Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: the US-Israel relationship, democracy in Tunisia, and religious identity in Pakistan.
AROUND THE WORLD
Rebukes From White House Risk Buoying Netanyahu
by Judi Rudoren
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/world/middleeast/white-houses-rebukes-risk-buoying-netanyahu.html?ref=todayspaper
Israeli analysts are now suggesting that Mr. Obama and his aides might be overplaying their hand, inviting a backlash of sympathy for Mr. Netanyahu, and that they may not have clearly defined what they expected to gain diplomatically by continuing to pressure the Israeli leader. The rift widened further on Tuesday with a Wall Street Journal report in which administration officials accused Israeli officials of spying on the closed-door negotiations with Iran and sharing secret details about them with Congress and journalists.
Tunisia is Still a Success
by Larry Diamond
Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/tunisia-is-still-a-success-terrorist-attack/388436/?utm_source=btn-twitter-ctrl2
Tunisians I’ve spoken to, from widely varying political persuasions and religious orientations, overwhelmingly reject not just the terrorism of the March 18 attacks but all forms of violence and intolerance. They are are proud of their democratic achievements and are determined not to let a small band of violent religious zealots undermine them.
Why Well-Educated Westerners Are Joining the Islamic State
by Warren R. Heydenberk and Roberta Heydenberk
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/25/why-well-educated-westerners-are-joining-the-islamic-state/
Higher learning, the theory goes, makes us more humane, and it offers us opportunities and advancements that keep us happy in our Western lives. But the story of Jihadi John and others suggests that this is not the case. Cooperative education that encourages critical thinking from multiple perspectives and plants the seeds of a civil, diverse society while increasing academic achievement, cooperation and creativity could be a solution.
Has the Caliphate Come to Kabul?
by Leela Jacinto
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/23/has-the-caliphate-come-to-kabul-isis-afghanistan-ghani/
The fact that the Hazaras could turn to their old, dreaded foe in order to confront a new threat is an indicator of what could be the changing nature of the Afghan insurgency. In this shifting context, it should come as no surprise that hard-line Sunni Taliban commanders are willing to lend a hand to their derided Shiite brothers. The Islamic State is fast becoming a major threat for the Taliban, one that threatens to steal the Pashtun Islamist group of its jihadi thunder.
How a Slain Afghan Woman Became an Unlikely Champion for Women’s Rights
by Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/how-a-slain-afghan-woman-became-an-unlikely-champion-for-womens-rights/2015/03/24/395e181e-d19d-11e4-8b1e-274d670aa9c9_story.html
In life, Farkhunda would have been an unlikely role model for empowering Afghanistan’s women. In death, however, Farkhunda has become a champion for women’s rights and the rule of law. The 27-year-old’s brutal murder by a mob last week has galvanized this nation in a way no other recent atrocity has. It has unleashed a society’s deep-rooted frustrations with the unchecked violence in everyday life, highlighting the continuing struggle between Afghanistan’s ancient customs and modern laws.
Pakistani Christians Fight Back
by Ali Sethi
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/pakistani-christians-fight-back.html?contentCollection=opinion&action=click&module=NextInCollection®ion=Footer&pgtype=article
Pakistani Christians have a strong claim to being the country’s most anciently marginalized group, their predicament made all the more intractable by the silence that surrounds it.
Pakistan’s Identity Problem
by Madiha Afzal
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/24/pakistans-identity-problem/
It must embrace its full past, Islamic and non-Islamic. It must teach its complete history, which includes Hindu empires and Muslim rulers. It must celebrate all of the ethnicities living within its borders, and the richness of its South Asian culture. Imposing an identity that does away with this history and diversity has done Pakistan enough harm.
Free to Appal
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/03/religion-and-speech
This has been a mixed week for freedom of speech in Britain. On one hand, a sharp-tongued street preacher has been found guilty and punished, albeit quite mildly, under a piece of legislation which many regard as dangerously illiberal. On the other, gay-rights campaigners and opponents of religious power have made a robust, Voltaire-like response...by defending the preacher's right to say things which they consider bigoted, appalling and offensive.
DOMESTIC
The Friendly Atheists Next Door
by Daniel Burke
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/03/living/friendly-atheists-next-door/
About ten months ago, I met a man named Harry Shaughnessy at a conference for atheists in the Bible Belt. At first, he struck me as a typical atheist: he's white, upper-middle class and college-educated. But the more I talked to Harry, the more I realized that he's not a typical anything. He's part of a bevy of former believers who, while trying to raise atheist children and create secular communities, are tapping an unlikely source: the religions they left behind.
