In the News, November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: tension in Jerusalem, Pope Francis and his critics, and ISIS. 


BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Jane Smiley's "Some Luck"
by Paul Elie
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/books/review/jane-smiley-some-luck-review.html?_r=0
Paul Elie reviews Jane Smiley's new book "Some Luck."

AROUND THE WORLD
To Counter Rise of Islamic State, Jordan Imposes Rules on Muslim Clerics
by William Booth and Taylor Luck
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/to-counter-rise-of-the-islamic-state-jordan-imposes-...
Jordanian authorities have begun a campaign to coax—and, when necessary, pressure—Muslim clerics to preach messages of peaceful Islam from their pulpits. 

The Ultimate Fatal Attraction: 5 Reasons People Join ISIS
by Maha Yahya
National Interest
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-ultimate-fatal-attraction-5-reasons-people-join-isis-11625
Five distinct trends—not including theology or technology—explain the fatal attraction to the Islamic State. And understanding these trends is vital for winning the war against extremist ideologies. 

Jerusalem Tension Leaves Jordan More Exposed to Mideast Turmoil
by Tom Perry and Suleiman al-Khalidi
Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/06/us-mideast-crisis-jordan-stability-insig-idUKKBN0IQ18J20141...
The US ally has been alarmed and angered by recent Israeli actions at the sacred al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, where tensions are raising the prospect of a new Palestinian uprising that would add to the crises at Jordan's borders and may even spill into the kingdom. 

The One-State Reality
by David Remnick
New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/17/one-state-reality
Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, the new President of Israel, is ardently opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. And yet, since Rivlin was elected President, in June, he has become Israel’s most unlikely moralist. 

Indian Muslims Lose Hope in National Secular Party
by Neha Thirani Bagri
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/world/asia/indian-muslims-lose-hope-in-national-secular-party.html...
With a stridently right-wing Hindu nationalist group, the Bharatiya Janata Party, sweeping to victory after winning elections across India, the delicate balance between the country’s religious and ethnic minorities, and especially its Muslims, and the majority Hindu population is shifting. 

To Quell Unrest, Beijing Moves to Scatter Uighurs Across China
by Edward Wong
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/world/asia/labor-program-in-china-moves-to-scatter-uighurs-across-...
With violence upending the social order in sections of Xinjiang, where resistance to Beijing’s rule has been growing among ethnic Uighurs, officials there and elsewhere in China are pushing new measures—like chartering entire trains—to bring Uighurs and members of other ethnic minorities to parts of the country where the Han, the nation’s ruling ethnicity, are the majority. 

Jesus and the Modern Man
by James Carroll
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/opinion/sunday/can-i-stay-with-the-church.html?ref=todayspaper
The joyful new pope has quickened the affection even of the disaffected, including me, but, oddly, I sense the coming of a strange reversal in the Francis effect. The more universal the appeal of his spacious witness, the more cramped and afraid most of his colleagues in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church have come to seem. 

Pope Demotes US Cardinal Critical of His Reform Agenda
by Jim Yardley
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/world/europe/pope-demotes-us-cardinal-critical-of-his-reform-agend...
Pope Francis on Saturday sidelined a powerful American cardinal who has emerged as an unabashed conservative critic of the reform agenda and the leadership style that the Argentine pontiff has brought to the Roman Catholic Church. 

Living by a Different Law
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/11/higher-education-gay-rights-and-religion
In western Canada, a looming controversy over a planned law course at a Christian college promises to be a fascinating test case on the limits of religious freedom.       
Opens in a new window