In this exclusive extract from his upcoming book, Alex Rowell argues there is no reason the Arabic wine poetry of Abu Nuwas cannot be called ‘Islamic’.

On the 18th and 19th of July this year, I attended a workshop in Istanbul on dialogue between Islamists and secularists, organized by the Islamist-leaning Jusoor (“Bridges”) center, along with more than twenty other mostly male participants. This was the second of three workshops organized by the center; I had also attended the first, in May, but was unable to attend the third, in September,…

To treat the Syrian conflict as essentially sectarian is to mistake a symptom for a root cause—and to risk entrenching societal divisions further, argues Dr. Rima Majed.

[Editor’s note: This editorial was originally published in Arabic on 11 December, 2017] The story is not the Donald Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the accompanying disdain for the Palestinian people, and their connection to the city that takes center stage in contemporary Palestinian nationalism, and in Islamic and Christian sentiment. This is not the story, for a predisposition toward this…

To mark four years since the disappearance of the ‘Douma 4’ activists, Al-Jumhuriya publishes a poem dedicated to Samira al-Khalil by the award-winning poet Faraj Bayrakdar.

Syria’s Kurds are mistaken if they imagine Assad will let them flourish as equal partners in a federalized post-war settlement, argues James Snell.

[Editor’s note: This article is a response to an earlier Al-Jumhuriya article, ‘Siege versus prison in Assad’s Syria: a comparison,’ written by the former political prisoner Osama Nassar, currently living in besieged East Ghouta, outside Damascus. It was originally published in Arabic on 5 December, 2017. The artworks used in this article were created by Dima Nashawi.] I read your article a first time, with tears,…

Feras Fayyad talks to Al-Jumhuriya about his award-winning documentary, the destruction of Aleppo, the daily abuse he receives from Putin fans, and film as a tool for achieving justice.

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Arabic on 29 November, 2017. The author is a former political prisoner currently living in besieged East Ghouta, where he is a nonviolent civil society activist. The artworks used in this article were created by Dima Nashawi.] EAST GHOUTA, Damascus Province – Many are the cities and neighborhoods that have been besieged in the past, in Syria…

November 22 is always an occasion for black humor in Lebanon, but perhaps this year more than ever. There’s a way out, however, for those feeling the blues: Election Day in May 2018.