Qantara Startseite Englisch - Dialogue with the Islamic world
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Syrians in TurkeyA home for Istanbul's refugees
Based in an inconspicuous room in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, Addar offers Syrian refugees education, advice and community. But without proper funding, the initiative is struggling to survive.
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The murder of Ben BarkaNew revelations from Israel's archives
The book "L'Affaire Ben Barka" reveals new details about the assassination of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka. Long-secret Israeli documents show the role of Mossad in one of the 20th century's most mysterious murders.
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Jafar Panahi's film "It Was Just an Accident"Humanism and humour
In the Iranian director's most critical film yet, Jafar Panahi presents a cross-section of society, takes aim at the practice of torture and shows fearless women claiming space. But there's still room for comedy.
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Historical photographs of SyriaAn obsessive archivist
Ahmed Hasan sold his house to pursue a passion for historical photographs. His collection traces Syria's history through everyday life.
Politics
More about Politics-
Syria's economyAusterity and liberalisation won't rebuild the country
Syria's government is pursuing economic growth through liberalisation, foreign investment and cuts to state spending. These moves benefit the new elite but won't lift the majority out of crisis.
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Religion in the armed forcesMilitary imams to be introduced in Germany
From 2026, Germany's Bundeswehr will recruit chaplains for Muslim soldiers, responding to calls from Islamic associations that go back over two decades.
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The Ankara bombingPresaging the end of the Turkish Republic?
What we have witnessed in the last two years, culminating in the horrible scenes of 10 October in Ankara, is the end of the Turkish Republic as we know it. A commentary by Umut Ozkirimli
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Interview with Rafik Schami"Escape is a life-saver"
In conversation with Ruth Renee Reif, the renowned writer Rafik Schami gives his views on the European refugee crisis and has sharp criticism for the West's political dealings with the Assad regime in Syria
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The MaghrebWhy does the Algerian regime fear Rachad?
In light of propaganda against the movement, media censorship, book banning and bogus Interpol arrest warrants against its founders, the regime clearly sees Rachad as a threat. But why? By Lakhdar Ghettas
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Afghanistan: the Taliban′s Kunduz offensive"There's nothing left to keep me here"
The security situation in Afghanistan continues to escalate. After bitter fighting in Kunduz, the mood is also tense in Kabul. Meanwhile thousands of Afghans are leaving the country every day. Impressions from Kabul by Emran Feroz
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Volker Perthes: "The end of the Middle East, as we know it"The end of Sykes-Picot?
Almost a century ago, France and Britain carved up large swathes of the Middle East between them. Now the order imposed by the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 appears to be disintegrating. In his new essay, Volker Perthes outlines the reasons for this development and suggests potential scenarios for the region. A review by Anne Allmeling
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The global risks of an imploding Middle EastA region in flames
Among today′s geopolitical risks, none is greater than the long arc of instability stretching from the Maghreb to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. With the Arab Spring an increasingly distant memory, the instability along this arc is deepening. An analysis by Nouriel Roubini
Society
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Education in SyriaReturning pupils face language barrier
Eleven-year-old Ali spent six years in Germany. Now back in Syria, he is struggling with Arabic, his native language, as the new government appears overwhelmed by the task of reintegrating returning schoolchildren.
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Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi"Intersectional long before the term was coined"
A seminal feminist text by Nawal El Saadawi has been translated into English and German for the first time, over five decades after it first appeared in Arabic. Publisher and translator Sophie Haesen explains why it should be essential reading worldwide.
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Preventing terrorism in LebanonDialogue behind bars
The world is horrified by the brutality of Islamic State (IS). Two young sisters are now doing what they can to prevent young Lebanese people from joining radical Islamist groups. By doing so, they are risking their lives. Juliane Metzker reports from Beirut
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Book review: Sadakat Kadri's "Heaven on Earth"What is justice?
