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Geopolitics in the Middle East
A new century dawns
There is no doubt that the crisis-riven Middle East is beset by some unique challenges. As Jeffrey Sachs argues, however, these are not the Sunni-Shia political divide, the future of Assad or other doctrinal disputes, but rather the unmet need for quality education, job skills, advanced technologies and sustainable development
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#SueMeSaudi
Twitter users taunt Saudi Arabia
The hashtag #SueMeSaudi is soaring after a source at the Saudi Arabian justice ministry reportedly said he would sue a Twitter user who compared Saudi Arabia to the terror group "Islamic State"
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Saudi Arabia sentences Ashraf Fayadh to death
Saudi Arabia: Ashraf Fayadh, a poet, artist, curator, and member of the British-Saudi art organisation "Edge of Arabia", has been sentenced to death.
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Arab reactions to the Paris attacks
Uneasy bedfellows in the fight against IS
Across the Arab world, there has been round condemnation of the attacks in Paris, which are generally viewed as retribution for the West′s engagement with IS in Syria. In this conflict, however, the Arab states don′t make for easy bedfellows. By Christoph Ehrhardt
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Cultural policy in Saudi Arabia
Ushering in an era of change?
Under its new King Salman, Saudi Arabia seems to be striving for cultural convergence with the West. People there are happily tweeting, emailing and going to the theatre – and that includes women. Is a cultural turning point in the offing? By Joseph Croitoru
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Chronicle of a war foretold
Redefining the "Syrian" conflict
The war waging in Syria, hijacked by opposing ideologies just months after it began, has had an irrevocable impact on the Syrian people. Although not much is heard of Syrians outside the refugee camps, Americans, Europeans, Russians, Turks, Iranians, and Arabs hold meeting after meeting to agree and disagree, coalesce and collide, in an attempt to halt the ″Syrian conflict″. By Hakim Khatib
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Post-Arabellion reform deadlock
The logic of power
The Arab world is locked into a huge cycle of violence. At the same time, reformers are isolated - both within the regimes and outside them. Those who advocate violence, on the other hand, sense momentum and are growing in number. And they are convinced that the future will be a violent one. An essay by the Kuwaiti political scientist Shafeeq Ghabra
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Photography in the Arab world
Casting the veil in a new light
Having spent three years in Saudi Arabia, English-born photographer Sebastian Farmborough felt he had to do something to counter the country's negative image in the West. He talks to Kate Muser about the project
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Navid Kermani′s Peace Prize acceptance speech
Freeing Islam from the clutches of the fanatics
For the first time, Germany′s most important cultural prize has gone to a child of Muslim immigrants, the German-Iranian writer and Islamic studies expert Navid Kermani, born in 1967. According to Stefan Weidner, his combative speech may well go down in history
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Interview with Rafik Schami
"Escape is a life-saver"
In conversation with Ruth Renee Reif, the renowned writer Rafik Schami gives his views on the European refugee crisis and has sharp criticism for the West's political dealings with the Assad regime in Syria
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Sunni–Shia relations
Iran's futile bid for ecumenism within Islam
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 vain
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Volker Perthes: "The end of the Middle East, as we know it"
The end of Sykes-Picot?
Almost a century ago, France and Britain carved up large swathes of the Middle East between them. Now the order imposed by the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 appears to be disintegrating. In his new essay, Volker Perthes outlines the reasons for this development and suggests potential scenarios for the region. A review by Anne Allmeling