Letters to the Editors

Khalid Ahmed Chaudry

on: "Islam Was Always Part of Europe", interview with Michael Borgolte by Ralph Bollmann

And it will remain part of Europe not as an invading force but as a member of the family of the Abraham's belief. For me "The Jews, The Christians and The Muslims are colours of a Rainbow", the only requirement is dialogue and harmony within us, so that we can fight against our common enemy "all those creating the seeds of misunderstanding and hatred in our hearts and minds"!More

R. Cole

on: "Islam Was Always Part of Europe", interview with Michael Borgolte by Ralph Bollmann

Smoothing things over - a counter debate! "But Muslims ... had a decisive influence over the transfer of knowledge from ancient Greece, Rome and the East." Could one say that these were all the places Muslims conquered and adopted the knowledge as their own? As today - they are selective in what they are allowed to study/ learn and ultimately Islamic restrictions - brought achievements via - the Greek and Egyptian translations - to a crushing halt. Through Muslim warfare Christians were barred from ...More

Firoz Khan, 10 January 2010

on: "Islam Was Always Part of Europe", interview with Michael Borgolte by Ralph Bollmann

Living together by Muslims, Christians and Jews Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together respecting each other's religions and religious practices. With the spread of education and modern facilities like internet the hatred for each other spread like wild fire instead of love and mutual respect. Inter-Faith dialogues are the only solutions to revert back to the old days. Not the 'Tolerance' but love and respect are the solutions.More

Paul Bryant

on: "Islam Was Always Part of Europe", interview with Michael Borgolte by Ralph Bollmann

This interview is a shameless example of politically correct-but factually wrong-Islamist propaganda and revisionist history. The website Qantera.de does itself a disservice even posting it. Islam was not always a part of European culture because Islam did not always exist, but aside from this inaccurate claim, historically Islam was only a part of European culture once invading Muslim armies carried the religion with them and forced it on the Christians who were already there. Let's remember that the ...More

Mohammed Yunus, 22 December 2009

on: A Christmas Meditation, by William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple’s essay comes at a moment when the worlds of Islam and Christianity seem to be on a collision course, and is therefore worthy of wide readership in the Islamic world. Muslims regard their Prophet (Muhammad) with inordinate love and devotion, as reflects in their vociferous and even violent reactions to attempts to lampooning him in the media or literary works. but there is hardly any visibility of their devotion to Jesus Christ. Islam not only venerates Jesus Christ and his Mother, Mary, as the essay amply demonstrates, it also asks Muslims to make ...More

George Giacaman, Ph.D.

on: Sadiq al-Azm: An Argumentative Arab Enlightener, by Kersten Knipp

Your identification of S.J.Al-Azm in your latest issue of qantara left the most important aspects out. For instance, you say he studied Philosophy in Beirut; that is true as far as his BA is concerned but he finished his Ph.D. at Yale University in Philosophy in the US. He is also a Kant specialist and published two books on Kant in English (one by Oxford University Press) in addition to several books in Arabic and countless articles. His book that you refer to is no doubt very influential but mentioning it alone does not give the correct overall profile ...More

Dimitar Drentchev

on: Islam and the Imagery of Fear in Bulgaria: The B arbarians of Batak, by Sonja Zekri

With all due respect to Sonja Zekri, I should beg to differ. To state an opinion in this attempt of an article, and to be an open supporter of two people who obviously in their quest for glory have chosen to speculate with the tragedy of a whole nation, which endured the Turkish tyranny for 500 years, might be considered by some people a credible spring of unmatched providence, ...More

Amina G.

on: Ibn al-Jawzi's Mysoginist Writings, by Stefan Weidner

Circumcision was never an Islamic teaching for women, it was a habit in some countries and the sunnah calls for circumcision only for boys for hygienic reasons and it has been proved scientifically recently that it's healthy and reduces the chances of a cancer in the genital area and, by the way, Jews also practice the circumcision for boys. There are hundreds of hadiths by the prophet Mohamed (PBUH) who put women in a very high position like, for example, women are sisters of men, and the judgement by God for women and men is equal and that a religious woman is ...More

Amina G.

on: The Niqab Debate in Egypt: Divided Scholars, by Alfred Hackensberger

True, the niqab is an old tradition and is not a coranique prescription but the hijab is mentioned in the sourat al nour (the light), verse no 31 which clearly calls for the covering of the head but not the face. And this is not only an Islamic teaching as the religious Jewish women cover their heads as well as the Christian nuns, so it has its origins in Christianity, too. Why do Westerners concentrate so much on the hijab and why do they not try to look into the mind of Muslim women who wear the hijab and how they live. Muslim women attend schools and universities and ...More

Mohammed Yunus

on: The Niqab Debate in Egypt: Divided Scholars, by Alfred Hackensberger

The following write up under Ch. 28.4 of a recent publication, 'Essential Message of Islam', described as an authenticated text by Sheikh Abou El Fadl, Prof. of Law, UCLA, is fully supportive of the ban on niqab: "The clear pronouncements of the verses 7:26 and 24:30 and the textual analysis of 24:31 as tabled above demonstrate that for any public appearance, the Qur'an asks, men and women to restrain their glances and cover their private parts (furujah). The Qur'an also takes account of a woman’s innate power to provoke the male sexual impulse by wearing revealing ...More

Bashy Quraishy

on: Good Taliban, Bad Taliban, by Thomas Bärthlein

Dear editor, Once again Qantara publishes an article by another armchair journalists like Thomas Bärthlein in which the author blames the Pakistani army and the secret service for building up the Taliban in the first place. Such absurd claims verge on the border of anti-Pakistan propaganda and ignorance of history. The Taliban movement was created by the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies to counter the Soviet occupation because they did not want their own precious soldiers to die in Afghanistan.

