In its 40th year, the Islamic Republic of Iran is in a state of disintegration, says one of the country's strategists. The theocracy has arrived at a crossroads and the world cannot be indifferent to its future direction. Essay by Ali SadrzadehMore
The murder of well-known Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi highlights the difficulties facing media in post-revolutionary Arab states. The freedoms temporarily gained after 2011 have long since fallen victim to the authoritarian restoration. By Loay MudhoonMore
The most promising democratic experiment in the Arab world can still avert political disaster, but Tunisia urgently needs outside help in view of the ongoing trench warfare within the government, writes Youssef Cherif in his essayMore
In northeastern Syria, the U.S. and Turkey are wrangling over how to deal with the Kurdish militias. The regime could score points from this – and gain control with Russian support. An analysis by Kristin HelbergMore
Trump's withdrawal from Syria could indeed be a dangerous prelude to an expanded regional war. Yet with imagination and diplomacy the withdrawal could also be an important step on the difficult road to peace in the region, argues Jeffrey D. SachsMore
Muslims who grant themselves the right to adopt a human rights declaration based on their own religion need to allow followers of other religions to do the same, argues Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi in her essayMore
Why resort to bans on specific religious practices, when we live in an age and a form of society where one can open oneself to permanent processes of education? If piety and self-determination are to be brought into line with a liberal, democratic society, argues Emel Zeynelabidin, then other measures must be appliedMore
Amid the increasing complexity of the Syrian conflict, a growing number of "critical citizens" are assigning greater credibility to conspiracy theories on the Internet than to UN investigations that are required to meet scientific standards. Essay by Kristin HelbergMore
In the new Cold War between the USA and the Islamic Republic the theocracy is taking on the status of the defunct Soviet Union, writes Ali Sadrzadeh. Tehranʹs powerbrokers have, however, come up with several strategies to counter Trump's tightened sanctions policyMore
Principled leaders on the world stage need to reinforce the rules on which we all depend, sending a clear signal that what happened in Istanbul is not acceptable. Otherwise, we will effectively be giving up the discourse of values and rules – a decision that could well leave us with no coherent and stabilising discourse at all, argues Ana PalacioMore
The constant state of denial that is a feature of the Egyptian urban middle class and the Sisi regime shores up a deeply paradoxical ideological construct, argues Maged Mandour, where repression is deemed necessary, yet must remain covertMore
Syrian historian Nasser Rabbat argues that the Arab Spring resulted mainly from social imbalance and the misery of large sections of the population within the Arab world. Moreover, as long as economic inequality persists, these states will continue to be plagued by instabilityMore
A destabilised Turkey is the last thing Europe needs. Regardless of what one thinks about Erdogan, more important things are at stake: peace and stability in south-eastern Europe and the future of Turkish democracy. Essay by Germanyʹs former foreign minister Joschka FischerMore
The mob in Chemnitz had a lot in common with the neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan followers and other extremists who caused mayhem a year ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, writes Ian BurumaMore
However they may appear in their early stages, Arab civil wars are wars between kinsfolk. The social group becomes partisan, whether sectarian, tribal, party political or ethnic. Whatʹs more, argues Morris Ayek, Arab civil wars have no endMore
Anti-Semitism continues to be a serious problem. But it is also being used as a blanket rebuke of anyone who criticises Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, says Ofer WaldmanMore
A militia mentality has gripped many Arab states. Today it seems that the regionʹs authoritarian regimes are resorting to methods more commonly associated with gangs and armed clans, says Kuwaiti analyst Shafeeq Ghabra.More
The bias against Muslims is growing. In Europe they are increasingly seen as interlopers, against whom people must defend themselves. This pattern is not entirely new, as Stefan Buchen reveals in his essayMore
Since 1945, Indonesia has pursued its own state ideology of Pancasila, characterised by religious tolerance and social justice. Following the failure of the Arabellion, it could serve as a role model for democratic re-birth in many Arab states, writes Abhishek MohantyMore
What a contradiction in terms! Thanks to the growing ethnicisation of religious affiliation and the religionisation of ethnicity, being both Muslim and German is often presented as something wholly incompatible. By Yasemin ShoomanMore
Braving the bitter cold, Lebanese villagers have been patrolling a mountainside in the country's north, trying to protect trees from loggers who roll in under the cover of darkness, while refugees in the Bekaa valley have joined a seed bomb reforestation project
Congress allocates historic funding to Middle East peace
This week United States Congress passed the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, historic legislation delivering unprecedented levels of funding for peacebuilding in Israel and Palestine. This follows over a decade of advocacy by the Alliance for Middle East Peace – ALLMEP – toward the creation of an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.More
Oxford study on Muhammad's "underage" wife Aisha
New scholarship suggests the story of Islam's prophet marrying a minor is baseless propaganda fabricated for political and sectarian motives.More
"Europe's Muslims are European. Stop outsourcing their plight to foreign leaders"
For EU leaders to seek solutions abroad to end prejudice against millions of their own citizens is insulting and meaningless, argues Shada Islam for The Guardian.More
Mustafa Akyol: Muslims should disarm Islamophobia with kindness
Mustafa Akyol, author of "The Islamic Jesus", argues that the Koran has many verses that command a courteous response – even to a terrible insult about Islam.More
Sands of time: a century of Egyptian photography – in pictures
These images of everyone from presidents to paupers show the tourist’s view of Egypt that we know – and the backstreets we don’tMore
The Arab intellectual, past and present
This new intellectual generation is like a middle child – sandwiched between the self-confident, older sibling and the younger, carefree baby sibling. Unable to accept the determinism of the old and refusing to live by the nihilist ways of the young, it inhabits the interregnum: sitting between the old, which is dying, and the new that cannot be born.More
The people who shaped Islamic civilisation
Chase Robinson's new book "Islamic Civilisation in Thirty Lives" is an elegant digest of the many colourful, creative and technologically innovative manifestations that the Prophet Muhammad inspired from his seventh-century oases in the Arabian peninsula, reminding us that Islam is less a nihilistic creed than a global civilisation.More
Online magazine Jadaliyya
Featuring contributions by writers from the Islamic world, the independent online magazine "Jadaliyya" is published by the Arab Studies Institute.More
Muslims: in defence of religious freedom and the German constitution
Muslims in Germany have launched a petition calling on all citizens of Germany to support the German legal system, especially the German constitution and its protection of religious freedom.More
The first colour photos of the Middle East
These images of Middle Eastern cities, towns and attractions were taken during the 1890s. Colour was added manually to the black and white negatives using the Photochrom technique pioneered by Photoglob Zurich AG.More
Bosnia Herzegovina: Mosque of hope
It is over twenty years since the end of the war in Bosnia, yet many Muslims in Bosnia still feel alienated. A mosque destroyed by the civil war reopened recently.More
Jihad and homosexuality: a history of entanglement
At the heart of jihadist political violence are specific conceptualisations of gender and sexuality. Jihadism imagines a glorified militant masculinity that protects the Muslim world from the European threat and purifies its societies of internal decay.More
D+C | Development &Cooperation
D+C Development and Cooperation is a website and a monthly print magazine that seeks to provide a credible forum of debate, involving governments, civil society, the private sector and academia at an international level.More
