Today's religion and world affairs news from around the world from the United States and around the globe: blasphemy in Afghanistan, ISIS, acid attacks in Iran, North Korea, reform in the Catholic Church, and a terrorist attack in Canada.
AROUND THE WORLD
A New Afghan Article Investigates Newspaper for ‘Blasphemous Article’
by Tim Craig
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/new-afghan-government-investigates-newspaper-for-bl...
Top staffers at an Afghan newspaper are being investigated for blasphemy after the publication of an article that questioned whether Muslims should embrace the possibility that more than one God exists.
Military Success Has Bred Popular Support for Islamic State
Washington Post editorial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/military-success-has-bred-popular-support-for-the-islamic-sta...
Western leaders sometimes suggest that the Islamic State is its own worst enemy, so extreme in doctrine and practice that it will galvanize opposition within the Islamic world. While that is proving true to some extent — Muslim governments, senior clerics and even other jihadist groups have joined the fight against the would-be caliphate — the sobering truth is that the Islamic State also has picked up popular support and the allegiance of other militants in countries as far away as Algeria and Pakistan.
Thousands in Iran Protest Acid Attacks on Women
by Thomas Erdbrink
New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/world/middleeast/thousands-in-iran-protest-acid-attacks-on-women.h... T
housands of Iranians took to the streets of the historic city of Isfahan on Wednesday to protest several acid attacks on women. The attacks had coincided with the passage of a law designed to protect those who correct people deemed to be acting in an “un-Islamic” way.
South Korea Tears Down Christmas Tower on Border
by Chloe Sang-Hun
New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/world/asia/south-korea-tears-down-christmas-tower-on-border.html?r...
South Korean marines have dismantled a 43-year-old Christmas tower on the border with North Korea that the North had threatened to attack with artillery, officials here said on Wednesday. Built on a front-line hilltop northwest of Seoul in 1971, the 59-foot steel tower, tipped with a cross, used to be illuminated with cascades of light bulbs around Christmas during the Cold War years. Batteries of loudspeakers sent Christmas carols drifting across the snow-covered border into the North, where the totalitarian regime repressed religious freedom.
American Freed by North Korea Arrives Home
by Scott Neuman
NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/10/22/358024359/american-freed-by-north-korea-arrives-home
Jeffrey Fowle, an American held since May in North Korea for allegedly leaving a bible at a club for foreign sailors, has arrived at a U.S. Air Force base in his home state of Ohio after Pyongyang released him on a "special dispensation."
Pope Francis Plays Long Game to Reform Roman Catholic Church
by Tom Heneghan
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2014/10/22/pope-francis-plays-long-game-to-reform-roman-catholic...
After winning praise around the world for his fresh and open style, the honeymoon period seems to be over for Pope Francis. A tumultuous two-week Vatican synod exposed polarization in the Catholic Church over his push to reform its traditional approach to sexual morality by becoming more welcoming to gays and easing restrictions on divorced and remarried Catholics.
Syrian Refugees: The Loss of a Nation
Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21627729-thousands-syrian-refugees-are-risk-hav...
The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says that hundreds of thousands of Syrians could become stateless as a result of the brutal three-and-a-half-year war. The number of refugees and the lengthy time they are likely to spend outside Syria, combined with tough nationality laws in host countries, put them at particular risk of adding to the 10m stateless people worldwide.
Canadian PM: ‘Terrorist’ Responsible for Deadly Ottawa Shootings
by Reid Standish
Foreign Policy http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/10/22/are_fears_of_islamist_terrorism_in_canada_coming_true
Speaking to his nation Wednesday night, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper blamed a deadly shooting at parliament that killed a Canadian soldier and wounded three others hours earlier on terrorism. The prime minister did not ascribe motive to the Parliament Hill attack, but he did tie the shooting to an "ISIL-inspired" incident in Quebec on Monday where one soldier was killed and another injured when they were run down by a man with declared sympathies for Islamic extremism.
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