The movement was supported by Saudi money and the USA arm- ...More

Hamed Ahmad, 7 September 2009

on: Tariq Ramadan: Dismissal over TV Show, by Dirk Schümer

An un-academic prejudiced biased childish action by the University of Rotterdam. While many lecturers and professors work for Western and Eastern intelligence agencies, it is strange that a European university resorts to such actions or reactions. Let us read such news from Muslim countries. But, about Mr Tareq Ramadan. I am a great admirer of him. I find him as a true believer with a deep knowledge of the real Islam. But, I am shocked to learn that he works for an Iranian state-run TV. God!

This is the same Iran who condemned and condemns Ekhwanul Muslemin – The Muslim ...More

Bashy Quraishy, 5 September 2009

on: We Dont Want to Establish a Muslim Republic in the Netherlands, Interview with Henny Kreeft

There is nothing wrong with the notion that people fight for their rights through a special interest party in a society where main stream parties either neglect issues important to ethnic and religious minorities or take minority votes for granted.There are many examples of single issue political parties.

Having said that it is important that such parties are inclusive and do not base their manifesto on a religion but on human rights, religious freedom and equality under the law. There are ...More

Khalid Ahmed Chaudry, 28 August 2009

on: Tariq Ramadan: Dismissal over TV Show, by Dirk Schümer

It's quite a very very sad event which unfortunately will help those populists who have been involve in the Islam Bashing. They would declare this as a victory! Both the City government of Rotterdam and the Erasmus University should have given Tariq Ramadan a chance to defend his case. But the decision was taken in such a rapid way that one has to doubt on the 'integrity of this decision'. Since there have been a regular debate in the Netherlands about Freedom of Expression and Writing, this decision is quite confusing.

Dutch constitution guarantees this rights. At least I ...More

Ashraf

on: In Solidarity with All Muslims, by Stephan J. Kramer

I want to send my thanks to this brave open minded man who supported Muslims though he is not, this really confirms his great statement "You don't have to be a Muslim to act against anti-Muslim behavior, and you don't have to be a Jew to act against anti-Semitism", and I want to do it if he does not mind, "It is enough to be a human to act against all sorts of racism." Thank you again Mr. Kramer.More

Erkan Esmer, 2 June 2009

on: A Feeling of Powerlessness, by Günter Seufert

This German author should really analyze the treatment of Turks in Germany rather than criticise the Turks. Mr. Dink's murder was unforgivable. But the whole Turkish Nation didn't do it. Germans claim that Hitler was a nut case, but Garmans had nothing to do with the Holocost. I say to the writer, in West Virginian, "Herr Kraut look in the mirror!"More

Goethe-Institut's Perspektiven: Generational conflict

Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon… six young women and men from six different countries put their individual views and experience with the generational conflict into words for this dossier.More

Die meistgelesenen Qantara-Artikel des Jahres 2017

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi (photo: Reuters)

A round-up of Qantara.de's ten most read articles in 2017.More

Your favourite articles of the year

Muslims at the German Muslim community's day of action in Berlin (photo: Reuters/Hannibal)

This year, roughly 450 English-language articles were published on Qantara.de. These articles covered a huge variety of topics from the civil war in Syria, the rise of IS, and the Gaza conflict to elections in Tunisia, Turkey, India and Egypt. We also took a closer look at Islamophobia in Germany and worldwide, integration in Europe, and women's rights and freedom of speech in the Islamic world, not to mention a fascinating and colourful range of topics from the world of cultureMore

Charting the political barometer in Iran

The Group for Analysing & Measuring Attitudes in Iran (source: gamaan

This survey, conducted by The Group for Analysing & Measuring Attitudes in Iran in the early months of 2018, reveals the political attitudes of 72% of Iranians, i.e. those who did not vote for Ebrahim Raisi in Iran’s 2017 presidential election. The survey, which recorded the opinions of more than 19,000 individuals, aims to measure and capture some of the political attitudes that Iranians cannot freely express in Iran.More

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

Over four millennia, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman influences crossed paths in Syria. Today, precious cultural sites from these eras are being damaged as the Syrian civil war takes its toll on the country's cultural heritage. This week, the United Nation's cultural organization UNESCO made fresh reports about damage to Syria's historic sites.

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

The civil war in Syria, which has taken the lives of thousands since 2011, is becoming increasingly brutal. Valuable cultural sites are also being destroyed in the fighting. UNESCO has now provided reports on the damage.