Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: France's ban on veils, religious tolerance in the Middle East, Catholicism and same-sex marriage, and repurposed religious buildings.
AROUND THE WORLD
French Muslims Say Veil Bans Give Cover to Bias
by Suzanne Daily and Alyssa Rubin
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/europe/muslim-frenchwomen-struggle-with-discrimination-as-ba...
More than 10 years after France passed its first anti-veil law restricting young girls from wearing veils in public schools, the head coverings of observant Muslim women, from colorful silk scarves to black chadors, have become one of the most potent flash points in the nation’s tense relations with its vibrant and growing Muslim population.
related | Netherlands Plans to Ban Full Face Muslim Veils in Public Places
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/05/27/netherlands-plans-to-ban-full-face-muslim-veils-in-pu...
Egypt's Copts Praise President Sisi but Await More Tangible Support
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/05/27/egypts-copts-praise-president-sisi-but-await-more-tan...
When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dispatched fighter jets this year against Islamic State targets in Libya in retaliation for the beheading of 21 Copts, he sent a powerful message to his country’s Christian minority. (...) However, striking out at extremists abroad might prove easier than reining in radicals at home. Orthodox Copts, the Middle East’s biggest Christian community, are a test of Sisi’s commitment to tolerance, a theme he often stresses in calling for an ideological assault on Islamist militants threatening Egypt’s security.
Sephardic Jews Feel Bigotry’s Sting in Turkey and a Pull Back to Spain
by Ceylan Yeginsu
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/europe/sephardic-jews-feel-bigotrys-sting-in-turkey-and-a-pu...
Thousands of Sephardic Jews in Turkey who trace their ancestry to Spain are now applying for Spanish citizenship in anticipation of a parliamentary bill expected to pass this month in Madrid that would grant nationality to the Jews who were expelled in 1492, during the Inquisition. Most are seeking visa-free travel within Europe and an opportunity to escape what they see as rising anti-Semitism in Turkey. But many are taken with the idea of reversing the trek their ancestors took centuries ago as they escaped persecution in Spain and settled in the more tolerant environs of the Ottoman Empire.
How One Pakistani Town Mastered Religious Tolerance
by Hassan Raza
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hassan-raza/how-one-pakistani-town-mastered-the-art-of-religious-toler...
I had always heard stories about interfaith harmony from Sindh but it was so much more amazing to see it firsthand. The love and brotherhood that exists between the Hindus and Muslims of Mithi is a perfect example of pluralism and the tolerant Sufi culture of Sindh.
On Same Sex Marriage, Catholic Countries are Leading the Way
by Frank Bruni
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/opinion/frank-bruni-on-same-sex-marriage-catholics-are-leading-the...
Countries with a Catholic majority or plurality make up half of those where two men or two women can now wed or will soon be able to. (...) We journalists too often use “the Catholic Church” as a synonym for the pope, the cardinals and teachings that have the Vatican’s stamp of approval. But in Europe and the Americas in particular, the church is much more fluid than that. It harbors spiritually inclined people paying primary obeisance to their own consciences, their own senses of social justice. That impulse and tradition are as Catholic as any others.
A Peaceful Explosion
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/05/religion-twitter-and-freedom
The peaceful expression of any spiritual belief or combination of beliefs, however eccentric, can find a place on Twitter.
DOMESTIC
A House of Worship, Converted
by Andrew Keh
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/baseball/synagogue-repurposed-as-minor-league-teams-souveni...
In the summer of 2012, the Sons of Israel synagogue in South Bend, Indiana, which had not housed a congregation since 1991, was repurposed as a souvenir store for the minor league baseball team next door. (...) Tzvi Novick, a professor of Jewish thought and culture at nearby Notre Dame, described the building, with some wonderment, as a “complex mixture of homage, kitsch, and commercialism.” (...) It became that way, apparently, through a conflation of efforts and aspirations: those of a Jewish community trying to preserve a presence in an area where it once thrived; those of a city hoping to revitalize a flagging neighborhood; those of a savvy businessman resuscitating a floundering team.
