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Politics

Robert Fisk (photo: imago/Xinhua) Interview with Robert Fisk on the War in Syria

A War That Won't End

President Bashar al-Assad's troops in Syria are gaining ground. British Middle East reporter Robert Fisk met some of them when he visited the front lines earlier this month. Interview by Michael Hartlep More »


Saleh Diab (photo: private copyright) Interview with Saleh Diab

''Egypt Doesn't Need Dollars, It Needs a Clear Plan''

Egyptian entrepreneur and publisher Saleh Diab is concerned over the future of his country. Foreign investors are being discouraged by political conditions, and the nation lacks a vision for the future, he says. Interview by Kersten Knipp More »


Protests on Tahrir Square, Cairo (photo: Reuters) The Aftermath of the Arab Spring

The Changing Map of Middle East Power

The eruption of the Arab revolts put power relations among Middle Eastern countries in a state of flux, and both winners and losers have emerged. But, given that the strengths and weaknesses of most of the actors are highly contingent, the regional balance of power remains highly fluid. By Volker Perthes More »


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Society

German tank in the desert during Nazi Germany's Africa Campaign (photo: Bundeswehr Archive) German Wehrmacht Document on Islam

Ideological Vacuum

If it were not for the fact that the author of a code of conduct for Wehrmacht officers in Muslim countries – the army doctor Ernst Rodenwaldt – was a proven Nazi sympathiser, those in today's anti-Islamic milieu would most certainly hold him for a Muslim sympathizer. Stefan Weidner on an unusual historical manuscript More »


Dilwar Hussein (photo: Jan Kuhlmann) Dilwar Hussein on Reform Islam

Going beyond Literal Interpretation

In order to retain the values of the Koran, one must go beyond the literal meaning of the text, says British Islam scholar Dilwar Hussein. Instead, Muslims should try to interpret the dynamic of change of early Islam and apply that to modern times and conditions. An interview by Jan Kuhlmann More »


A Jewish elderly man in a Synagogue in Tunisia (photo: Naomi Scherbel-Ball) Jews in Tunisia

A Shrinking, Vulnerable Community

Jews lived in North Africa before the arrival of Christianity or Islam. On the eve of Tunisia's independence from France, there were more than 100,000 of them in the country. Half a century later, as few as 1,500 remain. Naomi Scherbel-Ball reports from Tunis More »


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Culture

Nihad Sirees at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair 2013 (courtesy: Abu Dhabi Book Fair) Interview with Syrian Writer Nihad Sirees

On Literature's Honest Surrender

Syrian author Nihad Sirees has written seven novels and several plays and TV dramas. After increasing pressure from the Syrian government, Sirees left Aleppo in early 2012. Marcia Lynx Qualey met him at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, just as he was leaving his exile in the US and moving to Egypt More »


Scene from '5 Jahre Leben' (photo: picture-alliance/dpa) Film on the Case of Murat Kurnaz

''A Scandal of Democracy''

"Five Years" examines the fate of the German Guantanamo prisoner Murat Kurnaz. Director Stefan Schaller's film exposes viewers to the horrific abuse of human rights endured by camp detainees. Jochen Kürten reports More »


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