Alsharq, Simon Welte, Uferstraße 10 a, 35037 Marburg
Marburg
Germany
- Media
As a non-profit association, Alsharq promotes the exchange of balanced, comprehensive and sound information about the Middle East in order to further public and political education and contribute to a culture of tolerance and reciprocity between Germany and the Middle East.
Through its public blog, Alsharq reports on recent events and developments in the Middle East. By promoting nuanced perspectives, we seek to refine common perceptions in Germany about the Middle East. To this end, Alsharq picks up local voices and reflects socio-political discourses from the region to make them accessible for the German public. The main focus is on processes and challenges of democratization in the context of the so-called Arab spring.
With its participatory work, Alsharq supports the exchange between researchers, journalists and civil society actors from Germany working in and on the Middle East and promotes their cooperation with young professionals, bloggers, and activists from the MENA-region.
Our work comprises three pillars:
First, Alsharq offers a critically acclaimed blog (www.alsharq.de). Founded in 2005, the blog is Germany’s most read news-outlet on the Middle East. A final nominee in the 2013 “Grim-me-Online Awards”, the Alsharq-team provides nuanced information from and about the Middle East. To this end, we write articles, conduct interviews and compile regular news-reviews to capture current debates. With the blog, we also offer a platform for young journalists and academics from both the MENA-region and Germany to contribute.
Second, Alsharq offers substantial analyses on selected topics. This is contractual work for political organizations (e.g. Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Goethe-Institute) and news-channels (Deutsche Welle, Detector FM) that hire Alsharq for its expertise.
Third, Alsharq offers political study trips to the MENA-region, including to countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. For this, Alsharq cooperates with local partner and German educational institutes (e.g. Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst).
Since we have been working in the MENA-region for several years, our team is very well connected in countries such as Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran. We thus want to share with the ALF Network the personal contacts and professional networks we have established with individuals and political, civil society and academic organizations in those countries. Likewise, as we are engaged with the political, journalistic and academic spheres, we want to incentivize German institutions and organizations to contribute to a fruitful exchange between Germany and the Middle East. Finally, for our blog is the most read German news-website on the Middle East, we can publish and promote projects and cooperation in line with the values and aims of ALF Network.
We want to join the ALF Network because we believe in and seek to promote the virtue of shared civic action. The ALF Network is a great opportunity to connect with the political, social and cultural actors who are involved across the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Moreover, we believe in and want to fulfill the equal and dialogue-oriented approach between “Europe” and the “Arab world” that the ALF Network promotes.
As a major blog on the Middle East, we are especially interested in the media activities that the ALF Network helps to support and facilitate. In order to reach a broader public through our shared endeavors, we hope the ALF Network helps us enhance the cooperation with and between German universities, political foundations and journalists that work on the Middle East through joint workshops, conferences and publications.