The Holocaust, colonialism and mutual understanding
Time for a refresher in humanity
Data centre plans in Saudi Arabia
Is Google putting Saudi activists in danger?
Women and Islamic studies
Annemarie Schimmel’s pioneering take on Islam
Noori & His Dorpa Band's "Beja Power"
Defiant in the face of repression

The Holocaust, colonialism and mutual understanding

Time for a refresher in humanity

Apparently it is possible to write about the Holocaust and the crimes of colonial powers without downplaying anything. In her latest book, Charlotte Wiedemann focuses on the numerous blind spots in our culture of commemoration. By Rene Wildangel
 Read more

Anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict: Dissidence and the Jewish diasporaWestern news coverage: The white perspectiveMiddle East conflict: Shoah and Nakba – two interlinked catastrophes
Saudi Arabia's brand new data protection law, which comes into force early 2023, doesn't allow data collectors to disclose personal data except when a government requests it for security purposes.

Data centre plans in Saudi Arabia

Is Google putting Saudi activists in danger?

Internet giant Google is creating a "cloud region" in Saudi Arabia. It says it will protect users there. But digital rights activists say the firm will be putting the lives of government critics at risk. Cathrin Schaer reportsRead more

Middle East: How cybercrime laws are used to silence dissentSaudi Arabia's detainees: Speak your mind – face the consequencesBetween religion, oil dependence and reforms: Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman
"If we want a shared future worth living in, I can think of no better preparation than reading Annemarie Schimmel," writes Stefan Weidner.

Women and Islamic studies

Annemarie Schimmel’s pioneering take on Islam

This year Annemarie Schimmel, the great German scholar of Islamic studies, would have turned 100. Unique within the German and international academic community of her time, Schimmel’s pioneering work was characterised by a love of Islam. A tribute by Stefan WeidnerRead more

10th anniversary of the death of Annemarie Schimmel: Searching for the inner life of IslamInterview with Angelika Neuwirth: "The claim that Islam lacks an Enlightenment is an age-old cliche"Qantara dossier: Mysticism | Sufism

Noori & His Dorpa Band's "Beja Power"

Defiant in the face of repression

"Beja Power" by Noori & His Dorpa Band is a scintillating introduction to one of the oldest and least known cultural traditions in Sudan and Africa. Rather than slavishly recreating music from the past, the band plays with diverse influences to stunning effect. By Richard MarcusRead more

Sudan's popular resistance: The revolution will succeedRap music from Sudan: Emmnuel Jal's vision of peace"Two Niles to Sing a Melody": The strings and synths of Sudan″Music Spaces in the Arab World″: Between the pots and pans

Politics

View inside a Google data centre (photo: Conny Zhou/Zuma Press/picture-alliance)

Data centre plans in Saudi Arabia

Is Google putting Saudi activists in danger?

Internet giant Google is creating a "cloud region" in Saudi Arabia. It says it will protect users there. But digital rights activists say the firm will be putting the lives of government critics at risk. Cathrin Schaer reportsMore

Middle East: How cybercrime laws are used to silence dissentSaudi Arabia's detainees: Speak your mind – face the consequencesBetween religion, oil dependence and reforms: Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman
Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri visits Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei (photo: FARS)

Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon

Resurrecting Arafat in Beirut?

The Palestinian militant organisation Hamas, with Hezbollah's help, is building up a military presence in Lebanon, the ultimate consequences of which could be devastating, writes Mohanad Hage AliMore

Shia "axis of resistance": Khamenei's Final Solution provocation to mark Quds DayLebanese thinker Martin Accad: "Lebanon's tragedy is political sectarianism"Escalation in the Middle East: Israeli-Hamas hostilities: same old story, or is it?
Kashmiri Hindus, called Pandits, protest with placards demanding justice after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits during a rebellion by the Muslim majority in Kashmir during the 1990s, New Delhi, India on 1 April 2022 (photo: Mayank Makhija/Nur Photo)

"The Kashmir Files"

Serving up Indian propaganda

The highly controversial Indian blockbuster "The Kashmir Files“, on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in the 1990s, is characterised by unilateral representations, negative stereotypes and historical inaccuracies. By Dominik MullerMore

Hate propaganda in India: Modi opponents labelled 'anti-national'Kashmir conflict: "An entire people is traumatised"Indo-Pakistani relations: Detente over Kashmir following decades of conflict?
Supporters of Hezbollah and its allied Amal militia protest against Judge Bitar in Beirut in October 2021 (photo: Janak Eddube/newscom/picture alliance)

