Wahhabism
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Saudi Arabia: Janadriyah Festival of CultureA population ruled by fear
As was revealed at the culture festival in Riyadh, the Kingdom finds itself in a precarious position – not least because women are still excluded from podium discussions. Open debate about politics and religion did, however, take place at the fringes. Stefan Weidner reports from Riyadh
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Berlinale 2016: Interview with Saudi director Mahmoud Sabbagh″Testing the water... to make a change"
Newcomer Mahmoud Sabbagh′s offering is pacy, anarchic and – unexpectedly for Saudi Arabia – a romantic comedy. A love story set against the vibrant youth culture of Jeddah, ″Barakah meets Barakah″ presents a new generation of social media-savvy Saudis and their very real expectations. Rene Wildangel met and interviewed Mahmoud Sabbagh at the Berlinale
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Iran and Saudi Arabia:A plea for Islamic tolerance
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 Dabashi
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#SueMeSaudiTwitter users taunt Saudi Arabia
The hashtag #SueMeSaudi is soaring after a source at the Saudi Arabian justice ministry reportedly said he would sue a Twitter user who compared Saudi Arabia to the terror group "Islamic State"
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Navid Kermani′s Peace Prize acceptance speechFreeing Islam from the clutches of the fanatics
For the first time, Germany′s most important cultural prize has gone to a child of Muslim immigrants, the German-Iranian writer and Islamic studies expert Navid Kermani, born in 1967. According to Stefan Weidner, his combative speech may well go down in history
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State and religion in Iran"Shias tend to support the underdogs"
The Shia faith has always been a defining aspect of Iranian nationhood. In the twentieth century, the pro-Western regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi silenced critics and was eventually toppled by a popular revolution with strong religious dimensions in 1979. Tehran's stance has since been basically anti-Western, but that may now be changing. Maysam Behravesh, a political analyst with Tehran Bureau, assessed the nature of the Shia regime in an interview with Hans Dembowski
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The geopolitical situation in the Middle EastBetween terror and the dissolution of order
Indifferent superpowers and old rivalries: the megatrend in today's Middle East is the dissolution of a regional order. An analysis by Volker Perthes
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Raising awareness about Salafism in German schoolsSymbolic acts alone are not enough
What is the appropriate way to inform young Muslims in schools about the dangers of Salafism? In co-operation with the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, the association ufuq.de provides teaching materials on Islam, Islamophobia, Islamism and democracy. Gotz Nordbruch provides a personal account of preventive work in this field
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Manifesto published by Muslim intellectualsFor Islam and democracy
Muslim intellectuals have called on their fellow believers to indentify the failures of Muslim societies and develop an Islam for the twenty-first century. Loay Mudhoon believes that Europe should unreservedly support this effort
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After the Copenhagen attacks"We are not afraid"
The Copenhagen attacks are being regarded as a copy of the attacks in Paris a month ago. In this commentary, Barbara Wesel writes that freedom of speech, the separation of church and state, and gender equality are not negotiable, and that Muslims and non-Muslims alike must conduct a more open and critical debate about political Islam
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The West's strategy in the Middle EastHollow alliance
The islands of stability in the Arab-Islamic world are shrinking. In the face of war and chaos, the West continues to cling to its new-old allies: the "moderate Sunni regimes". The aim of this alliance, which purportedly shares goals and ideals, is that "good Islam" will conquer "bad Islam" with Western support. By Stefan Buchen
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Saudi Arabia and Iran after the death of King AbdullahNo prospect of rapprochement
The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been known to reach explosive heights on occasion. Deadly proxy conflicts are currently raging in a number of flash points in the Middle East. By Adnan Tabatabai