Europe
All countries-
Our attitude to violence
The bad guys are always the others
Our standards for gauging violence have become apolitical, causing us to be horrified only by the deeds of individuals. Critical thinking is no longer possible. An essay by Charlotte Wiedemann
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Interview with Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh
″I oppose the false Muslims″
The Iranian religious scholar Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh has been studying the origins and language of the Koran for decades. Ulrich von Schwerin spoke to him about his efforts to develop a new approach to the Koran, thereby saving the Prophet′s true message from what he perceives to be an erroneous interpretation of Islam
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Turkish foreign policy
Erdogan′s volte-face
Turkey′s shift away from the West since the July 15 coup attempt is a deliberate tactic to strengthen the government′s domestic support base and pursue a more aggressive regional role. Commentary by A. Kadir Yildirim
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Talking Turkey
″What happens on the Bosphorus affects us all″
The West′s attitude toward Turkey matters. For an outcome that reflects democratic values and is favourable to Western and Turkish interests alike, Western diplomats need to escalate their engagement with Turkey. Essay by Sweden′s former foreign minister, Carl Bildt
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Syrian refugee Nather Henafe Alali
″I am the misery of the 21st century″
″I don′t want to be a refugee. And I don′t want to be the subject of a newspaper article that is not about me as a human being. That calls me an historic intercontinental event or a storm of pain sweeping through this miserable world, but doesn′t call me a refugee, ″ writes Nather Henafe Alai in his column
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European Islamophobia Report
Wake up to the danger!
Scholars have for the first time published a comprehensive overview of anti-Muslim racism in 25 European countries. Attacks against Muslims and their institutions have increased considerably since 2015. Politics and civil society need to finally take this development more seriously. By Claudia Mende
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Arab Puppet Theatre Foundation
One thousand sinking dinghies
The silent puppet performance ″One Thousand and One Titanics″ creatively combines traditional performing techniques such as shadow and glove puppetry with pantomime, music and dance to tell the story of those displaced by war and conflict. By Changiz M. Varzi
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Islam and violence
Self-proclaimed jihadists
Does Islam have a violence problem? With their terror in the name of Islam, the jihadists have plunged an entire world religion into a crisis of legitimacy. Although Islamic scholarship has mechanisms at its disposal to limit the violence, these are no longer effective in this current era of globalisation. By Claudia Mende
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Noam Chomsky in interview
Obama's sangfroid
Former MIT professor and philosopher Noam Chomsky is widely regarded as one of the world's leading intellectuals. Undoubtedly, Chomsky's word has weight. Emran Feroz interviewed him on Barack Obama's political legacy in the Middle East, the deal with Iran and the refugee crisis
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Book review: Muhammad Zafzaf′s ″Elusive Fox″
One rule for them
Translated into English for the first time, Zafzaf′s novel plunges the reader into the free-living, free-loving culture of the Moroccan fringe during the hippie era – and examines the relative nature of freedom. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Novelist and critic Elias Khoury
The nightmare of reality
The Lebanese novelist and critic, Elias Khoury, examines the nature of writing in a world rent repeatedly by violence and vicious conflict – and finds hope
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Tahar Ben Jelloun on the killing of a priest in Normandy
"A declaration of war on Christianity"
On the morning of 26 July 2016, in the church of St-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a small town near Rouen, the 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel was murdered by two IS terrorists during a service. The Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jalloun, a high-profile intellectual in the Arab world, issued this response the very same day