Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Israel and Palestine, violence in Yemen, religious freedom in the United States, and Pope Francis on gender roles.
BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
As We See It
by Drew Christiansen and Ra’fat Aldajani
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/we-see-it
Do we represent the Palestinian side? We try to represent the cause of justice. Beyond all the violence perpetrated by both sides, the very heart of the issue is whether a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found that gives the Palestinians a state of their own, that is independent and sovereign in every sense of what those two words mean, and that exists alongside Israel in peace.
AROUND THE WORLD
What’s Happening in Yemen’s Potential Coup
by Swati Sharma
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/20/whats-happening-in-yemens-potential-coup/
Yemen is rapidly falling under the control of a rebel group after its forces stormed the presidential palaceTuesday. This moment comes after years of violence among various factions in Yemen took an even more violent turn in recent months, causing many to wonder if the country could turn into a failed state.
Say It Like It Is
by Thomas Friedman
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/opinion/thomas-friedman-say-it-like-it-is.html
And this administration, so fearful of being accused of Islamophobia, is refusing to make any link to radical Islam from the recent explosions of violence against civilians (most of them Muslims) by Boko Haram in Nigeria, by the Taliban in Pakistan, by Al Qaeda in Paris and by jihadists in Yemen and Iraq. We’ve entered the theater of the absurd.
Don't Restart Europe's Wars of Religion
by Pankaj Mishra
Bloomberg View op-ed
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-21/after-charlie-hebdo-attacks-europe-and-islam-must-reconcile
The advocates of retaliatory wars will continue to assume a much simpler reality with their hoary oppositions: religious and secular, backward and enlightened, free and unfree. But if we are to admit how deeply and irrevocably interconnected our world is, then we must find new ways to break the cycle of counter-productive violence.
Saudi Arabia’s Beheadings Are Public, but It Doesn’t Want Them Publicized
by Justine Drennan
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/20/saudi-arabias-beheadings-are-public-but-it-doesnt-want-them-publicized/Although Saudi Arabia is a key ally in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, it has come under fire for carrying out the same sort of brutal punishments as the militants.
When the Pope Talks . . .
by Kathleen Parker
Washington Post op-ed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-divining-the-meaning-of-pope-franciss-words-on-women/2015/01/20/93dddcf8-a0cd-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html
What did Pope Francis actually mean when he spoke about women in his visit to the Philippines? Regardless of the answer, the pope has begun a discussion on gender roles.
The Last Country in the World Where Divorce Is Illegal
by Tom Hundley and Ana P. Santos
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/19/the-last-country-in-the-world-where-divorce-is-illegal-philippines-catholic-church/
The Philippines is now the only country in the world that denies divorce to the majority of its citizens; it is the last holdout among a group of staunchly Catholic countries where the church has fought hard to enforce its views on the sanctity of marriage.
DOMESTIC
Ban on Prison Beards Violates Muslim Rights, Supreme Court Says
by Adam Liptak
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/prison-beard-ban-gregory-holt-ruling.html?ref=todayspaper
The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that Arkansas corrections officials had violated the religious liberty rights of Muslim inmates by forbidding them to grow beards, using the same legal test developed in the Hobby Lobby case.
Of Beards and Brevity
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/01/religious-liberty
Those seeking clarity for future claims of religious free exercise will not find it in Justice Ginsburg’s haiku-like concurrence in this case. But for all of its brevity, her opinion today reinforces how radical the court's ruling in Hobby Lobby was last June.
The Right’s Home-School Conspiracy: How I Helped GOP Launch a Religious War
by Frank Schaeffer
Salon
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/20/the_rights_home_school_conspiracy_how_i_helped_gop_launch_a_religious_war/
Frank Schaeffer, son of evangelist Francis Schaeffer and a participant in the rise of the religious right, recounts how he helped build the Christian home-schooling movement which has also fueled the drive to the far right.
As We See It
by Drew Christiansen and Ra’fat Aldajani
National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/we-see-it
Do we represent the Palestinian side? We try to represent the cause of justice. Beyond all the violence perpetrated by both sides, the very heart of the issue is whether a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found that gives the Palestinians a state of their own, that is independent and sovereign in every sense of what those two words mean, and that exists alongside Israel in peace.
AROUND THE WORLD
What’s Happening in Yemen’s Potential Coup
by Swati Sharma
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/20/whats-happening-in-yemens-potential-coup/
Yemen is rapidly falling under the control of a rebel group after its forces stormed the presidential palaceTuesday. This moment comes after years of violence among various factions in Yemen took an even more violent turn in recent months, causing many to wonder if the country could turn into a failed state.
Say It Like It Is
by Thomas Friedman
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/opinion/thomas-friedman-say-it-like-it-is.html
And this administration, so fearful of being accused of Islamophobia, is refusing to make any link to radical Islam from the recent explosions of violence against civilians (most of them Muslims) by Boko Haram in Nigeria, by the Taliban in Pakistan, by Al Qaeda in Paris and by jihadists in Yemen and Iraq. We’ve entered the theater of the absurd.
Don't Restart Europe's Wars of Religion
by Pankaj Mishra
Bloomberg View op-ed
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-21/after-charlie-hebdo-attacks-europe-and-islam-must-reconcile
The advocates of retaliatory wars will continue to assume a much simpler reality with their hoary oppositions: religious and secular, backward and enlightened, free and unfree. But if we are to admit how deeply and irrevocably interconnected our world is, then we must find new ways to break the cycle of counter-productive violence.
Saudi Arabia’s Beheadings Are Public, but It Doesn’t Want Them Publicized
by Justine Drennan
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/20/saudi-arabias-beheadings-are-public-but-it-doesnt-want-them-publicized/Although Saudi Arabia is a key ally in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, it has come under fire for carrying out the same sort of brutal punishments as the militants.
When the Pope Talks . . .
by Kathleen Parker
Washington Post op-ed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-divining-the-meaning-of-pope-franciss-words-on-women/2015/01/20/93dddcf8-a0cd-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html
What did Pope Francis actually mean when he spoke about women in his visit to the Philippines? Regardless of the answer, the pope has begun a discussion on gender roles.
The Last Country in the World Where Divorce Is Illegal
by Tom Hundley and Ana P. Santos
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/19/the-last-country-in-the-world-where-divorce-is-illegal-philippines-catholic-church/
The Philippines is now the only country in the world that denies divorce to the majority of its citizens; it is the last holdout among a group of staunchly Catholic countries where the church has fought hard to enforce its views on the sanctity of marriage.
DOMESTIC
Ban on Prison Beards Violates Muslim Rights, Supreme Court Says
by Adam Liptak
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/prison-beard-ban-gregory-holt-ruling.html?ref=todayspaper
The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled that Arkansas corrections officials had violated the religious liberty rights of Muslim inmates by forbidding them to grow beards, using the same legal test developed in the Hobby Lobby case.
Of Beards and Brevity
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/01/religious-liberty
Those seeking clarity for future claims of religious free exercise will not find it in Justice Ginsburg’s haiku-like concurrence in this case. But for all of its brevity, her opinion today reinforces how radical the court's ruling in Hobby Lobby was last June.
The Right’s Home-School Conspiracy: How I Helped GOP Launch a Religious War
by Frank Schaeffer
Salon
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/20/the_rights_home_school_conspiracy_how_i_helped_gop_launch_a_religious_war/
Frank Schaeffer, son of evangelist Francis Schaeffer and a participant in the rise of the religious right, recounts how he helped build the Christian home-schooling movement which has also fueled the drive to the far right.
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