Rebukes From White House Risk Buoying Netanyahu
by Judi Rudoren
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/world/middleeast/white-houses-rebukes-risk-buoying-netanyahu.html?ref=todayspaper
Israeli analysts are now suggesting that Mr. Obama and his aides might be overplaying their hand, inviting a backlash of sympathy for Mr. Netanyahu, and that they may not have clearly defined what they expected to gain diplomatically by continuing to pressure the Israeli leader. The rift widened further on Tuesday with a Wall Street Journal report in which administration officials accused Israeli officials of spying on the closed-door negotiations with Iran and sharing secret details about them with Congress and journalists.
Tunisia is Still a Success
by Larry Diamond
Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/tunisia-is-still-a-success-terrorist-attack/388436/?utm_source=btn-twitter-ctrl2
Tunisians I’ve spoken to, from widely varying political persuasions and religious orientations, overwhelmingly reject not just the terrorism of the March 18 attacks but all forms of violence and intolerance. They are are proud of their democratic achievements and are determined not to let a small band of violent religious zealots undermine them.
Why Well-Educated Westerners Are Joining the Islamic State
by Warren R. Heydenberk and Roberta Heydenberk
Washington Post blog
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/25/why-well-educated-westerners-are-joining-the-islamic-state/
Higher learning, the theory goes, makes us more humane, and it offers us opportunities and advancements that keep us happy in our Western lives. But the story of Jihadi John and others suggests that this is not the case. Cooperative education that encourages critical thinking from multiple perspectives and plants the seeds of a civil, diverse society while increasing academic achievement, cooperation and creativity could be a solution.
Has the Caliphate Come to Kabul?
by Leela Jacinto
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/23/has-the-caliphate-come-to-kabul-isis-afghanistan-ghani/
The fact that the Hazaras could turn to their old, dreaded foe in order to confront a new threat is an indicator of what could be the changing nature of the Afghan insurgency. In this shifting context, it should come as no surprise that hard-line Sunni Taliban commanders are willing to lend a hand to their derided Shiite brothers. The Islamic State is fast becoming a major threat for the Taliban, one that threatens to steal the Pashtun Islamist group of its jihadi thunder.
How a Slain Afghan Woman Became an Unlikely Champion for Women’s Rights
by Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/how-a-slain-afghan-woman-became-an-unlikely-champion-for-womens-rights/2015/03/24/395e181e-d19d-11e4-8b1e-274d670aa9c9_story.html
In life, Farkhunda would have been an unlikely role model for empowering Afghanistan’s women. In death, however, Farkhunda has become a champion for women’s rights and the rule of law. The 27-year-old’s brutal murder by a mob last week has galvanized this nation in a way no other recent atrocity has. It has unleashed a society’s deep-rooted frustrations with the unchecked violence in everyday life, highlighting the continuing struggle between Afghanistan’s ancient customs and modern laws.
Pakistani Christians Fight Back
by Ali Sethi
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/pakistani-christians-fight-back.html?contentCollection=opinion&action=click&module=NextInCollection®ion=Footer&pgtype=article
Pakistani Christians have a strong claim to being the country’s most anciently marginalized group, their predicament made all the more intractable by the silence that surrounds it.
Pakistan’s Identity Problem
by Madiha Afzal
Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/24/pakistans-identity-problem/
It must embrace its full past, Islamic and non-Islamic. It must teach its complete history, which includes Hindu empires and Muslim rulers. It must celebrate all of the ethnicities living within its borders, and the richness of its South Asian culture. Imposing an identity that does away with this history and diversity has done Pakistan enough harm.
Free to Appal
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/03/religion-and-speech
This has been a mixed week for freedom of speech in Britain. On one hand, a sharp-tongued street preacher has been found guilty and punished, albeit quite mildly, under a piece of legislation which many regard as dangerously illiberal. On the other, gay-rights campaigners and opponents of religious power have made a robust, Voltaire-like response...by defending the preacher's right to say things which they consider bigoted, appalling and offensive.
DOMESTIC
The Friendly Atheists Next Door
by Daniel Burke
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/03/living/friendly-atheists-next-door/
About ten months ago, I met a man named Harry Shaughnessy at a conference for atheists in the Bible Belt. At first, he struck me as a typical atheist: he's white, upper-middle class and college-educated. But the more I talked to Harry, the more I realized that he's not a typical anything. He's part of a bevy of former believers who, while trying to raise atheist children and create secular communities, are tapping an unlikely source: the religions they left behind.
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