Wahhabism
All topics-
Saudi influence in Pakistan
A perilous road
Saudi-supported ultra-conservative worldviews, abetted by successive Pakistani governments, are changing the very nature of Pakistani society. By James M. Dorsey
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Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan
Where the warlords still hold sway
The militias of Afghan warlords have always occupied a dubious position in the life of the country. But Kabul relies on them as allies in the battle against the Taliban – a strategy, however, that is having the opposite effect. By Emran Feroz
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Sufism
Lifting the lid
Many Western devotees of Sufism view it as a more liberal brand of Islam. That is a misunderstanding. An essay by Stefan Weidner
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Political Islam in Indonesia
Wahhabism runs into the sand
Many Indonesians are watching with concern as religious intolerance and violence against minorities continues to escalate. But the vast majority are successfully stemming the tide of radical tendencies. By Franz Magnis-Suseno
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The scourge of sectarianism
Obstinate mass suicide
In his essay, the well-known Jordanian journalist and literary scholar Fahkri Saleh explores the impact of the scourge – characterised by fanaticism, extremism, introversion and lethal sectarianism – that is currently sweeping the Muslim world
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Saudi Arabia and Iran
Defeat Islamic State - or become it
The dawn of 2016 has brought a new round of doomsday predictions that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family cannot sustain its autocratic grip on power. The kingdom, pessimists argue, is caught in a perfect storm with economic problems, social challenges and foreign policy crises all converging at the same time. By James M. Dorsey
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Saudi Arabia: Janadriyah Festival of Culture
A 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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Sunni-Shia tension
Islam versus Islam
The religious element of the conflicts raging in the Middle East today is a major reason why they are proving so difficult to defuse. An essay by Shahid Javed Burki
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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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#SueMeSaudi
Twitter 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 speech
Freeing 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