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Secular Subjects within a Religious Framework

A market for Islamic schools has opened up among Indonesia's growing middle class. Their graduates are very likely to become some of Indonesia's future political leaders, social activists, academics and business-people. Karen Bryner reports

Violence increasing against the beleaguered Ahmadiyya community

Pakistan's anti-Ahmadi laws have been in place for almost 40 years now, and the impact on this religious minority has been devastating. In a war of attrition, the laws have ground down the Ahmadi community, scarring an entire generation. Fear, flight and persecution are the hallmarks of life for the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan. According to Mohammad Luqman, there is little hope of improvement

The General Forced to Make a Move

Pakistan could face a civil war. The army has squandered its reputation as savior of the nation and the General is under pressure to act. A commentary by Bernard Imhalsy

Boxed into a Corner

Pervez Musharraf has long been regarded as a master of playing his political opponents off against each other. Yet, how much support does the Pakistani president have after the storming of the Red Mosque? Thomas Bärthlein with a background report

Indonesian Author Leaves Blueprint for Pluralism

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, once considered Asia's most promising candidate for a Nobel Prize in literature, has recently died, aged 81, still unknown to many in his homeland. The great writer is now in danger of falling into oblivion, writes Lachlyn Soper

"We must want peace"

Yahya Cholil Staquf is a prominent Muslim cleric and secretary-general of the world's largest Islamic organisation, Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which has 60 million members. After visiting Israel and meeting with PM Netanyahu, he was heavily criticised at home. In this interview, conducted by Rizki Nugraha, he explains that his agenda was to approach peace movements and to strengthen the aspirations for peace within Israeli society

Smoke and Reality

‘Hashish’ is a documentary film about cultivation of cannabis in the mountains of Ketama, North Morocco. The film sketches a portrait of this life: a look at work and daily family life; the drug; music and landscape as a metaphysical projection surface.

Quake Death Toll Climbs to 20,000

International specialist rescue workers, among them Germans, have reached the quake site in Iran to search for survivors as Iranian authorities confirmed that the death toll now stood at 20,000.

In Syria’s rebel zones, volunteers dig mass graves

As rescue workers continued to search for survivors of the earthquake that happened on 6 February, residents of Syria’s northwestern opposition-controlled territories were forced to start digging mass graves to bury victims

Idlib: Life among the ruins