CENTRE for RELIGIOUS PLURALISM in the MIDDLE EAST

Painter Mohammed Hetlr has been preoccupied with drawing and painting sacred Shiite figures from Iraq and around the world. He has been making good money selling his work and, in an interview with Al-Monitor, said that he considered his painting to be part of his “religious duty” to express his faith and ideological commitment.

Coptic characters are mostly portrayed as sidekicks in Egyptian cinema, but there are a few notable exceptions in films that tackle more complicated issues, writes film critic Sherif Awad.

Muslim fashion designers reflect on a rapidly growing industry.

Manama: Bahrain’s Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa has called on artists and intellectuals to use their creativity as a means to foster rapprochement among peoples, promote the culture of peace and co-existence and reject extremist ideology and practices that pose a real threat to the present and future of humanity.

Two venues in Tehran are host to works of the 8th Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts.
‘Fajr and National Art’ is the title for the visual art event inaugurated on February 8 at Niavaran Cultural House, Honaronline reported.
It features works of calligraphy and Persian miniatures that are considered the most outstanding fields in Iranian heritage, said festival secretary Mojtaba Aqaei on the opening day.

Devastated by 20 months of combat between regime forces and rebel fighters, the haunting ruins of the Old City of Homs now serve as inspiration for some Syrian artists.In summer 2014, director Joud Said decided to set his film "It's Raining in Homs" in the ruins, just three months after the last rebels left the area under a truce deal following a lengthy siege.

Copies of Islamic manuscripts held by a Dutch university went on show in the Gaza Strip yesterday. The “Book of Islamic Art” exhibition was opened by the Netherlands Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority in the Museum hotel west of Gaza City. More than 40 copies of Islamic manuscripts located at Leiden University, Netherlands, are on show.

I have just read about the passing of writer Salman Natour, who had already died of a heart attack on February 15. Natour was one of the most important contemporary Palestinian poets and playwrights but also a former journalist (most prominently with the daily communist Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ittihad), researcher (former director of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa) and activist. He more or less gave up the latter occupations after suffering from a

Chefchaouen is one of the prettiest cities in the northwest of Morocco, portraying the authenticity of Moroccan culture with the Andalucian influence.

Rabat – Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel has transformed an abandoned church in Youssoufia, near Marrakech, into a moving canvas, which changes throughout the day under the influence of light.

Tunisia has not yet seen the end of the ongoing conflict between those who believe that freedom of creative expression should be boundless and those who see such freedom concerning religious imagery as blasphemous. Most Tunisians believe this issue is a struggle that will end only when one of the two parties prevails over the other, framing it as a zero sum game between religion and art. The reality, however, is much more complex. There is no doubt that the conflict between artistic

How a cinema showing alternative films brings Lebanese together across religious and political divides.

Event featured 3 films about ‘consequences of emigration of Jews from fabric of Moroccan society,’ says organizer.

A new documentary by British-Iraqi director Hoda Yahya Elsoudani tackles the Sunni-Shia divide from the perspective of two young sisters.