Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

Belly dancing is huge in Egyptian culture, and as ubiquitous as the pyramids. Some say it dates back to the pharaohs. It reached its peak in the 1940s, when Cairo was a place of free thought, art, and pleasure.More

A group of 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals express their concerns about the definition of anti-Semitism as propagated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed in several countries of Europe and North America.More

Social and economic upheaval in Lebanon in 2020 has deepened and magnified the poverty of Palestinian refugees. The country's "forgotten" Palestinians are bereft of international support and almost totally dependent on UNRWA. Lifting the restrictions on their economic status would help. By Stephen McCloskeyMore

Whether religious writings are interpreted in a tolerant or hostile way is closely linked to the historical context of their interpretation. The responsibility for terror lies primarily with the people and not with the religious texts themselves, says Assem Hefny, lecturer at Al-Azhar UniversityMore

“Muslims around the world, rulers and ruled, reject terrorism that acts in the name of religion, and affirm the innocence of Islam and its Prophet from terrorism.”More

This August saw the launch of the world's first online platform for Muslim services. Featuring a global provider community covering a full range of life services, from marriages to education, wills, and life coaching, ImamConnect enables users to book Imams, scholars, therapists, and more, all of whom have gone through stringent background and credentials checks.More

Relations between Muslims and Christians disintegrated in northern Iraq after the Islamic State took over Mosul and surrounding regions in 2014. Some 100,000 Christians fled their homes, returning years later to live uneasily alongside Muslim residents, whom they saw as complicit in the attacks. To what extent might football help heal the wounds?More

Universities can take an active role, however, in helping to build peaceful relations on campus, and beyond, by challenging prejudice and empowering Muslim and all marginal voices.More

"The Invisible Muslim" offers a topical read to better understand the anti-racism conversation raging across the world right now, as well as a case study of what it means to be a Muslim in the West in the 21st century.More

In the tenth issue of its online magazine. RAWI – Egypt's Heritage Review – delves into Egypt's fascinating culinary past, while also dishing up a few contemporary treats.More

The Tunisian-French author and sociologist Albert Memmi died last week at the age of 99. His life's work on de-colonisation, emigration and displacement remains highly relevant.More

The recent Netflix docuseries “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak” illustrates how the Islamic ritual washing, known as "wudu", may help spread a good hygiene message.More

With an estimated population of 1.8 billion, Muslims are the world’s second-largest religious group, after Christians. But our surveys have found that about half of Americans – as well as most Western Europeans – say they know little or nothing about Islam.More

Iranian activist and co-author of "Freedom is not a crime", Shaparak Shajarizadeh relates how she got "fed up with living a lie" and decided to take off her veil in Iran as an act of civil disobedience.More

In a bid to replace French with English in its tertiary level education, the Algerian government is to fund hundreds of PhD students to study at Ireland's University of Limerick (UL) under a deal estimated to be worth up to €20 million.More

Many disabled people in Yemen have not only survived years of armed conflict, but are also among the most marginalized people in a country that is currently experiencing – according to the United Nations – the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.More

Water is one of the most important elements of our planet. As a source of life, it is also one of the commons most threatened by the way we use it. In cooperation with Afaq Magazine, Goethe Institut Perspectives showcases initiatives, ideas and possible solultions for the MENA region.More

France's on-off row over the Muslim headscarf is on again. With March municipal elections on the way, President Macron told MPs from his own party not to let the far-right own the conversation on secularism, radicalisation and sectarianism. We ask what the law says and what the French want.More

A group of young Australian Muslims are embarking on a rural expedition across the country to challenge misconceptions about their faith. The road trip will see the young men from six cities visit more than 50 rural towns on the way to a gathering at Uluru.More

For decades, hundreds of Muslims have been forging their own identity in predominantly Catholic southern Mexico. Catholicism was brought to the mainly Maya indigenous region during the Spanish conquest, and in recent decades evangelical Christians have increased in number, but Muslims from Spain also came to Chiapas in the 1990s, bringing their religion with them. Soon locals began to convert, and now many fuse indigenous culture with Islamic customs.More

Contrary to popular belief, Muslims are firmly a part of the modern world and are grappling with the challenges of modernity in myriad ways. Many of them are navigating modernity’s sometimes uncharted waters with creativity and imagination, re-engaging with their tradition and revisiting their history.More

Taking inspiration from the success of star architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016, a new batch of ambitious female architects is hoping to take the region by storm.More

In India after World War Two, the city of Calcutta was home to 5,000 Jews. Muslims there have been the caretakers of synagogues in India for generations. Kalpana Pradhan reports.More

Specifying three principles, religious sociology expert Jose Casanova from Georgetown University argues that tolerance needs to begin with the recognition of religious diversity and plurality.More

In a country bound by strict Islamic law, more Iranians than ever before are staying single. The government is so concerned that it has set up an online dating agency. Shaunagh Connaire went to Tehran in 2016 to find out about dating, Iranian style.More

For thousands of years, two famous rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, made Iraq one of the most fertile regions in the Middle East. These days, the future of both rivers is in danger.More

Open societies and liberal democracies are no longer merely ideas: they have become reality, argues Aladin El-Mafaalani in his lecture on "Open society and social closure".More