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Democracy His Way

What are we to make of it when Ben Ali, Tunisia's much venerated president and ruler of the Palace of Carthage, is prepared to accept only 89.62 per cent of the vote? And this from someone more used to commanding the kind of figures associated with voting in Soviet times. A commentary by Hamid Skif

Precarious Contradiction

For ten years now Tunisia has been the EU's biggest financial beneficiary. But why is it that the money that was intended to boost Tunisia's economy is being used to exercise political oppression, asks Mokhtar Yahyaoui

The Refrain of a Shadowy Existence

In Maghreb literature his voice is impossible to overhear: Hamid Skif. The Francophone author has gone on working in the name of human rights. In his new novel "The Geography of Fear" he gives shockingly authentic voice to an illegal immigrant. By Naima El Moussaoui

The El Dorado for Algeria's "Harragas"

In the Maghreb, people who cross international borders without valid tickets and visas are known as harragas. Although the phenomenon of illegal migration from North Africa is nothing new, the destination of these migrants certainly is, writes Hamid Skif

Battling against the Fortress Mentality

In recent days, hundreds of Africans have tried to scale the border fences to the Spanish enclaves in Morocco. In his commentary, Peter Philipp suggests that the time has come to set up a system of regulated immigration

Unqualified Migrants Not Wanted

Until now European states have regarded control of immigration policy as part of their sovereign powers. As a result, they were initially hesitant about EU-wide cooperation, but now there are signs that they are developing a common line. Bernhard Schmid reports

Between Coexistence and Suppression

Christians and Muslims have a long history of coexistence in the Middle East. Martin Tamcke, theologian, describes the history and the variety of Christian communities in the Orient in his recently published book. Claudia Mende read it

Half a Home

At the same time as the massacre of the Armenians around 1915, the Ottoman army drove hundreds of thousands of Armenians into the Syrian desert. Today, some 80,000 descendants of survivors live in Syria. Charlotte Wiedemann has visited them

For My Country, Against My Country

In their most recent friendly match, the Turkish national team won against Germany, with two goals from the Turkish-Germans Nuri Sahin and Halil Altintop. Has the German football association failed to integrate young talents of Turkish origin? André Tucic looks into the issue

Goals and Glory Among the Rubble

German soccer coach Holger Obermann has been sporting ambassador to Afghanistan since 2003, his latest Third World soccer project. Ratbil Ahang Schamel and Simon Schneider portray the man and his work in Afghanistan