This brilliantly written book on Sharia law by the Indian-born British lawyer Sadakat Kadri has been a huge success in Britain. "Heaven on Earth" provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the history of Sharia law from its origins to the present day, as well as the difficulties faced in its application. Now that it has been published in German translation, Stefan Weidner takes a look at this successful book
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Interview with Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch"These are people floating around, waiting to die"
Thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims remain stranded at sea without adequate food and water. On Wednesday, 20 May, Malaysia and Indonesia finally bowed to mounting international pressure, announcing that they would offer refugees temporary shelter provided that they are resettled and repatriated by the international community within a year. Roma Rajpal Weiß spoke to Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, who condemned the policy of the countries of South-East Asia
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The Muslim Rohingya minority in MyanmarStateless people in search of a home
Mass graves in Thailand and overcrowded boats full of refugees in the Gulf of Bengal highlight the dramatic situation facing the Muslim Rohingya minority. According to Rodion Ebbighausen, this stream of refugees is not about to run dry any time soon
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Refugee crisis in the MediterraneanNew networks trafficking Syrians from Egypt to Europe
The UN Security Council is set to vote on the EU's proposal for military action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean. But who are these people smugglers? What form do their networks take? And are they really a security threat? By Lewis Sanders
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Yazidis in TurkeyOld homeland, new homeland
Despite the alarming situation in the Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq, some Yazidis have recently returned from Germany to their native villages in south-eastern Anatolia. The coming years will indicate whether the resettlement is a lasting one. By Ekrem Guzeldere in the Turkish province of Mardin
Culture
More about Culture-
Literature in YemenThe last bastion of beauty
Yemen's cultural scene has been hard hit by years of war, but not completely silenced. While many writers and intellectuals have left the country, the small literary club Alamaqah remains active, a testament to the resilience of Yemeni culture.
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Architecture in LibyaReclaiming a vanishing colonial heritage
As Benghazi’s Italian-era architecture slowly disappears, an exhibition brings together architects and artists rethinking the city’s history — reassessing the colonial past without celebrating it.
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The Armenian-Syrian Musician Hrach Macoushian''It is Craziness to Support the Assad Regime!''
Hrach Macoushian is a musician from Aleppo in Syria. The Armenian with Syrian citizenship came to Yerevan two years ago to escape military service in Syria. Lennart Lehmann talked to him about the prospects for the Armenian minority in Syria and about his experiences under the Assad regime
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Book Review: Gunnar Decker's Hermann Hesse biography''The Whole East Breathes Religion''
Hermann Hesse spent his life searching for truth and inner harmony outside Germany. Yet his quests to the East ultimately led him back to the West and to the realization that the alternatives he found in the East offered no short cut to salvation. To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, Gunnar Decker presents a new biography of the successful author, one which also explains the Orientalism in his work. Andreas Pflitsch read the book
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Interview with Feridun Zaimoglu''Germany is Making Itself a Laughing Stock''
Circumcision is a stipulation of the Prophet and therefore non-negotiable. In an interview with Eren Güvercin, Feridun Zaimoglu makes a resolute plea for the impunity of this Jewish and Muslim ritual
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15th Gnawa Music Festival in MoroccoA Festival of Fusion
As dynamic as ever in its fifteenth year, the Gnawa and World Music Festival brings together Gnawa trance and the great performers of world music, jazz and pop in the picturesque and very windy city of Essaouira on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Andreas Kirchgäßner took in the atmosphere
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Atiq Rahimi's latest novel''Dostoyevsky be Damned!''
In his new novel, Atiq Rahimi raises the question of what constitutes a "just" murder. In a world etched by terrorism, legal uncertainty and the daily struggle for survival, is vigilante justice a legitimate form of resistance? The author needs less than 300 pages to explore this question in the form of a novel. Volker Kaminski reports
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The 13th Sufi Soul FestivalThe Musical Path to Allah
Once a year, on the last weekend before Ramadan, a hotel in a village in north-western Germany plays host to the "Sufi Soul Festival". Anyone who is interested is welcome to come and sample a wide variety of music genres: from hard rock to ballads and from Pakistani folk to Arab a-cappella. Marian Brehmer visited the festival in the Eifel region
750th anniversary of Rumi's death
750th anniversary of Rumi's death - Qantara.de
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