Carsten Niebuhr was the sole survivor of the "Royal Danish Arabia Expedition." The German mathematician and cartographer is today regarded as the first scientific research explorer of modern times. By Friedhelm Hartwig
The Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali makes use of clichés about Islam and demands that Muslims be tested as to their convictions. The intellectual Geert Mak complains of an ideologising of public discussion. By Ilja Braun
Variety as a Community Reality
The Celebrate Africa book fair in Cape Town was the biggest of its kind ever to be held on African soil. Renowned Muslim writers like Imraan Coovadia und Rayda Jacobs were also invited to attend. Almuth Schellpeper reports
Sophisticated literature off the beaten paths of the mainstream – Rayda Jacobs, left, and Imraan Coovadia
One woman describes her addiction to gambling, her relationship to her homosexual son who is suffering from AIDS, and her affair with her sister s husband. What is so astonishing about her story is not her shameless vanity or her ready wit, but the fact that she is a Muslim.