South Africa
All countries-
Turkey and the Gulen movement
Erdogan seizes the school initiative
Since the attempted coup in Turkey, President Erdogan has been pressing foreign nations to hand over schools run by the Gulen movement. Although many countries have entrusted control of the schools to the Turkish Maarif Foundation, the controversial movement continues to enjoy protection. By Ulrich von Schwerin
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Muslim theologian Farid Esack
More than just an "Israel critic"
Some German commentators have labelled the South African theologian Farid Esack an "anti-Semite". But this over-simplification of his views on Israel does little justice to the intellectual and activist, who champions human rights and a liberal reading of Islam, says Daniel Bax
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Interview with the Islamic scholar Ebrahim Moosa
The reinvention of Islam
Concepts like apostasy or blasphemy reveal that Islamic theology is caught in a mode of imperial Islamic political thinking, says US-based scholar Ebrahim Moosa. What is needed is a process of critical appraisal. Moosa asks that Muslims rediscover the great lessons of diversity in their history rather than following the reductionist versions that masquerade as Muslim theology today. Interview by Claudia Mende
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LGBT in Islam
"Islam does give us leeway to think"
Muslim and gay? Most scholars consider homosexual acts unlawful – not so Muhsin Hendricks, who says that the Koran does not say that homosexuality is a sin. Jannis Hagmann spoke to the South African imam about Islam, homosexuality and Koranic interpretation
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Interview with Farid Esack
"Pluralist societies are about give and take"
Farid Esack is a Koran scholar and Islamic liberation theologian from South Africa. He is one of the most renowned Islamic thinkers of our time. Claudia Mende spoke to him at the recent international "Horizons of Islamic Theology" conference in Frankfurt