The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, which began with the Six-Day War in June 1967, changed the lives of millions of Palestinians. Sociologist Salim Tamari talked to Diana Hodali about what they experiencedMore

Gone the dream of a modern Arab civil society. Syrian writer Nasser Rabbat examines the historical causes for despotism, tyranny and oppression in the Arab worldMore

The order of nation states in the Middle East has been disintegrating since Islamic State fighters overran the Syrian border in 2014 – a border that dates back to 1916 and a secret agreement between the diplomats Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot. Yet one woman also played a key role: the British national Gertrude Bell. Birgit Svensson visited her grave in BaghdadMore

Iran is a state of many ethnicities where over a dozen languages are spoken, including, among others, Persian, Baluchi, Luri, Arabic, and Turkish. Unfortunately, the country’s education policy does not take account of this linguistic diversity. By Manutschehr AmirpurMore

The escalating rivalries and animosities between Iran and Saudi Arabia have nothing to do with the Sunni-Shia divide in the Islamic theology, even less with the common fate and destiny of Iranians and Arabs among other nations in the region. An analysis by Hamid DabashiMore

In his new book, "Terror vor Europas Toren" (Terror at the Gates of Europe), Wilfried Buchta analyses the reasons for the rise of the jihadist militia of the self-styled "Islamic State" and the disintegration of the Iraqi state. Ulrich von Schwerin spoke to Buchta, a scholar of Islam, who worked as a UN analyst in Baghdad for many years about the future of the nationMore

The city of Palmyra, which was recently seized by Islamic State (IS), was once ruled by Queen Zenobia, who became a source of inspiration for modern, secular Arabs and the Arab women's movement alike. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that articles in the Arab media are referring to Zenobia as a "prisoner of the jihadists". By Joseph CroitoruMore