In the News, November 23-24, 2015

November 24, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Paris attacks and ISIS, the Church of England, the Pope's visit to Africa, and Muslims in America.

PARIS ATTACKS and ISIS
Does ISIS Really Have Nothing to do with Islam? Islamic Apologetics Carry Serious Risk
by Shadi Hamid
Washington Post blog
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/11/18/does-isis-really-have-nothing-to-do-...
To protect Islam – and, by extension, Muslims – from any association with extremists and extremism is a worthy cause. But saying something for the right reasons doesn’t necessarily make it right. An overwhelming majority of Muslims oppose ISIS and its ideology. But that’s not quite the same as saying that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, when it very clearly has something to do with it.

What Exactly Was the Islamic State Targeting in its Paris Attacks?
by Laurent Bonnefoy
Washington Post blog
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/24/what-exactly-was-the-islamic-state-tar...
Taking seriously what terrorists are telling France, albeit indirectly, and acting accordingly should in no way be seen as implying a symbolic victory for the Islamic State. Much to the contrary, it is the most direct way to achieve its delegitimization, first among a segment of disenfranchised Muslim citizens, and its consequent defeat.

Want to Stop Islamic terrorism? Be Nicer to Muslims.
by Sarah Lyons-Padilla & Michele Gelfand
Washington Post blog
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/11/24/want-to-stop-islamic-terrorism-be-nicer-...
Our research, forthcoming in Behavioral Science and Policy, and in partnership with the World Organization for Resource Development and Education, shows that alienating Muslims can fuel support for radical movements. In other words, many Western policies that aim to prevent terrorism may actually be causing it.

‘Rambo’ Appeal, Not the Mosque, Lures Brussels Youths to Islamic State
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/11/24/rambo-appeal-not-the-mosque-lures-brussels-youths-to-...
It was the same inner-city disenchantment that leads other youths to drugs and crime, not the preachings of a radical imam, that neighbors, local social workers and imams say changed Ben Larbi from raucous adolescent to Islamic State foot soldier, drawn by the promise of adventure and glory.

Why Adbelhamid Abaaoud Wanted to Die
by Ian Buruma
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/18/the-draw-of-the-death-cult/
The battle against the Islamic State will not be won in Raqqa. It’s about giving young men with a death wish a reason to live.

The French Female Suicide Bomber’s Curious Path to Islamist Extremism
by Elahe Izadi and Yanan Wang
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/20/path-of-french-female-suicide-bomber-s...
The story of Hasna Aitboulahcen, Western Europe’s first known female suicide bomber, is filled with jolting plot turns.

AROUND THE WORLD
Vatican Puts Journalists on Trial Over Leaks Book, Amid Human Rights Furor
by Phillip Pullella
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/11/24/update-2-vatican-puts-journalists-on-trial-amid-human...
Five people, including two Italian reporters, went on trial in the Vatican on Tuesday, to outrage from rights groups, on charges arising from publication of books in which the Holy See was portrayed as mired in mismanagement and corruption.

Scientific Faith Is Different From Religious Faith
by Paul Bloom
Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/why-scientific-faith-isnt-the-same-as-religious-f...
It is true that scientists take certain things on faith. It is also true that religious narratives might speak to human needs that scientific theories can’t hope to satisfy.

Church of England Defends Ad Refused by Movie Theaters
by Stephen Castle
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/europe/church-of-england-ad-lords-prayer-star-wars.html?ref=...
Showing Christians in public and private prayer, an advertisement produced for Britain’s main church was designed to promote a moment of contemplation among moviegoers as they settled down to watch a pre-Christmas blockbuster. Instead, it has provoked a ferocious debate over the role of religion in an increasingly secular Britain.

Catholic Nuns to Expand Fight Against Slavery in 140 Nations
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/11/23/catholic-nuns-to-expand-fight-against-slavery-to-140-...
An army of religious sisters who rescue victims of human trafficking by posing as prostitutes to infiltrate brothels and buying children being sold into slavery, is expanding to 140 countries. The network of 1,100 sisters currently operates in about 80 countries but the demand for efforts to combat trafficking and slavery was rising globally.

Tense Christian-Muslim Relations Provide Backdrop to Pope’s Africa Trip
by Phillip Pullella
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2015/11/23/tense-christian-muslim-relations-provide-backdrop-to-...
Pope Francis’ first Africa trip will highlight the problems of building dialogue between Christianity and Islam as both religions grow fast on the continent, threatening to widen an already volatile fault line there between them.

DOMESTIC
The Objectification of Muslims in America
by Emma Green
Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/paris-attacks-muslims-america-trump/417069/
No matter how tightly they wrap themselves in the American flag, Muslims are largely seen as other in the United States—not just now, but all the time.

Explaining Mormons and Their Idiosyncratic View of Religious Liberty
Economist Erasmus blog
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/11/mormons-gays-and-religious-freedom
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has, into some heavy weather by tightening both its rhetoric and practice over same-sex relationships at a time when public sentiment, including that of its own members, has been moving the opposite way.
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