The Arab democracy movement sets great store by its independence and now fears that the intervention in Libya will come with a high price tag: it could rob their protest of its legitimacy. Layla Al-Zubaidi comments
Despite all the harassment by religious moral watchdogs, Iran has been witness to the development of a vital music scene. Although strongly popular among the country's youth, many bands still live in the shadows even today. By Arian Fariborz
Already in the mid-1980s, Pat Jabbar and his band Aisha Kandisha's Jarring Effects mixed Arab traditional music with dub, trance and house elements. Stefan Franzen talked to Jabbar about his label and the collaboration with the "Pope of Dub", Bill Laswell