In the News, October 2, 2015

October 2, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the world: Palestine and the Oslo Accords, the European refugee crisis and the Jewish response, and a shooting at an Oregon college.
AROUND THE WORLD
Mahmoud Abbas Gives Up on Peace
New York Times editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/opinion/mahmoud-abbas-gives-up-on-peace.html?ref=opinion
On Wednesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the Palestinians no longer regard themselves as bound by the Oslo Peace Accords. However, it is hard to gauge what the “bombshell” declaration amounts to. Nonetheless, it is not a speech to be lightly dismissed.

Hearing Echoes of the Past, Jews are on the Front Line of the European Refugee Crisis
By Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hearing-echoes-of-the-past-jews-are-on-the-frontline-of-the-european-immigrant-crisis_560d6c3fe4b076812701104b
In the face of such a serious humanitarian crisis, it is not surprising that religious organizations have responded with efforts to help the newly arrived populations. No religious group has responded with more passion and sense of identification than the Jewish community.

Central Europe’s Memory Hole
By Jan Čulík and Amy Mackinnon
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/02/central-europes-memory-hole-migrants-refugees/
The Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary have failed to reckon with the darker chapters of their wartime past and role in the Holocaust – and helpless migrants are paying the price. 

Four Lessons for Fighting Extremists – Without Guns
By Nancy Lindborg and David Rothkopf
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/29/four-lessons-for-fighting-extremists-without-guns-obama-united-nations-summit/
Militaries alone cannot defeat the growth of global extremism. Taking these lessons to heart, and embracing the power of civilian approaches, is the best start to a solution that can.

India's Attack on Free Speech
by Sonia Faleiro
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/sonia-faleiro-india-free-speech-kalburgi-pansare-dabholkar.html?ref=opinion
The attacks in India should not be seen as a problem limited to secular writers or liberal thinkers. They should be recognized as an attack on the heart of what constitutes a democracy — and that concerns everyone who values the idea of India as it was conceived and as it is beloved, rather than an India imagined through the eyes of religious zealots. Indians must protest these attacks and demand accountability from people in power. We must call for all voices to be protected, before we lose our own. 

DOMESTIC
Francis’ Meeting Wasn’t an Endorsement of Davis’s View, Vatican Says
By Jim Yardley and Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/world/europe/pope-francis-kim-davis-meeting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Pope Francis’ encounter with Kim Davis last week in Washington, which was interpreted by many as a subtle intervention in the United States’ same-sex marriage debate, was part of a series of meetings with dozens of guests and did not amount to an endorsement of her views, the Vatican said on Friday. 

Oregon Shooter said to have singled out Christians for Killing in ‘Horrific Act of Cowardice’
By Eli Saslow, Sarah Kaplan, and Joseph Hoyt
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/02/oregon-shooter-said-to-have-singled-out-christians-for-killing-in-horrific-act-of-cowardice/
Investigators including cyber-experts and hate crime specialists peered Friday into the life of a 26-year-old gunman whose massacre across an Oregon campus may have been driven by religious rage and a fascination with the twisted notoriety of high-profile killers.
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