Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

Amnesty International released a new report in January 2021 highlighting ongoing and historic human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay. As detentions enter their twentieth year, what line will Joe Biden take?More

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, warns his agency is on the edge of financial collapse. He holds out hope that the Biden administration will resume its funding for UNRWA, which was ended under Donald Trump in 2018.More

Ten years on, the hopes awakened by the Arab Spring protests have vanished – but the underlying conditions that drove the unrest are as acute as ever. Even in those countries that didn’t descend into war, more Arabs are now living in poverty, more are unemployed and more are imprisoned for their political beliefs than a decade ago.More

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a double suicide attack in Bagdad last week that killed over 30 people. This first major attack in the capital for years suggests the possible resurgence of Islamic State, as Wassim Nasr explains.More

Ten years after the Arab Spring, neither the model of a new social contract has prevailed in the Middle East, nor has a new geopolitical order been established. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung reviews the multifaceted and protracted transformation processes in the region.More

On 10 December Donald Trump tweeted that the USA recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, would open a consulate in Dakhla, and had brokered a qualified normalisation of ties between Morocco and Israel. Confirmed by Morocco’s royal cabinet and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this controversial quid pro quo agreement will have far-reaching regional, international, and domestic implications.More

Armenia and Azerbaijan settled for a Russian-brokered peace deal over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. Who does the peace settlement favour, and what does the future hold for Nagorno-Karabakh?More

James Le Mesurier's body was found in the early hours of 11 November 2019, on the cobblestones of Ali Pasha Street on the West side of Istanbul, Turkey. In death, the co-founder of the White Helmets left behind a tangled knot of truth and lies. Untangling that knot would mean finding out who he really was and how he came to die. It’s a story which goes to the heart of a very modern war.More

Triggered by India's decision in August 2019 to divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories, Kashmir's political geography has changed radically. In August 2020, Islamabad published a map showing all Kashmir as part of Pakistan, while in September, the Chinese government terminated the status quo with India in the Ladakh/Aksai Chin region, indicating potential for co-operation with Pakistan.More

On 19 June 2019, following a six-month investigation, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 101-page report holding the State of Saudi Arabia responsible for the "premeditated extrajudicial execution" of Khashoggi.More

Two German Jews dreaming of living in the Holy Land chose to settle near Bethlehem. Under international law, Israeli settlement activities on Palestinian soil are, however, illegal. What attracted these two Germans, and how do they imagine themselves living with the Palestinians?More

5 August 2019 – the day of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. One year on, we take a look at the lives of Kashmiris who have lived through almost a year-long lockdown.More

Democracy and pluralism are under assault. Dictators are toiling to stamp out the last vestiges of domestic dissent and spread their harmful influence to new corners of the world. At the same time, many freely elected leaders are dramatically narrowing their concerns to a blinkered interpretation of the national interest.More

In interview with senior HRW researcher Belkis Wille. Paul Aufiero asks whether the new Iraqi government will be able to address an ongoing campaign by many authorities to silence critics, with journalists and activists facing violence, harassment, and prosecution for simply speaking out?More

This year's World Press Freedom Index demonstrates the great personal risk journalists are exposed to in many countries around the world. Added to the expected dangers of reporting from dictatorships and increasingly brazen authoritarian regimes, countries with democratically elected presidents are also presenting increasing problems.More

Anwar al-Bunni has helped make a landmark trial possible, but his sights are set on a bigger target – the Syrian regime.More

According to the United Nations, over the past three months, almost one million people have been displaced by a Russia-backed regime offensive. NGOs say camps are overcrowded, while water and sanitation facilities are inadequate.More

Hazem Kandil, an author and reader in political sociology at the University of Cambridge, talks about what the Arab Spring achieved, the conflict in Syria and what lies ahead for the region.More

In this moment of unrest, and brutal violence by the state and state-backed groups, Indian publication "The Wire" asked Benjamin Zachariah, expert on the history of the Right and of Indian manifestations of fascism: is this, or is this not fascism?More

Ever since the United States invaded the country in 2001, the Afghan army has been mired in a decades-long war against the Taliban. Corruption is rife. FRANCE 24 Observers team shines a light on poor organisation and the difficulties that Afghan troops face, from insufficient food and pay to a lack of suitable clothing.More

Iraqi novelist and poet Sinan Antoon comments on the ongoing protests in his home country and why he feels optimistic.More

Leaked documents detail for the first time China's systematic brainwashing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in a network of high-security prison camps. The Chinese government has consistently claimed the camps in the far western Xinjiang region offer voluntary education and training. But official documents, seen by BBC Panorama, show how inmates are locked up, indoctrinated and punished.More

A look at the street art from Sudanese youth during the uprising against former president Omar Hassan Al Bashir.More

“I’m going out to claim my rights” – on 1 October, the Iraqi people mobilised en masse demonstrating against corruption, unemployment, political quotas, and the interference of neighbouring states, particularly Iran, in Iraq’s government and policies. Nearly six weeks later, the protests continue.More

It is over a year since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and tensions between the U.S. and Iran are steadily increasing. This 2009 documentary presents a different take on the story of Iranian nuclear energy.More

Moustache masks of the British conspirator Guy Fawkes are worn by demonstrators all over the world. Now, inspired by the new feature film, the comic book villain Joker is to be found among protesters in Lebanon and elsewhere. Psychogram of a green-haired anti-hero with a clown face. By Johannes Schmitt-TeggeMore

Since 2014, when President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi took power, Egyptian courts have sentenced some 3,000 people to death according to the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, an independent organisation that documents human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa. Innocence or guilt no longer appears to play a role.More

The Syrian government is co-opting humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, urging donors and investors to ensure that funding is going to the right place.More

BBC Radio 4's "File on Four" reveals how surveillance software designed to track drug-dealers and terrorists is being used by Gulf states to spy on journalists, human rights activists and lawyers carrying out legitimate activities.More

A recently published Human Rights Watch report based on two years of investigation documents crimes including mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings and possibly unlawful air and ground attacks against civilians in the North Sinai.More

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) have released the first comprehensive report on torture in Jammu and Kashmir. Using 432 case studies, the report charts trends, patterns and impacts of torture since 1947. Since the Indian armed forces enjoy legal impunity, not a single prosecution has ever taken placeMore

While the details of Donald Trumpʹs "deal of the century" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain a well-kept secret, the U.S. administration’s record to date suggests the initiative will prioritise Israeli interests over Palestinian rights, ignore fundamental principles of international law and steer well away from the idea of two sovereign states.More

In backing a warlord, Paris may be dealing itself a losing hand. "Macron was misadvised into thinking that Libya could be a quick win for his charisma," says Tarek Megerisi, researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations.More

Owing to General Khalifa Haftar's attack on Tripoli, the national conference on Libya planned by the UN has been cancelled. In view of recent developments, we recommend reading Wolfram Lacher's commentary published by SWP.More

Renowned journalists, Islamic scholars and authors shed light on the various facets of racist and Islamophobic violence in Western countries.More

Tania Georgelas met her husband John, an American convert to Islam, online and they connected over their Islamist views. After John moved Tania and their children to Syria, she decided to escape. Now she wants to dedicate her life to countering extremism and rehabilitating ex-jihadists.More