Berkley Center

Today's religion and world affairs from the United States and across the globe: Madeleine Albright reflects on religion's role in foreign policy, Pope Francis visits Lesbos and intervenes in the refugee crisis, contention surfaces between German Muslims and the far-right German AfD Party, a second look at radicalization in Brussels, and Islamophobia hits Southwest Airlines.

BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Religion Must be Key Part of Foreign Policy Says Madeleine Albright
by Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Services
http://catholicphilly.com/2016/04/news/national-news/religion-must-be-key-part-of-foreign-policy-say...
In an April 7 lecture at Georgetown University, Albright told students and faculty members who filled a campus hall that the greatest modern challenge is to “build bridges of understanding and tolerance […] There are some who might want to engage in such a bridge-building effort without bringing religion into the conversation — to them I say, ‘Good luck,'” she added. Albright’s lecture kicked off the 10th anniversary celebration of Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.

Faces of Health, Poverty and Faith in Guatemala
by Katherine Marshall
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-marshall/faces-of-health-poverty-a_b_9711158.html
Guatemala’s dynamic religious landscape includes a wide range of Catholic health care facilities and programs, many generally decentralized Protestant church efforts, and, woven through, traditional Mayan spiritual practices, beliefs, and healers. Medical missions especially from the United States offer care but also make the challenge of building long term systems more complex. It’s a challenge to figure out how it all works, much less how to fill gaps and coordinate the many partners, faith and secular, public and private. How can all work together to achieve what all have, for decades, agreed are urgent priority objectives? But models of excellence exist, reminders of what can be achieved. 

Breakthrough for Palestine, Break with Israel
by Drew Christiansen and Ra’faat Aldajani
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/breakthrough-palestine-break-israel
Washington has been abuzz over strong hints that President Obama is aiming to bury the last remnant of the Cold War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reports indicate the president is strongly considering breaking the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by joining in international recognition for a Palestinian state. (...) A new U.N. Security Council resolution backed by the United States and voted on by all the council's members would fundamentally redefine the paradigm of a solution and lay firm foundations for the next U.S. president to build upon. It is the right thing to do, for America, for Israel and for the Palestinians. 

Pope Francis’ Acts of Accompaniment
by Paul Elie
On Being with Krista Tippett
http://www.onbeing.org/blog/paul-elie-pope-francis-acts-of-accompaniment/8599
Pope Francis' last eight days--from releasing the apostolic exhortation on the family to visiting refugees on Lesbos--it seems to me, was as significant as his eight-day trip to the United States last fall. The juxtaposition of events suggests how fully the pope’s conviction that the Church should “accompany” people on their journeys of faith has found expression in his own acts of accompaniment. It has made people of all sorts wish to accompany him. And it points to a crucial effect of this phenomenon for Americans: namely, that at this moment in a presidential campaign in which the role of religion is seen as greatly diminished, the key religious figure is the pope, of all people.

POPE FRANCIS
Pope Francis Takes Refugees Back to Rome Following Provocative and Emotional Lesbos Visit
by Griff Witte and Anthony Faiola
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-francis-arrives-on-lesbos-in-visit-intended-to-prick-europ...
The plan to bring three refugee families to the Vatican, the pope told journalists during his flight back from Lesbos, was a “last-minute” inspiration that came together last week. Although all three families were Muslim, he said, they had not been selected based on faith but based on their eligibility. 

‘Do Not Loose Hope’: Pope Francis Visit Migrants in Greece’s Lesbos
by Merrit Kennedy
NPR
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/16/474484258/do-not-lose-hope-pope-francis-visits-mig...
"This is the message I have come to bring you today: do not lose hope," Pope Francis told migrants in Lesbos, a Greek island where thousands have landed as they try to make their way into Europe. "Today, I want to be with you, and I want to tell you that you are not alone," he said, according to an Agence France Presse interpreter. 

