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A Wasted Year

While the European Union criticises the lack of far-reaching reforms in Turkey, Ankara warns of EU fatigue among its citizens. The negotiations surrounding the accession of Turkey to the EU are making very little progress. Daniela Schröder sums up the gloomy atmosphere in Brussels and Ankara

Negotiations in the Freezer

Views on Turkey's EU membership bid are still widely divergent in many European countries and in all political parties. Daniela Schröder summarizes the various European positions

Looking for a Different Kind of God

In his book, "The Islamist", Ed Husain describes how he became an Islamic fundamentalist at the age of 16, and why he later quit the radical movement. Susannah Tarbush welcomes the debate Husain's book has caused

The Fight over the Meaning of Islam

The Syrian intellectual Sadiq al-Azm proposed Self-Criticism after the Defeat to the Arabs in 1968, and in the following year a Critique of Religious Thought. He sees a third way for the Muslim faith between radicalism and state Islam

"I Am an Integration Objector"

Gettopump, Urban Guerillas, Black Virgins: These are the names of some of the film and theatre projects of Neco Celik, a German director of Turkish descent. A German daily dubbed him the German Spike Lee – a reputation confirmed the New York Times. Nimet Seker met him in Berlin Kreuzberg

Islamo-Feminism Goes Radical

They are furious, shameless and radical: In his documentary theatre piece "Black Virgins," Feridun Zaimoglu has lent a voice to young Muslim women. Nimet Seker reports

Behind the Backdrop of Terror

How do you make theater during a war? What prospects does culture have when bombs and terrorist attacks threaten everyday life? Dorothea Marcus reports from the Iraqi Theater Week in Mülheim on the difficult working conditions of theater groups in Iraq

The French Revolution as a Funfair Spectacle on the Bosporus

Roberto Ciulli's staging of "Danton's Death" with Turkish actors recently premiered in Istanbul – and may provide the prototype for a new form of cultural cooperation between Germany and Turkey. By Dorothea Marcus

Silk Road Theatre Festival in the Ruhr

As part of the Silk Road project, four directors from the Maghrib were invited to work at Theater an der Ruhr. During a panel discussion, they explored the relationship between the Occident and the Orient in their work. Eva Schmidt was there.

Staging Taboo Issues on a Damascus Stage

After a ban on all performances for the last nine years, a provocative piece by the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous is finally being brought to the stage in Damascus thanks to a German-Syrian theater project. Ann-Katrin Gässlein attended the rehearsals