Most recent articles by Sonja Zekri
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KazakhstanTyrants of the steppe
Over 160 Kazakhs die as President Tomayev orders his security forces to "shoot to kill without warning". So what kind of country are we actually talking about? By Sonja Zekri
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The West and Islam 20 years after 9/11Paranoia, now
A deluge of books, movies, series and cover stories: ever since the events of 9/11, the West has seemed almost manically preoccupied with Islam. Yet this has rarely led to deeper understanding. Instead, what has been reinforced is the concept of Islam as fate. By Sonja Zekri
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Prey"Condemning Islam, glorifying the West
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new book "Prey" claims to examine how Muslim immigration threatens the rights of Western women. Indeed the injustices women face only seem to matter to her when Muslims are involved, writes Sonja Zekri
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Germany's headscarf rulingThe things headscarves reveal
The judges at Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe are wrong to treat the hijab as a purely "religious symbol". The act of a woman demonstratively covering her head is not a gesture of subjugation, but of rebellion. A commentary by Sonja Zekri
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Book review: Waguih Ghali's "Beer in the Snooker Club"The cruel disillusionment of an entire generation
The novel "Beer in the Snooker Club" by the Egyptian author Waguih Ghali was first published in London in the mid-1960s. It was rediscovered during the Arab Spring. A German translation has recently been published. Sonja Zekri read the book
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Germany’s anti-Semitism problemJew, Israeli, Zionist
The political scientist David Ranan doubts that anti-Semitism is more pervasive among Muslims than non-Muslims. Currently, however, this thesis is being perverted and used to serve questionable political ends. By Sonja Zekri
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Egyptian historian Khaled Fahmy on the Six-Day WarThe Arabs′ Groundhog Day
In interview with Sonja Zekri, Harvard-based Egyptian historian Khaled Fahmy describes the Arab defeat at the hands of Israel in the year 1967 as triggering the rise of Islamism
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Journalism from the Middle EastTall Tales from the Desert
A blogging Syrian lesbian, Libyan soldiers in a Viagra-fuelled frenzy, Tunisian women on a sexual Jihad: The blend of sex, Islam and war is failsafe bait for western media, which often fall for propaganda from the Middle East. Not all of the stories are hoaxes, but many of them are. By Sonja Zekri in Cairo
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Political Upheaval in EgyptA Clear Message for the Brotherhood
In this commentary, Sonja Zekri writes that while it is impossible to say who will be ruling Egypt at the end of the week, it is quite possible to say with certainty that the Muslim Brotherhood, which only a year ago seemed unbeatable, has been a spectacular failure in power