What Conservatives Get Wrong About the Liberalism of Pope Francis
Economist Eramus Blog
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2016/04/pope-lesbos
Conservatives, in response to Pope Francis’ trip to Lesbos and brief meeting with Bernie Sanders, argue that he is leaning “farther to the left than ever before.” However, since at least the accession of the late John Paul II in 1978, papal teaching has been a carefully mixed blend of anti-Marxism and social liberalism, verging at times on radicalism, which has usually come generously sprinkled with pacifism. 

Related | Sanders Fracas Offers a Needed Reminder that “the Vatican’ is a Myth
by John L. Allen Jr.
Crux
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2016/04/14/sanders-fracas-a-reminder-that-the-vatican-is-a-myth/
English-language media coverage out of Rome often employs phrases such as, “the Vatican today said x.” However, As stated, such verbiage is generally nonsense, because there simply is no such animal as “the Vatican” in the sense in which the term is being used. A fracas surrounding a brief talk on Friday by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders at a Vatican event, is merely the latest illustration of the point.

Pope and Patriarch Make a Rare Show of Unity in Greece
by Joanna Kakissis
NPR
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/04/18/474413984/pope-and-patriarch-make-a-rare-show-of-un...
The leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox churches called on Europe to show greater compassion for migrants, a move widely welcomed by migrants as well as residents on the Greek island of Lesbos. 

AROUND THE WORLD
Islam Not Compatible with German Constitution, Says Far-Right AfD Party
by Paul Carrel
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2016/04/18/islam-not-compatible-with-german-constitution-says-fa...
“Islam is in itself a political ideology that is not compatible with the constitution,” AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “We are in favor of a ban on minarets, on muezzins and a ban on full veils,” added Storch, who is a member of the European Parliament.

German Muslims Compare Anti-Immigration AfD Party to Hitler’s Nazis
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2016/04/19/german-muslims-compare-anti-immigrant-afd-party-to-hi...
A leader of German Muslims on Monday likened the attitude of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party toward his community to that of Hitler’s Nazis toward Jews. “It is the first time since Hitler’s Germany that a whole religious community is discredited and existentially threatened,” Aiman Mazyek, head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, told Germany’s NDR public television. 

A Closer Look at Brussels Offers a More Nuanced View of Radicalization
by Andrew Higgins
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/world/europe/more-than-islam-origin-is-a-marker-for-terror-among-b...
A closer look at what has happened in Molenbeek and other heavily immigrant parts of Brussels, however, provides a far more nuanced picture than just a generation of badly integrated young Muslim immigrants running amok. In some ways, it debunks the view that Islam is a one-size-fits-all faith that fuels terrorism.

After Six Months of Violence, Palestinians Wonder: What was Gained?
by William Booth
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/after-six-months-of-violence-palestinians-wonder-wh...
No village in the West Bank generated more attackers per capita than Saer. Some Palestinians began calling Saer the “capital of martyrs.” Israeli intelligence officials branded it a hotbed of a new kind of terror, pursued not by armed organized militants but by frustrated young “lone wolves,” goaded by official incitement and social media, and motivated by revenge, nationalism — and personal problems. 

NATIONAL
In New York, Sanders Tries to Push the Limits of Religion and Politics
by Molly O’Toole
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/19/in-new-york-sanders-tries-to-push-the-limits-of-religion-and-po...
The first Jewish presidential candidate with a shot at the nomination deployed a hijab-wearing spokeswoman on his behalf. But Sanders's defeat in Tuesday’s primary showed that playing down religious differences wasn't enough. 

When a Tiny Church Houses Three Religions
by Susan Katz Miller
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/04/14/when-a-tiny-church-houses-three-reli...
On Long Island, the Brookville Church, Muslim Reform Movement Organization, the new Synagogue of Long Island and the Interfaith Community of Long Island all share the same space called the Multifaith Campus, a novel experiment in multiple religions sharing not just a building but a community. 

UC Berkeley Student Removed from Southwest Flight After Speaking Arabic on Plane
by Yana Wang
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/18/uc-berkeley-student-removed-from-south...
Stories of Muslims being removed from commercial flights have become more common alongside an escalating fear of Islamic State terrorism. “We are tired of Muslim-looking passengers being removed from flights for the flimsiest reasons, under a cryptic claim of ‘security,'” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said in a statement.