“Salaam Aleikum”: with this Arabic welcome, and greetings in the languages of other Middle Eastern peoples and religions, the Middle East Cultural Weeks 2010 invited the public to their events. From 5 to 28 April 2010, an exceptional film programme, lectures, music, Gulf photography, encounters, readings and discussions offered unfamiliar perspectives on the Orient. The programme showed the region's richness and diversity: Arab, Syriac-Aramaic and Armenian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. It offered ways to approach the “mystery” of the Orient, learn about it, meet people from its many countries or enjoy a family day with its music, poetry, food and language.
Held under the patronage of Bishop Maria Jepsen and Senator for Culture Prof. Dr Karin von Welck, the cultural weeks were organised by Dr Mohammed Khalifa, an Islamic studies scholar and lecturer in Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic and Arab regional studies at the University of Hamburg; the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology; and several departments of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. A Germany correspondent for an Arab television channel discussed Arab countries' views of the West. Renowned Arab photographers presented their homelands from another perspective in a photography exhibition, and the Metropolis cinema in central Hamburg screened films from the Orient.
Migrant congregations of different Eastern Christian churches also introduced themselves. Hamburg's Syriac Orthodox community invited visitors to ecumenical vespers on Easter Monday. The Islamic Albanian Cultural Centre offered Quran lessons for Muslims and non-Muslims, and the Imam Ali Mosque opened its doors for a public guided visit and conversations.
Information events and panels addressed the German armed forces' deployment in Afghanistan; pilgrimage destinations, traditions and differences across religions; the current situation in Iran; the persecution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire; and Arabs' relationships with the Holocaust and the Jewish writer Kafka. An Ethiopian nobleman explained his view of the Middle East and Europe.
Associations and initiatives working on the Near and Middle East presented their activities at stands in the Museum of Ethnology foyer. A varied programme for younger visitors and the young at heart included cookery and language classes, an hour with a storyteller, and a performance by the German–Arab children's choir “Sol”, directed by Ali Shibly.
The Middle East Cultural Weeks 2010 aimed to show the diversity of Arab culture, explain current events and inspire further interest. In this respect, the events were a complete success.