Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: the Kurds, Yazidis, ISIS, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, the Vatican Synod on the family, the veil in France, Boko Haram, and female converts to Judaism.
AROUND THE WORLD
Turkey to Let Iraqi Kurds Cross to Syria to Fight ISIS
by Kareem Fahim and Karam Shoumali
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/world/middleeast/kobani-turkey-kurdish-fighters-syria.html?ref=tod...
Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to cross its border with Syria to help fight militants from the group called the Islamic State who have besieged the Syrian town of Kobani for more than a month, the Turkish foreign minister announced Monday.
Turkey Isn’t Abandoning the Kurds
by Yusuf Sayman
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/20/turkey_isnt_abandoning_the_kurds_border_syria_pkk_y...
The 30-year war between the Turkish state and the PKK claimed some 40,000 lives—neither side is eager to return to that bloody era. The war in Kobani represents a major setback, but according to the leaders of both sides, there is still hope.
Islamic State Seizes Two Yazidi Villages as It Advances on Mount Sinjar
by Loveday Morris and Mustafa Salim
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/islamic-state-seizes-two-yazidi-villages-as-it-advan...
Islamic State militants advanced on Mount Sinjar on Monday, seizing two villages and blocking roads as besieged fighters from the minority Yazidi sect pleaded for US-led airstrikes to save them.
How Important Is the Caliphate and Abu Bakr to ISIS?
by Ronald Tiersky and Michael Chioke
Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronald-tiersky/islamic-state-caliphate_b_6011980.html?utm_hp_ref=email...
There is another hypothesis: ISIS fighting morale would collapse if the Caliph disappeared and the Caliphate lost its plausibility. Another Caliph might be named but it would most likely repeat the bin Laden/Zawahiri succession. The religious passion that animates the soul of many ISIS fighters would lose its focus and thus its implacability.
Joko Widodo Sworn In as Indonesia’s President and Faces These 5 Challenges
by Hannah Beech
Time
http://time.com/3523168/indonesia-jokowi-inauguration-president/
Indonesia hasn’t suffered a major terrorist strike since 2009 when a pair of luxury Jakarta hotels were targeted by suicide bombers. But it only takes one attack to shatter the sense that Indonesia has tamed a band of radicals who are trying to hijack the moderate, syncretic Islam that has long flourished in the world’s most populous majority-Muslim nation.
Opening Indonesia: A Conversation With Joko Widodo
by Joko Widodo
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/discussions/interviews/opening-indonesia
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy. And we also have the world’s largest Muslim population. This demonstrates that democracy and Islam are not incompatible. Terrorism is not associated with any religion.
Catholic Church Should Not Fear Change, Pope Francis Says at Synod Close
by Philip Pullella
Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2014/10/20/catholic-church-should-not-fear-change-pope-francis-s...
Pope Francis has closed an assembly of Catholic bishops that revealed deep divisions on how to respond to homosexuality and divorce, saying on Sunday the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges.
Catholic Synod Highlights Divisions, Sets Stage for Future Battles
by Sylvia Poggioli
NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/20/357508863/catholic-synod-highlights-divisions-sets-sta...
A two-week-long synod on family issues that wound up this weekend was tumultuous, and the results showed a church deeply divided over how to deal with gays and with divorced and remarried Catholics. Rarely has a synod attracted such attention. The Vatican press room was packed, as many activists also showed up to push their agendas.
France Moves to Clarify the Rules on Full Veil
by Dan Bilefsky
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/world/europe/france-moves-to-clarify-the-rules-on-full-veil-and-bu...
The government said Monday that it would circulate guidelines for cultural institutions on France’s law against wearing full veils in public places after a woman at a performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata” was asked by an attendant to remove the covering over her face or leave the audience.
Nigerian Girls Brought Back—Maybe
by Siobhan O’Grady
Foreign Policy
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/10/17/nigeria_reaches_ceasefire__with_boko_haram
More than six months after the highly publicized kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria, a newly reached cease-fire deal between the Nigerian government and the terrorist group will return the girls to their families, a spokesman for the Nigerian government announced Friday.
DOMESTIC
Voyeur Case Spurs Rabbis to Add Post for Women
by Michael Paulson
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/us/rabbinical-council-to-add-a-role-for-women-in-wake-of-voyeurism...
A week after a Washington rabbi was charged with videotaping women disrobing for ritual baths as they converted to Judaism, the national association of modern Orthodox rabbis said Monday that it would require the appointment of ombudswomen to handle any concerns from women about the conversion process.
Opens in a new window