The Berlin Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque opened in the summer of 2017. The intention of its feminist leader, Seyran Ates, is to create an atmosphere for a peaceful and democratic Islam. Odile Heynders praises Ates as an excellent public intellectual.
With growing sense of negativity and 'othering' of Islam in political sphere, in this article I take the story of a Dutch Muslim convert to explore religious and social factors attributed to his change.
In current post-war Sri Lanka, the story of Ravana is taking new shapes among the ethnic majority of (Buddhist) Sinhalese. In this paper, Deborah De Koning argues that Ravana is not doomed to remain a demon.