Arab states in crisis

The ruling classes' dereliction of duty

In this essay, renowned Lebanese journalist and writer Hazem Saghieh asks whether the Arab Levant, which stretches from Iraq in the East to Egypt in the West, will remain an inhabitable region in the long termMore

Interview with the Lebanese journalist Hazem Saghieh: More lapdog than watchdogInterview with Hazem Saghieh: Beyond the authority of religion and the rule of family clansThe Middle East's "Axis of Failure": Arab autocrats – ruining their own statesMiddle East: A new Arab Spring, thanks to the Ukraine war?
more Politics »

Society

Holocaust memorial in Berlin (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

The Holocaust, colonialism and mutual understanding

Time for a refresher in humanity

Apparently it is possible to write about the Holocaust and the crimes of colonial powers without downplaying anything. In her latest book, Charlotte Wiedemann focuses on the numerous blind spots in our culture of commemoration. By Rene Wildangel
 More

Anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict: Dissidence and the Jewish diasporaWestern news coverage: The white perspectiveMiddle East conflict: Shoah and Nakba – two interlinked catastrophes
Islamic scholar Annemarie Schimmel (photo: Jürgen Eis/Imago)

Women and Islamic studies

Annemarie Schimmel’s pioneering take on Islam

This year Annemarie Schimmel, the great German scholar of Islamic studies, would have turned 100. Unique within the German and international academic community of her time, Schimmel’s pioneering work was characterised by a love of Islam. A tribute by Stefan WeidnerMore

10th anniversary of the death of Annemarie Schimmel: Searching for the inner life of IslamInterview with Angelika Neuwirth: "The claim that Islam lacks an Enlightenment is an age-old cliche"Qantara dossier: Mysticism | Sufism
23 March 2022: The first post-pandemic cruise ship to dock at La Goulette, Tunis, Tunisia (photo: Getty Images)

Tourism in North Africa

Tentative recovery, or too little, too late?

Tourists have been returning to Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. But, given the global uncertainty caused by the Ukraine war, will the comeback be enough to save a struggling sector, revive lost jobs and avoid unrest? Cathrin Schaer and Mohammed Magdy reportMore

Coronavirus fallout: Tunisia post-lockdown – should we stay or should we go?COVID-19 fallout in Morocco: Tangiers' economic boom – few winners and many losersCOVID-19 on the Nile: The curse of coronavirus – Egypt, a nation gripped by fear
The Church of St Gregory in the ruined city of Ani, the capital of the Bagratid Armenian kingdom, now in eastern Turkey (photo: Filip Warwick)

Challenging Turkish history from the ground up

"The stories of our families"

More and more voices are being raised in Turkey that challenge previous versions of the country's history. These alternative accounts, still largely ignored by official quarters, are breaching longstanding taboos and deconstructing the political narrative. By Ceyda NurtschMore

Public opinion in Turkey: Dreaming of a greater republicThe Turkish state and the Kurdish question: Turkey – a battle of narratives Turkey-Armenia relations: Normalisation after 31 years of tension?The AKP's version of Turkish history: Contrasting interpretations of Gallipoli
more Society »

Culture

Noori & His Dorpa Band in the Sudan National Museum (photo: Yasir Elhassan)

Noori & His Dorpa Band's "Beja Power"

Defiant in the face of repression

"Beja Power" by Noori & His Dorpa Band is a scintillating introduction to one of the oldest and least known cultural traditions in Sudan and Africa. Rather than slavishly recreating music from the past, the band plays with diverse influences to stunning effect. By Richard MarcusMore

Sudan's popular resistance: The revolution will succeedRap music from Sudan: Emmnuel Jal's vision of peace"Two Niles to Sing a Melody": The strings and synths of Sudan″Music Spaces in the Arab World″: Between the pots and pans
Denmark: Opening event of the Flugt Museum (photo: picture-alliance)

Denmark's new "Flugt" Museum

Flight has a million faces

"Flugt" is the world's first museum dedicated to the stories of those forced to flee. The new museum, which focuses on the fates of refugees then and now, is housed in a former camp for German war refugees on the west coast of Denmark. By Oliver RistauMore

Europe, Ukraine and refugees: Compassion, a sliding scale?Turkey's Syrian problem: Refugees – a hot topic in Turkish politicsMiddle East conflict: "Palestinian refugees have a right to the truth"
Maya Youssef (photo: Igorstudio)

Maya Youssef's album "Finding Home"

