03./ 04.09.2011 On September 3rd, the English Defence League (EDL) went ahead with their plan to march through Tower Hamlets, despite a ban on marches issues by Home Secretary Theresa May prior to the event (as reported). Roughly 3,000 police officers tried to maintain control and created “no-man zones” between the estimated 1,000 EDL supporters…
19.07.2011 Topics that dominate the representation of Muslims in the British media today are “women” and “extremism”. As Qantara reports, though, Sara Khan, Director of Inspire, and award-winning British Muslim consultancy, claims that “Muslim women feel that these topics are inadequately addressed by Muslims themselves”. Therefore, two British organizations have decided to take action against…
6 April 2011 In a piece for Qantara, Lamya Kaddor, scholar of Islamic studies in Germany, vividly explains why the Islamic veil in her opinion is no longer required in contemporary Germany and how it has become obsolete over time. She writes that the original purpose mentioned in the Quran (33:59), i.e. that the veil…
4 December 2010 Filiz Sütcü, a lawyer of Turkish origin, has carried out academic research into the subject of forced and arranged marriages. In an interview with Qantara, she criticises the media’s sensational treatment of the issue and explains that public debate is usually more about cultural and religious defamation.
27 August 2010 Werner Schiffauer, who has pioneered cultural anthropological research into Turkish people in Germany, has taken the Islamic movement Milli Görüs as the subject of his new book. His analysis is more balanced than his critics claim, reviewer Susanne Schröter finds. Secular revolutionaries who embarked on their long march through enemy institutions were…
