Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

The dawn of 2016 has brought a new round of doomsday predictions that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family cannot sustain its autocratic grip on power. The kingdom, pessimists argue, is caught in a perfect storm with economic problems, social challenges and foreign policy crises all converging at the same time. By James M. Dorsey More

The Kuwaiti analyst Shafeeq Ghabra believes that the real strength of Iran is its society, which is much more emancipated than the regime and more open-minded than the ruling mullahs. Iranian society is not only young, but also more secular than any Arab societyMore

The history of modern Iranian literature has been shaped by censorship. Nonetheless, Iran is hoping to be guest of honour at the world′s leading book fair in Frankfurt in 2018. Amir Hassan Cheheltan, one of Iran′s best-known contemporary authors, describes how he copes with the situationMore

Although Saudi Arabia distances itself from groups like al-Qaida, its leaders share the terrorist organisation's mistrust of the Shias and fear the emergence of a "Shia Crescent" in the Middle East. But Iran has always seen itself not as a Shia but as an Islamic country and declares itself committed to a rapprochement between the different Islamic denominations. Ulrich von Schwerin analyses why Iran's attempts to further ecumenism within Islam have thus far been in vainMore

Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou was known in his homeland as a critical thinker and "the poet of Teheran". The eminent Iranian poet and literary critic died in Teheran in May at the age of 75. Mitra Khalatbari spoke to Mahmoud Falaki about Sepanlou's life's work More

With slogans like "An Iran of 150 million" and "More children, more happiness", the leadership in Tehran is calling for higher birth rates – a U-turn in its family planning policy. What is still unclear is how the desired increase in the size of the population would contribute to solving the country's economic and social problems. By Marcus MichaelsenMore

The People's Mujahedin of Iran was one of the leading participants of the 1979 Revolution in Iran. For years the militant revolutionary organization was on the US list of terrorist organizations. Now the ban is suddenly lifted. Stephan Buchen on a bizarre episode of US Foreign PolicyMore