Music as a place of hope

"Finding Home", the second album by Syrian-born, UK-based musician Maya Youssef, works through feelings of loss and destruction until its music reaches a place beyond war and violence. By Stefan Franzen
 More

Album review: Maya Youssef′s ″Syrian Dreams″ – Hope still springsSyrian composer and pianist Malek Jandali: "Music has the magical power to transcend all barriers"Interview with the pianist Aeham Ahmad: Bittersweet memories of SyriaInterview with Kinan Azmeh and Dima Orsho: "All we can do is sing and play our hearts out"
Jadd Hilal (photo: Lenos Verlag)

Jadd Hilal's debut novel

Women searching and yearning for home

In his debut novel, "Flügel in der Ferne" (Wings in the Distance), award-winning French author Jadd Hilal gives voice to four women from four different generations who tell the stories of their uprooted lives in Europe and the Middle East. By Volker Kaminski
 More

Amjad Nasser's "Land of No Rain": A milestone of modern Arabic literatureKhaled Khalifa’s “No One Prayed Over Their Graves”: The maelstrom of AleppoQantara dossier: Literature
more Culture »

In brief

More

Most Recent Photo Essay

The most impressive Hussainiya can be found in Kashan, a two-hour drive south of Tehran. The “Mad of Hussein" meet there every afternoon during the month of Muharram. At the mention of his death, screams of pain can be heard in the Hussainiya, men start weeping like children and sobbing

Ashura in Iran

Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar. On the tenth day, Ashura (the number ten in Arabic) will be celebrated to commemorate the massacre of Hussein and 72 of his relatives and companions by the Umayyad Caliphate in Iraq in the 7th century. By Eric Lafforgue

Editor's picks

What is art, when the primary sensory organ is the heart?

The Global Qur'an: Searching the suras

The muezzin call: "Traditional religious practice is not political Islam"

Dina El Omari: "Muslim women need space for critical self-reflection"

...More

34th German Orientalists' Day | DOT 2022: 12.-17 September

The Deutsche Orientalistentag (DOT) marks its 100th anniversary this year (photo: DOT2022 / FU Berlin)

The German Orientalists' Day (DOT) is scheduled to take place at the Freie Universität Berlin from 12-17 September 2022.More

MbS: despot in the desert

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (photo: AFP)

A volatile millennial wields absolute power in Saudi Arabia. What will he do next?More

Yemen truce to continue for two more months

Yemen’s warring sides agreed to renew a two-month truce expiring on Tuesday, the United Nations envoy said, despite international pressure for an extended and expanded deal that would build on the longest stretch of relative calm in over seven years.More

Iran’s increasingly decentralised axis of resistance

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (photo: Flickr user safwat sayed, CC BY-ND 2.0: https://bit.ly/3Jmu5Fm)

The Islamic Republic's “axis of resistance” is currently shifting from a hierarchical, Iran-centric network to a decentralised horizontal structure, facilitating greater autonomy for its members. More autonomy gives Iran the plausible deniability to distance itself from its partners’ provocations, while still seeking their support when needed.More

Taliban curtails women's rights in Afghanistan

Women in Afghanistan are slowly disappearing from public life, a year after the Taliban retook control of the country and imposed a rigorous version of Islamic Sharia law. Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia Ghezali report from KabulMore

Low-budget sci-fi film shatters Iran’s sacred red lines

A still photo from “Velayatnameh” of a robot and a supreme leader set in a satirical future (photo: Studio Kazoo)

A sci-fi film lampooning the Islamic Republic and all that its regime holds sacred premiered quietly at a nondescript venue in Los Angeles in July. The title, “Velayatnameh”, is a spoof on Ferdowsi's “Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings”More

Traditional boat-makers keep ancient craft afloat

Syrian craftsman Khaled Bahlawan hammers nails in a wooden boat at his boatyard in Syria's Mediterranean Island of Arwad on 24 July 2022 (photo: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Khaled Bahlawan hammers nails into a traditional wooden boat he built by hand, toiling under the scorching sun on Syria's Mediterranean coast to preserve a disappearing ancient skillMore

Pakistan feels economic shockwaves

Pakistani PM Shahbaz Sharif addresses a National Assembly session in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 11 April 2022 (photo: National Assembly of Pakistan/AP/picture-alliance)

While many countries are dependent on Ukrainian or Russian wheat or foreign energy imports, Pakistan requires both. For this reason, the country has been hit particularly badly by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Serious reform is needed, but is it too late for Pakistan's new PM, Shahbaz Sharif (pictured above), to deliver? According to Michael Rubin, Pakistan faces collapse, and the world should be worried.More