Physical Dramaturgy: Ein (neuer) Trend?

Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen. more more

GoetheInstitute

Mr Buruma's stereotypes

Monday 5 January, 2007

Islam is not as diverse as Ian Buruma maintains in his answer to Pascal Bruckner. On the contrary, it is an oppressive social reality, codified in the "Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam." Signed by 45 Muslim countries, this upholds the Sharia as the basis of the Islamic identity. By Necla Kelek
read more

Better Pascal than Pascal Bruckner

Thursday 1 February, 2007

Neither live-and-let-die separatist multiculturalism nor the secularist republican monoculturalism preached by Bruckner work. Policies of integration cannot be based on the assumption that millions of Muslims will drop their faith when they come to Europe. Timothy Garton Ash responds to Pascal Bruckner.
read more

Freedom cannot be decreed

Monday 29 January, 2007

Nobody is defending honour killing or female circumcision. Such crimes are matters of law enforcement. Trickier is the question of how to prevent mainstream Muslims from being infected with violent ideologies. Ian Buruma responds to Pascal Bruckner. (Image © Stefan Heijdendael)
read more

Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists?

Wednesday 24 January, 2007

Ayaan Hirsi Ali doesn't only look beautiful, she also invokes Voltaire. This is too much for Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash, who call her an "Enlightenment fundamentalist." But their idea of multiculturalism amounts to legal apartheid. By Pascal Bruckner
read more

Les Minguettes

Monday 18 December, 2006

Since France's first suburban riots took place there in 1981, Les Minguettes has had a serious image problem. The suburb of Lyon is synonymous with integration problems, urban violence and social decay. But having taken the time to look behind the apartment block facades, Anne-Marie Vaterlaus paints a picture not entirely devoid of hope.
read more

Opening up Fortress Europe

Thursday November 16, 2006

Jürgen Habermas laments the swelling feel-good patriotisms in Europe and the flagging communal European spirit. The EU will only be able to fulfill its international mandate if Europeans learn to form a common front, and to recognise that the Polish plumber and the Portugese winegrower are key to European unity.
read more

Kicking the headscarf habit

Monday 13 November, 2006

I decided about a year ago to live without a headscarf. It makes a difference if you're obeying duties outlined by others or those based on your own conclusions. But calling for Muslim women to remove their headscarves is as futile as calling on Germans to stop drinking beer, because it must be the result of genuine consideration. By Emel Abidin-Algan
read more

Stepping out of the fire

Wednesday 6 September, 2006

Having been violently attacked by the husband of one of her clients, the Berlin lawyer and Islam critic Seyran Ates has closed her legal practice. A fighter for human rights resigns. By Mariam Lau
read more

Europe's politics of victimology

Tuesday 30 May, 2006

Flemming Rose, cultural editor at Jyllands-Posten newspaper, justifies his decision to publish the Muhammad cartoons, and takes stock of the controversy they ignited, arguing that Europe must shed the straitjacket of political correctness.
read more

Let's poke holes!

Thursday 11 May, 2006

How do our religious, ethnic and national identites sway how we feel about toleration? Is human culture more like a jail or a window? Are there touchpoints between Europe and America here? These are just some of the questions broached at signandsight.com's panel discussion on "The Limits of Tolerance: Multiculturalism Now" at the recent PEN festival in New York, with participants Necla Kelek, Pascal Bruckner, Richard Rodriguez and Kwame Anthony Appiah.
read more

My Germany

Monday 24 April, 2006

I want to see Turks en masse waving the German flag. Jobs, rules, the German language and free religion – these must be the pillars of a new German society. Today's West Germans, East Germans and foreign Germans are perhaps only the forefathers of the curious folk we will be in thirty years. And then, what belongs together will grow together. An appeal by Feridun Zaimoglu.
read more

Happier without father

Monday 10 April, 2006

Turkish-born German sociologist Necla Kelek has been accused of painting the Turkish community in Germany in a bad light. In an interview with Michaela Schlagenwerth, she explains that what she sees is what she writes. More dangerous than her portrayal, she says, is the pervasive blindness to the facts. (Photo Lebeck)
read more

Black virgins

Monday 20 March, 2006

In an arresting new play, five young Muslim women lift the veil on a taboo: sex. Director Neco Celik talks to Michaela Schlagenwerth about his own conflict with Islam and why he chose this explosive material for his first play.
read more

Taking the immigrant test

Wednesday 15 March, 2006

As Germany toys with the idea of introducing tests to screen prospective immigrants, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht cautions not to confuse rules with culture and asks: what is the norm, anyway?
read more

Separating truth and belief

Monday 6 March, 2006

A clash of cultures? No, of mindsets. Philosopher Andre Glucksmann on truth and belief, and why the Danish Muhammad cartoons and cartoons about the Holocaust are two different things.
read more