In the News, March 17, 2015

March 17, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: the Israeli election, peace in Mali, and rebooting democracy. 
AROUND THE WORLD
Netanyahu Says No to Statehood for Palestinians
by Jodi Rudoren
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-campaign-settlement.html?ref=todayspaper
Under pressure on the eve of a surprisingly close election Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday declared definitively that if he was returned to office he would never establish a Palestinian state. The statement reversed Mr. Netanyahu’s endorsement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and fulfilled many world leaders’ suspicions that he was never really serious about peace negotiations. 

Palestinians Ask: The Two-State Solution or the Two-State Illusion?
by Steve Inskeep
NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/13/392765111/palestinians-ask-the-two-state-solution-or-the-two-state-illusion
Palestinians in the West Bank don't get to vote in Israel's election on Tuesday, but they do have opinions. And at a time when talks toward creating a Palestinian state have stalled, there are Palestinians who are seeking alternatives to the traditional call for a two-state solution. 

When We Celebrate Muslims for Opposing Terrorism, We Do Them No Favors
by Tofik Dibi
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/17/no-not-every-muslims-a-terrorist-but-calling-us-all-heroes-is-just-as-bad/
The task at hand is not to produce a counter-narrative, for that will always remain reactionary, it’s to expand the narrative. We should be pushing for media portrayals that humanize Muslims, allowing them the white privilege of being a complete individual. The hero vs. villain dichotomy erases the millions of stories in the middle, implying that diversity within Islam is nonexistent. 

A Microcosm of Changes Roiling Europe
by Kaj Leers
RealClearWorld
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2015/03/a_microcosm_of_the_changes_roiling_europe_111046.html
The two coalition parties in power in the Netherlands are destined for crushing defeats in elections on March 18 that will determine the makeup of the new Senate. Polls show the opposition anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders in the lead. In the Netherlands, political truisms have been turned on their heads. With even cost-cutting, small government-type voters rejecting austerity, it seems that ideas that were once vilified as leftist tax-and-spend politics have been internalized as schemes you can now take for granted. 

Securing Peace in Mali
New York Times editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/14/opinion/securing-peace-in-mali.html?ref=opinion
The attack by a gunman who killed five people and injured many others at a bar popular with expatriates in Bamako, Mali, earlier this month showed that the violent conflict in Mali’s north is spreading south to the capital. It may be no coincidence that the attack, which killed a Frenchman, a Belgian and three Malians, occurred as the deadline approaches at the end of March for Tuareg separatists in the north to sign a peace accord with the government. 

Christians Say Under Siege in Modi’s India After Nun Rape, Attacks
by Rupak de Chowdhuri
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/03/16/christians-say-under-siege-in-modis-india-after-nun-rape-attacks/
Christians in India said on Monday that the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not done enough to protect their religion, after a spate of attacks including the rape of a 75-year-old nun at the weekend. Christians prayed and held vigils across the country to protest against the rape during an armed assault on a convent school, the worst in a series of incidents that followers of the faith say are making them feel unwelcome in their own country. 

Rebooting Democracy
by John Boik, Lorenzo Fioramonti, and Gary Milante
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/16/rebooting-democracy-participatory-reform-capitalism/?utm_content=buffer60397&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
While our democratic systems have brought us far, they appear incapable of solving complex modern problems like recurring global financial crises, rising inequality, climate change, and various forms of resource depletion. Even the most established democracies are failing to deliver public goods such as roads, bridges, water systems, schools, and other infrastructure. Not unexpectedly, the approval rating of the US Congress is at a near-historic low of 20 percent. 

DOMESTIC
70 Percent of Evangelicals Believe Religion and Science Are Not in Conflict
by Cathy Lynn Grossman
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/evangelicals-religion-science_n_6880356.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Elaine Howard Ecklund, director of Rice University’s Religion and Public Life Program, said 70 percent of self-identified evangelicals “do not view religion and science as being in conflict.” Now, the myth that bites the data dust may be the one that proclaims evangelicals are a monolithic group opposed to the scientific view of human evolution.
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