Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Jerusalem, the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador, Rohingya in Myanmar, and Catholic-Muslim understanding in the Central African Republic.
AROUND THE WORLD
Kerry Optimistic After Meeting Over Holy Site in Jerusalem
by Rana F. Sweis and Isabel Kershner
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/world/middleeast/kerry-is-optimistic-after-meeting-over-holy-site-in-jerusalem.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians were committed to taking “concrete steps” to ease strife over a volatile holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem.
A Jesuit Inspiration
by Michael C. McCarthy
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/a-jesuit-inspiration.html?ref=opinion
As the future of higher education remains so uncertain, and as the financial pressures of running universities increase, I find great courage in those schools that strive to be driven by something more than the market economy. Father Ellacuría, who was killed on Nov. 16, 1989, championed the vision of a university that would be an “inescapable social force” for good. That is no less important in 2014 than it was in 1989. I still believe that an education not grounded in justice is a farce and that we desperately need wise, courageous, even heroic academic leaders to realize the highest purposes of education.
Ethnic Cleansing at Work
by Emanuel Stoakes
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/13/ethnic_cleansing_at_work_rohingya_myanmar_obama_visit
Alam's murder is part of a recent escalation of violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state perpetrated by state forces against an ethnic minority known as the Rohingya, according to the Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based rights-monitoring group. Since September, the group has documented a spike in abuses, such as arbitrary arrests and even torture, by the Border Guard Police (BGP), a government agency that deals with suspected illegal immigrants, and by the military.
Some Alawites Are Beginning to Question Their Support for Syria’s Assad
by Hugh Naylor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/some-alawites-are-beginning-to-question-their-support-for-syrias-assad/2014/11/11/ee302b0c-aac0-4f17-a220-cddcd49b52db_story.html
Members of the Alawite minority group have become more critical of they Syrian regime’s handling of the conflict on social media and during rare protests, according to activists and analysts. They also say Alawites, who form the core of Assad’s security forces, increasingly have avoided compulsory military service in a nearly four-year war where their community has sustained huge casualties relative to Syria’s Sunnis, who lead the rebellion.
Islamic State Leader al-Baghdadi Calls on Followers to Unleash ‘Volcanoes of Jihad’
by Erin Cunningham
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/defiant-message-from-islamic-state-leader-but-silence-over-airstrike-injury-reports/2014/11/13/a19f4d9e-6b54-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html
The leader of the Islamic State sought to rally his backers in an audio statement released on Thursday, just days after Iraqi officials said the militant chief was injured in US airstrikes.
The Catholic Priest who Defended Muslim and Christian Alike in the Wartorn Central African Republic
by Cahal Milmo
Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-catholic-priest-who-defended-muslim-and-christian-alike-in-the-wartorn-central-african-republic-9859602.html
Ever since the religious bloodletting which has riven the Central African Republic arrived in Bossemptele, the small town in the rural north west where Father Bernard presides over a Catholic church and modest hospital, the cleric acted with one aim: to save anyone—regardless of creed—that he could.
Political Tensions Fuel Religious Riots Between Muslims and Hindus in Trilokpuri
by Muneeza Naqvi
Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/trilokpuri-hindu-muslim-riot_n_6110940.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Thirty years after the notorious anti-Sikh riots in 1984—the worst communal violence since the bloodshed that followed the partition of the subcontinent at the time of India's independence in 1947—religious conflagrations are still surprisingly common in a secular country where tolerance is enshrined in the constitution.
Europe and Islam: Degrees of Separation
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/11/europe-and-islam
As news reports from different countries remind us every day, the political, legal, and educational institutions of Europe are struggling hard to find ways of incorporating the new reality of Islam into older systems for regulating religion.
Kerry Optimistic After Meeting Over Holy Site in Jerusalem
by Rana F. Sweis and Isabel Kershner
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/world/middleeast/kerry-is-optimistic-after-meeting-over-holy-site-in-jerusalem.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians were committed to taking “concrete steps” to ease strife over a volatile holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem.
A Jesuit Inspiration
by Michael C. McCarthy
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/a-jesuit-inspiration.html?ref=opinion
As the future of higher education remains so uncertain, and as the financial pressures of running universities increase, I find great courage in those schools that strive to be driven by something more than the market economy. Father Ellacuría, who was killed on Nov. 16, 1989, championed the vision of a university that would be an “inescapable social force” for good. That is no less important in 2014 than it was in 1989. I still believe that an education not grounded in justice is a farce and that we desperately need wise, courageous, even heroic academic leaders to realize the highest purposes of education.
Ethnic Cleansing at Work
by Emanuel Stoakes
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/13/ethnic_cleansing_at_work_rohingya_myanmar_obama_visit
Alam's murder is part of a recent escalation of violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state perpetrated by state forces against an ethnic minority known as the Rohingya, according to the Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based rights-monitoring group. Since September, the group has documented a spike in abuses, such as arbitrary arrests and even torture, by the Border Guard Police (BGP), a government agency that deals with suspected illegal immigrants, and by the military.
Some Alawites Are Beginning to Question Their Support for Syria’s Assad
by Hugh Naylor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/some-alawites-are-beginning-to-question-their-support-for-syrias-assad/2014/11/11/ee302b0c-aac0-4f17-a220-cddcd49b52db_story.html
Members of the Alawite minority group have become more critical of they Syrian regime’s handling of the conflict on social media and during rare protests, according to activists and analysts. They also say Alawites, who form the core of Assad’s security forces, increasingly have avoided compulsory military service in a nearly four-year war where their community has sustained huge casualties relative to Syria’s Sunnis, who lead the rebellion.
Islamic State Leader al-Baghdadi Calls on Followers to Unleash ‘Volcanoes of Jihad’
by Erin Cunningham
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/defiant-message-from-islamic-state-leader-but-silence-over-airstrike-injury-reports/2014/11/13/a19f4d9e-6b54-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html
The leader of the Islamic State sought to rally his backers in an audio statement released on Thursday, just days after Iraqi officials said the militant chief was injured in US airstrikes.
The Catholic Priest who Defended Muslim and Christian Alike in the Wartorn Central African Republic
by Cahal Milmo
Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-catholic-priest-who-defended-muslim-and-christian-alike-in-the-wartorn-central-african-republic-9859602.html
Ever since the religious bloodletting which has riven the Central African Republic arrived in Bossemptele, the small town in the rural north west where Father Bernard presides over a Catholic church and modest hospital, the cleric acted with one aim: to save anyone—regardless of creed—that he could.
Political Tensions Fuel Religious Riots Between Muslims and Hindus in Trilokpuri
by Muneeza Naqvi
Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/trilokpuri-hindu-muslim-riot_n_6110940.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Thirty years after the notorious anti-Sikh riots in 1984—the worst communal violence since the bloodshed that followed the partition of the subcontinent at the time of India's independence in 1947—religious conflagrations are still surprisingly common in a secular country where tolerance is enshrined in the constitution.
Europe and Islam: Degrees of Separation
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/11/europe-and-islam
As news reports from different countries remind us every day, the political, legal, and educational institutions of Europe are struggling hard to find ways of incorporating the new reality of Islam into older systems for regulating religion.
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