' (photo: imago stock&people)

In her reflective article, Kristiane Backer describes Ramadan as not only a period of renunciation and self-discipline, but also as a process of physical and spiritual cleansing. The Islamic fasting month of gives her a sense of closer proximity to God, writes the former MTV and NBC presenter, who converted to IslamMore

Qantara dossier: Ramadan 2014

This year, Ramadan begins on 28 June. German soccer star Mesut Ozil has already said that he will not be fasting because Ramadan clashes with the 2014 World Cup. Qantara's dossier on Ramadan contains a selection of interesting and insightful articles on the Islamic month of fasting.More

The Shatila refugee camp in Beirut: overwhelmed and under strain

Palestinians living in Lebanon are not entitled to apply for Lebanese citizenship. They are, to all intents and purposes, stateless, which means that they cannot own property and enter certain professions in Lebanon. Most of them live – cut off from Lebanese society – in one of the country's 12 big Palestinian refugee camps.

The Shatila refugee camp in Beirut: overwhelmed and under strain

Today, over 22,000 Palestinian refugees live in the Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut. Most of them belong to families who had to leave Palestine during the Nakba of 1948. However, since war broke out in Syria in 2011, the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have seen a dramatic influx of Syrian refugees and are completely overwhelmed. By Mohammad Reza Hassani

Fikrun wa Fann/Art & Thought

Fikrun wa Fann/Art & Thought is the Goethe Institut's cultural magazine for dialogue with the Islamic world. "1914 – The First World War and the reshaping of the East" is the title of the 100th edition of the magazine. This anniversary edition is dedicated to the First World War, which broke out one hundred years ago this year. The events of the turbulent four years of the war not only changed Europe in the short-term; its consequences are still felt across the continent and beyond to this day.More