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Home Advantage for Mosque Opponents

A conflict over plans to build a new mosque in the German town of Wertheim extended over 20 years. The documentary film Heimvorteil (Home Advantage) portrays the main participants in this dispute and shows how blocking the construction of a mosque turned back the clock on integration. By Klaus Heymach

"Criticism Is Allowed, But Not Hate Speech"

The Catholic bishops have published guidelines on 'Mosque Building in Germany' as a contribution toward 'making the debate more objective'. It is a rejection of all those who attempt to politically instrumentalize people's fears at Islam's growing presence. Claudia Mende reports

Vanguards of "Euro-Islam"?

Prestigious mosques, well established organisations, university chairs – Islam in Germany has outgrown its status as a minority religion. Could this be the start of what is known as Euro-Islam in the Federal Republic, asks Gregor Taxacher

"Modernity, Democracy Are Only for the Privileged"

The Egyptian scholar Hamid Abu Zayd criticizes the age-old border between the wealthy North and the impoverished South. It still exists, despite globalisation. Universal human values, however, cannot be a privilege restricted to the West

Protecting the Veil

The UK gives female police officers the option to wear the hijab on duty. With the government and British Muslims joining ranks against a ban on the headscarf, Britain prefers integration to assimilation. Tareq Al-Arab reports

A Question of Decency and Tact

Muhammad Kalisch, Professor for Islamic Studies at the University of Münster, Germany, sharply criticises that Islam in Western media is often portrayed as "the enemy", but argues that there must be absolute freedom of speech

Easing Relations

The Vatican and leading Iranian theologians have reached agreement on a declaration on "Faith and Reason in Christianity and Islam." The paper sends out an important signal in terms of easing religious and political tensions. Reinhard Kleber reports

Arab Protests Are Calculated Political Response

Mass protests and boycotts in the Arab world are exaggerated reactions to the Mohammed cartoon and an example of how governments instrumentalize hatred against the West for political purposes. Ibrahim Mohamad reports

Differentiated Perception

Whether discussions on controversial prophet caricatures in a Danish newspaper or naturalization tests for Muslims – the theme of European Muslims is not only making headlines in Europe, but in the Islamic world as well. By Götz Nordbruch

The Framed World

In this age of global media, foreign countries and events are only viewed through a small frame that obscures everything else. Charlotte Wiedemann files this report about working as a foreign correspondent and the way we perceive the rest of the world