Syria
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"Syria Speaks"
Challenging violence with creativity
The recent launch of "Syria Speaks: Arts and Culture from the Frontline" at events in The Hague and Amsterdam was in a sense a homecoming for a remarkable book whose roots lie in an exhibition of works by Syrian artists and cartoonists held at the Prince Claus Fund Gallery in Amsterdam in 2012. By Susannah Tarbush
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Interview with Rami G. Khouri
Fragmentation of the Arab world
The Palestinian-Jordanian political scientist and writer Rami G. Khouri sees links between increasing religious fanaticism and the reinvigoration of the old elites after the Arabellion. In an interview with Juliane Metzker, he looks back at four years of transformation, stagnation and instability in the Arab states.
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Four years of war in Syria
Where the uprising began and still lives on
The southern Syrian city of Daraa is the "cradle of the revolution" and the last bastion of the uprising against the Assad regime. Kristin Helberg on the special significance the provincial city has held since the start of the Syrian rebellion four years ago
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Interview with Sari Nusseibeh
"Israelis and Palestinians will have to start thinking seriously about a one-state solution"
Sari Nusseibeh is a Palestinian philosophy professor and was president of al-Quds University in Jerusalem from 1995 to 2014, where he still teaches. For many years, he was the most senior Palestinian official in East Jerusalem. In this interview with Sabine Peschel at the recent Goethe-Institut conference "Dialogue and the experience of the other" in Berlin, he speaks about Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, the upcoming elections in Israel, the legacy of the Arab Spring and the rise of Islamic State
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Interview with the Islam scholar Lamya Kaddor
Jihad as a form of youth protest
In her new book "Zum Töten bereit. Warum deutsche Jugendliche in den Dschihad ziehen" (Willing to kill. Why German youths are joining the jihad), religious education teacher and scholar of Islam Lamya Kaddor asks why some young Germans are attracted to the jihadi cause. Claudia Mende spoke to her about the radicalisation of young Germans
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Interview with filmmaker Arash T. Riahi
"Non-violent revolutions are not a hippie fantasy"
With "Everyday Rebellion", Iranian-born filmmakers Arash and Arman T. Riahi have created a multimedia project that celebrates civil disobedience and connects peaceful forms of protest in Islamic countries and around the globe. Nahid Fallahi spoke to Arash T. Riahi about the film
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Iran's foreign policy
All options are open
Is Iran part of the problem or part of the solution to the conflicts in the Near and Middle East? There are actually good arguments for both points of view. By Bahman Nirumand
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"Women of the Islamic State"
Prisoners of a barbaric system
Marriage at age nine is permitted, working is not; make-up is evil. A new treatise written by female supporters of IS sheds light on the image and role of women in the area controlled by Islamic State. By Prof Susanne Schroeter
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Religious communities in the Middle East
No to sectarianism; yes to equal citizenship!
The author and media commentator Khaled Hroub believes that Christians, Muslims, Jews and followers of other religions can only live peacefully together in the Middle East if people in these countries stop looking at each other in terms of their faith and start treating everyone – without exception – as citizens with equal rights
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After the murder of the pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh
Rage, not fear
Burning the pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh alive was meant to sow fear and discord in Jordan. It has in fact had the opposite effect. The Jordanian writer and literary critic Fakhri Saleh looks back on a harrowing and dramatic week in Jordan
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Women and the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
How many women does it take to win the IPAF?
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) was launched in 2007. Since then, only one woman has won the prize. Over the course of the past eight years, there has been much debate about the appearance (or not) of women on the long- and shortlists for the prize. Marcia Lynx Qualey looks back on the history of women and the IPAF
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The West's strategy in the Middle East
Hollow alliance
The islands of stability in the Arab-Islamic world are shrinking. In the face of war and chaos, the West continues to cling to its new-old allies: the "moderate Sunni regimes". The aim of this alliance, which purportedly shares goals and ideals, is that "good Islam" will conquer "bad Islam" with Western support. By Stefan Buchen