In the News, April 21, 2015

April 21, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Kenya's policies against Muslims, Saudi Arabia's strategy in Yemen, and how corporate America invented Christian America.
BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Will the US Join a Religious War in the Gulf?
by Drew Christiansen and Ra’fat Aldajani
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/will-us-join-religious-war-gulf
The religious dimension of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry has now come to the surface. While the U.S. has its own strategic reasons to be involved in Yemen and Iraq, it would be unwise for it to be drawn into a religious war.

Creating Artificial Intelligence
PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2015/04/17/april-17-2015-creating-artificial-intelligence/25770/
Can artificial intelligence think and feel like a human being? Does it have a soul? Can it make moral decisions?  We speak with scientists and theologians at MIT, Yale, Georgetown [Gerard Mannion], and Catholic University about the benefits and risks of AI and the fear of losing human control of technology. 

AROUND THE WORLD
Kenya's War of Terror Helps Terrorists
Bloomberg View editorial
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-20/kenya-s-war-on-terror-helps-terrorists
Al-Shabaab has made no secret about its strategy to exploit Kenya’s inequities and divisions. The government’s discrimination and harsh repressive measures against Kenya’s Muslims, who make up 11 percent of the population, have only made al-Shabaab’s job easier. Muslims are underrepresented in government and discriminated against, too; to get a national identity card for access to government services, they must overcome extra hurdles.

A Nation’s Dying Democracy
by Mariyam Shiuna
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/opinion/a-nations-dying-democracy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
The Maldives are not as idyllic as they may seem. Political persecution and intimidation have become the norm. 

Iran’s Game in Yemen
by Mohsen Milani
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143707/mohsen-milani/irans-game-in-yemen
Saudi Arabia is grossly exaggerating Iran’s power in Yemen to justify its own expansionist ambitions. Iran is not the cause of the civil war, nor are the Houthis its proxy. Chaos, not Iran, controls the Arab world's poorest nation. 

Are Women the Key to Peace in Colombia?
by Jacqueline O’Neill
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/20/are-women-the-key-to-peace-in-colombia-farc-talks/
As the country's five-decade war winds down, how the government disarms female fighters could define the coming truce. 

Exiled Tibetan Government Presses China On Missing Buddhist Leader 11th Panchan Lama
by Ashwini Bhatia
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/11th-panchan-lama_n_7107254.html
The Tibetan government-in-exile wants supporters to help pressure China to release the 11th Panchan Lama, a Buddhist leader who is believed to have been in Chinese custody since his disappearance as a child 20 years ago, the government's spokesman said Tuesday.

DOMESTIC
How Corporate America Invented Christian America
by Kevin M. Kruse
Politico
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/corporate-america-invented-religious-right-conservative-roosevelt-princeton-117030.html#.VTZgxYrF-Gh
In many ways, the marriage of corporate and Christian interests that has recently dominated the news—from the Hobby Lobby case to controversies over state-level versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act—is not that new at all.

How ‘Star Wars’ Answers our Biggest Religious Questions
by Joel Hodge
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/21/how-star-wars-answers-our-biggest-religious-questions/
Lucas’s stated aim was to create a mythology that could provide moral guidance within the context of a renewed sense of spirituality and transcendence. Lucas was concerned this mythology was lacking both in cinema (following the decline of the Western) and in a post-1960s social context.
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