Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

In her book "The Wisdom of Syria's Waiting Game", Bente Scheller analyses Syrian foreign policy since the Assad dynasty came to power in 1970. She believes that the special relationship between domestic and foreign policy is key to understanding Syria's power apparatus. By Martina SabraMore

On 9 January 2014, a group of protesters organised a sit-in in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Rome, calling for the immediate release of blogger Raif Badawi. According to Elham Manea, he was imprisoned in 2012 on trumped up charges rooted in the ruling dynasty's fear of dissent and rebellion. He now faces the death penaltyMore

Bomb attacks and other acts of violence have almost become part of everyday life in Lebanon. After recent bomb blasts, two media campaigns were launched to raise awareness among Lebanese people of the everyday violence in their crisis-torn country. A background report by Juliane MetzkerMore

A blogging Syrian lesbian, Libyan soldiers in a Viagra-fuelled frenzy, Tunisian women on a sexual Jihad: The blend of sex, Islam and war is failsafe bait for western media, which often fall for propaganda from the Middle East. Not all of the stories are hoaxes, but many of them are. By Sonja Zekri in CairoMore

After being dismissed from the newspaper Egypt Independent, editor-in-chief Lina Attalah founded the alternative news website Mada Masr. Egyptian media are in "a very precarious condition", she says – and calls for a new kind of critical journalism. Interview by Jannis HagmannMore

Were the revolutions in the Arabic world started by social networks? Tunisian publicist Amel Grami is sceptical, and warns against the extremist potential of the new mediaMore

Online activists in Syria have been involved in the anti-Assad rebellion from the outset. And although the regime is now playing them at their own game, their online presence shows one thing above all else: That in this nation at war, civil resistance continues to exist. By Jannis HagmannMore