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Old Wounds, New Questions

Under the banner "Bound to live together", an international peace congress promoting dialogue and reconciliation was held in Munich with representatives from all major religions. Yet, issues such as the Middle East conflict, the Arab Spring, and the role of Islam in Europe pose new challenges for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. By Claudia Mende

Using Qur'anic Narratives in Pursuit of Peace

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf maintains that religion holds one of the keys to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While religion is not the primary problem in Israel-Palestine, Rauf says, it is a primary part of the solution

Desperately Seeking Occidentalists

If relations between the West and the Muslim world are to be improved, writes Maulana Waris Mazhari, Muslims must make a serious attempt not only to study both the positive and the negative aspects of Western thought, civilisation and history, but also to learn from them

A 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 Samuel Huntington is a reception phenomenon in a class all his own. By Christian Geyer

No Geostrategy of Islam

Olivier Roy, Islamism expert and renowned authority on the Islamic world wants his new book, "The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East", to refute the idea of a "geostrategy of Islam" – and along with it the theory of the clash of civilisations. A review by Loay Mudhoon

"Look at the Prophet and How He Lived"

Nik Aziz, state chief minister of Kelantan and spiritual leader of the Islamic PAS party, is also a charismatic personality. Mike Millard visits him in his ministerial offices and talks with him about how Islam may be tolerant and yet retain its principles

History and Realpolitik

In Western eyes, it makes sense for Pakistan and India to cooperate with Afghanistan in crushing the Taliban. However, Pakistan's military views an alliance between its two neighbours as the gravest threat Pakistan faces today. Irfan Husain takes a look at the history of the conflict

Sidelining Sharif

Even by the standards of Pakistan's turbulent politics, the high drama surrounding Nawaz Sharif's brief return to Pakistan would be hard to beat. Irfan Husain reports

Endgame for Musharraf

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf discovered the limits to his powers when he tried to sack the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who has since acted as a lightning rod for the anti-Musharraf feelings that have been building up for years. Irfan Husain reports

"Like a Damoclean Sword Hanging over Our Heads"

In Pakistan, thousands of opposition activists, human rights activists, and journalists have been arrested; many others have gone into hiding. Annette Meisters reports from Karachi