French Muslims Say Veil Bans Give Cover to Bias
by Suzanne Daily and Alyssa Rubin
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/europe/muslim-frenchwomen-struggle-with-discrimination-as-ba...
More than 10 years after France passed its first anti-veil law restricting young girls from wearing veils in public schools, the head coverings of observant Muslim women, from colorful silk scarves to black chadors, have become one of the most potent flash points in the nation’s tense relations with its vibrant and growing Muslim population.
related | Netherlands Plans to Ban Full Face Muslim Veils in Public Places
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/05/27/netherlands-plans-to-ban-full-face-muslim-veils-in-pu...
Egypt's Copts Praise President Sisi but Await More Tangible Support
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/05/27/egypts-copts-praise-president-sisi-but-await-more-tan...
When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dispatched fighter jets this year against Islamic State targets in Libya in retaliation for the beheading of 21 Copts, he sent a powerful message to his country’s Christian minority. (...) However, striking out at extremists abroad might prove easier than reining in radicals at home. Orthodox Copts, the Middle East’s biggest Christian community, are a test of Sisi’s commitment to tolerance, a theme he often stresses in calling for an ideological assault on Islamist militants threatening Egypt’s security.
Sephardic Jews Feel Bigotry’s Sting in Turkey and a Pull Back to Spain
by Ceylan Yeginsu
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/europe/sephardic-jews-feel-bigotrys-sting-in-turkey-and-a-pu...
Thousands of Sephardic Jews in Turkey who trace their ancestry to Spain are now applying for Spanish citizenship in anticipation of a parliamentary bill expected to pass this month in Madrid that would grant nationality to the Jews who were expelled in 1492, during the Inquisition. Most are seeking visa-free travel within Europe and an opportunity to escape what they see as rising anti-Semitism in Turkey. But many are taken with the idea of reversing the trek their ancestors took centuries ago as they escaped persecution in Spain and settled in the more tolerant environs of the Ottoman Empire.
How One Pakistani Town Mastered Religious Tolerance
by Hassan Raza
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hassan-raza/how-one-pakistani-town-mastered-the-art-of-religious-toler...
I had always heard stories about interfaith harmony from Sindh but it was so much more amazing to see it firsthand. The love and brotherhood that exists between the Hindus and Muslims of Mithi is a perfect example of pluralism and the tolerant Sufi culture of Sindh.
On Same Sex Marriage, Catholic Countries are Leading the Way
by Frank Bruni
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/opinion/frank-bruni-on-same-sex-marriage-catholics-are-leading-the...
Countries with a Catholic majority or plurality make up half of those where two men or two women can now wed or will soon be able to. (...) We journalists too often use “the Catholic Church” as a synonym for the pope, the cardinals and teachings that have the Vatican’s stamp of approval. But in Europe and the Americas in particular, the church is much more fluid than that. It harbors spiritually inclined people paying primary obeisance to their own consciences, their own senses of social justice. That impulse and tradition are as Catholic as any others.
A Peaceful Explosion
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/05/religion-twitter-and-freedom
The peaceful expression of any spiritual belief or combination of beliefs, however eccentric, can find a place on Twitter.
DOMESTIC
A House of Worship, Converted
by Andrew Keh
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/sports/baseball/synagogue-repurposed-as-minor-league-teams-souveni...
In the summer of 2012, the Sons of Israel synagogue in South Bend, Indiana, which had not housed a congregation since 1991, was repurposed as a souvenir store for the minor league baseball team next door. (...) Tzvi Novick, a professor of Jewish thought and culture at nearby Notre Dame, described the building, with some wonderment, as a “complex mixture of homage, kitsch, and commercialism.” (...) It became that way, apparently, through a conflation of efforts and aspirations: those of a Jewish community trying to preserve a presence in an area where it once thrived; those of a city hoping to revitalize a flagging neighborhood; those of a savvy businessman resuscitating a floundering team.
Opens in a new window