Candid Foundation
| Formation | 2011[1] |
|---|---|
| Founders | Daniel Gerlach, Asiem El Difraoui, Katja Brinkmann, Marcel Mettelsiefen, Moritz Behrendt, Christian Meier, Belabbes Benkredda |
| Type | think tank |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Website | candid-foundation |
The Candid Foundation is an independent non-profit German think tank and rapid response group based in Berlin that specialises in research and analysis on the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.[2]The English language think tank posits itself as a bridge between East and West that seeks to foster mutual understanding across cultures and countries. In addition to publishing research, Candid describes itself as an group that fosters honest communication that works to combat conspiracy theory and bigotry between its respective audiences. [3]
History and Structure[edit]
The Candid Foundation was founded in 2014 by Daniel Gerlach, Jörg Schäffer, Asiem El Difraoui, Katja Brinkmann, Theo Murphy(later replaced by Marcel Mettelsiefen), Moritz Behrendt, Christian Meier, Belabbes Benkredda. Candid's advisory board consists of Aline Abboud, Dr. Ayad Al-Ani, Heinz Buhofer, Christian-Peter Haneit, Gilles Kepel, Dr Verena Metze-Mangold, Inna Rudolf, and Dr. Udo Steinbach
The organisation is privately funded and works closely with its numerous partners including but not limited to: the BMW Foundation, the Siemens Foundation, the German Office of Foreign Affairs, and the Mercator Foundation; Candid has a permanent staff of 12 employees with offices in Berlin and Paris.[4]
In later 2018, the Candid Foundation along with Baghdad International Centre for Studies and Peace Building[1] and ERGD e.V. Inter-Faith dialogue created the Baghdad Policy Club, an independent and international initiative that meets in Baghdad to hold multilateral discussions, with representatives from the Middle East and Europe, on some of the Middle East's most pressing issues.[5]
Events and Media[edit]
Candid members are frequently quoted in the media as relevant experts on Middle Eastern topics of interest. In April 2016 Candid founder Asiem el Difraoui on ISIS's highly symbolic and public executions of homosexuals as part of the group's extremist interpretation of Sharia.[6] The director of the Candid Foundation, Daniel Gerlach gave an interview to NDR in October 2017 that discussed the murder of Jamal Khashoggi[7] Fellow founder Asiem El Difraoui also spoke about the Khashoggi case to German newscaster Welt in that same month.[8].Advisory board member Inna Rudolf spoke with journalist Pesha Magid in a Foreign Policy article over the recent political instability in Iraq caused by an Israeli drone strike on members of the Popular Mobilization Forces.[9]
Candid experts are also frequently featured to provide an alternative analysis of Middle Eastern topics of interest in Western media. Candid founder Daniel Gerlach wrote in Spiegel Online about the Syrian Civil War and the demographic and social engineering engaged in by the Assad regime as it attempts with varying degrees of success to create a majority-minority state with a much reduced Sunni Muslim population; Gerlach argued such a possible situation represented a nightmare scenario and that most of Syrian society rejected such a new political arrangement for their country.[10] Gerlach also has spoken with media outlets like MiGAZIN where he struck a different chord over the ongoing civil war in Libya and expressed hope over the development of Libyan civil society and its continuous resilience and growth amidst war.[11]
The Candid Foundation also works closely with its partners to organize and host conferences focused on the MENA world. In December 2018 The Candid Foundation in conjunction with Emirati think tank Hedayah and Bertelsmann Stiftung hosted a conference entitled "Foundation and Principles of Dialogue between Europe and the Arab World: Religion and it Critics" in Berlin; the conference focused on a number of topics that included the broader narratives surrounding religious extremism and radicalisation in Europe and the Middle East, such the failure of assimilation or the presence of conflict on youth, as well the ongoing conceptions over the separation of religion from the judiciary and the state.[12]
Daniel Gerlach is a noted Syria expert who focuses much of his research on sectarianism, Syrian society and how both have been shaped by geopolitical forces in the region. His work has been featured in the Fika Forum, run by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he analyzed the Syrian regime's sectarian rhetoric and strategy in the context of a pending assault on the province of Idlib held by the Syrian opposition.[13]
In May 2019 the Candid Foundation, in cooperation with Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, hosted a conference entitled the "EU MED means Business- Shaping the future . of entrepreneurship in the South. The conference brought together economic leaders and young entrepreneurs to deliberate the best ways to encourage investment in the EU's southern neighbourhood.[14]
Publications[edit]
In 2015, Candid assumed editorial responsibility for the zenith magazine in a partnership with the publishing house Deutsche Levante Verlag. Zenith is an independent German magazine that focuses on the Arab and Muslim world; the print edition is published in German while online content is written in German, English, and Arabic. In 2015 zenith awarded the Zenith Photo Prize to photographers who depicted the life of Muslims in Germany as part the magazine's desire to normalize the life of Germany's Muslim population.[15]
In August 2019, zenith celebrated its 20th anniversary; in an interview with Spiegel Online, the director of the Candid Foudation, Daniel Gerlach, spoke about the importance of remaining relevant for a small publication like zenith and added that incorporating non-profit financing methods such as Candid could be a model for success.[16]
References[edit]
- ↑ "who we are". Candid Foundation. Archived from the original on August 27, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "who we are". Candid Foundation. Archived from the original on July 23, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "what we do". Candid Foundation. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Candid Foundation". Anna Lindh Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The first assembly: Iraq and its neighbours, January 17-19 2019". Baghdad Policy Club. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Auf teuflischen Wegen". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Fall Khashoggi: "Er war Mister Saudi Arabia"". NDR. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ ""Bei Khashoggi gung es nitch nur um Journalismus"". Welt. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "How a Proxy War Could Blow Up Iraq-Again". Foreign Policy. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
- ↑ "Die Macht in Syrien, auf die bald ankommen wird". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Nahost-Experte: Kein schnelles Ende des Libyen-Konflikts". MiGAZIN. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Teilnahme an einer Konferenz unter dem Titel: „Grundlagen des Dialogs in Europa und der arabischen Welt – Religion und ihre Kritiker" – 10. – 11.12.2018". Europäischen Gemeinschaft der Religionen – Im Dialog e.V. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "A Turn Towards Idlib in Syria- Is the Goal to 'Achieve Homogeneity' in the Country". The Washginton Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "About the conference"". EU Med means business. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Wie leben Muslime in Deutschland?". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 13 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ ""Überleben ist alles"". Spiegel Online. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
External links[edit]
This article "Candid Foundation" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Candid Foundation. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
