"Graduate Quickly and Leave"
Every year, approximately 94,000 students from developing countries and from the Islamic world come to study in Germany. Despite the lack of highly qualified experts in Germany, many of these students...
View ArticleThe Call of the Muezzin Women
Women rarely become preachers of the Islamic faith. In Germany there are only 13 female imams. Their job: pastoral care and integration. Mosques are urgently in need of women providing such services....
View ArticleProper Conduct
In officer training, the German armed forces are increasingly concentrating on instilling cross-cultural competence. This is a crucial factor for foreign missions. But this theme also plays a role...
View ArticleThe Best Music in the "Place"
As is often the case in the Arab world, one almost has to search with a magnifying glass to find an independent art and cultural scene, even in Egypt. It is, however, increasingly showing signs of...
View ArticlePanties from the "Axis of Evil"
While visiting Syria, two London-based women of Arab origin became fascinated by the risqué lingerie openly on display in the souqs and shops of Damascus and Aleppo. The book they now produced is one...
View ArticleA Bridge Builder or a Closet Fundamentalist?
Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, is a committed proponent of inter-faith dialogue in the spirit of mutual recognition, recently honoured in Germany for his activities. In his home...
View ArticleFor Freedom of Faith
The beginning of November saw the first Catholic-Muslim Forum held in the Vatican – which came about on a Muslim initiative. One of the participants was the Jesuit and professor of Islam Studies,...
View ArticleA Pragmatic Islam
Islam is enjoying increasing popularity in Kazakhstan. For many people this represents a return to Kazakh traditions, even if the impetus for the return to their roots has come from abroad. The Kazakh...
View ArticleIran's "Cool Blogger"
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, director of the "International Institute for Interreligious Dialogue" in Tehran, was a close associate of the reform-oriented Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. But among young...
View ArticleMore Power to the Powers That Be
The Syrian jurist Naseef Naeem has completed a scholarly study which closely examines the emergence, framing, and consolidation of the new Iraqi constitution. The main flaw of this constitution, says...
View ArticleMigration and Illness Experiences
With unemployment, confined living conditions or social control via people from their home country, immigrants are often subjected to high levels of psychological stress which can result in illness or...
View ArticleKnowledge instead of Oil
The Arab Gulf states have discovered education as the raw material of the future. In order to quickly move ahead, they are importing universities from the west. There is still room for many more...
View Article"Yemen Is a Law unto Itself"
Nadia A. Al-Sakkaf is editor-in-chief of the independent English-language daily Yemen Times, which was established in 1990. She spoke to Alfred Hackensberger about media, press freedom, democracy, and...
View ArticleSaint Nicholas, Turkish Style
Men clad in red and white Santa outfits are no longer a rarity on Turkish streets. Legend has it that Noel Baba, as the Turks call Saint Nicholas, was even born near Antalya. Dilek Zaptçıoğlu has the...
View ArticleFor Conflict Resolution without Self-Righteousness
"Enlightenment" and "the clash of civilizations" are buzzwords that we often hear in the debate on the relationship between the cultures of Islam and Western Europe. In view of the current conflicts in...
View ArticleA Film Has Turkey Talking
A documentary on the founder of the Turkish Republic is causing a stir in Turkey. As young audiences in particular engage with the controversial film, the filmmaker and journalist Can Dündar is...
View ArticleRecovering the Social Message of Islam
According to Muhammad Abdus Sabur, Islam properly understood stands for equality and fraternity, not just within the mosque, but beyond the Muslim congregation as well. Yogi Sikand met up with the...
View ArticleA Portentous Buzzword
This success is spectacular. How to account for the journalistic curiosity by which the headline of a political science essay became overnight the buzzword for an entire epoch? The recently deceased...
View ArticleThe Gardens of Others
The concept of "intercultural gardens" sounds auspicious: Fallow land is developed into community gardens where people from different cultural backgrounds can plant crops. However the example of the...
View ArticleSquandered Potential
They have graduated from the university, are bilingual and at home in two cultures: college graduates of Turkish descent in Germany. A recent study provides the first statistics about this elite...
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