Today's religion and world affairs news from around the world from the United States and around the globe: ISIS, Tunisia, Iran, and the Pope.
AROUND THE WORLD
New Freedoms in Tunisia Drive Support for ISIS
by David D. Kirkpatrick
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/world/africa/new-freedoms-in-tunisia-drive-support-for-isis.html?r...
Nearly four years after the Arab Spring revolt, Tunisia remains its lone success as chaos engulfs much of the region. But that is not its only distinction: Tunisia has sent more foreign fighters than any other country to Iraq and Syria to join the extremist group that calls itself the Islamic State.
Waves of Young Israelis Find a Home in the Former Nazi Capital
by Anthony Faiola and Ruth Eglash
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/waves-of-young-israelis-find-a-home-in-the-former-nazi-ca...
The wave of newcomers from Israel is accelerating the rebirth of Jewish culture in the country that nearly extinguished it, bringing the long-lost scent of freshly baked rugelach and Hamantashen cookies back to the streets of Berlin. But the flow of new arrivals is also sparking an uproar in Israel, where everyone from leading politicians to Holocaust survivors is denouncing the exodus to Germany.
The Administration Goes All in on Kobani
by Kate Brannen and Gopal Ratnam
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/21/the_administration_goes_all_in_on_kobani_Syria_Kurd...
Only days ago the Pentagon was saying that this small Syrian city might fall to the Islamic State. Now it's pulling out all the stops to save Kobani.
A ‘Dark Winter’ of Ebola Terrorism?
by Marc A. Thiessen
Washington Post op-ed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-a-dark-winter-of-ebola-terrorism/2014/10/20/4eb...
The world is experiencing virulent outbreaks of Ebola and Islamist radicalism. What if the two threats converge into one?
Putin and the Pope
by Thomas Friedman
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/opinion/thomas-friedman-putin-and-the-pope.html?partner=rssnyt&emc...
One is everything you’d want in a leader, the other everything you wouldn’t want. One holds sway over 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, the other over nine time zones. One keeps surprising us with his capacity for empathy, the other by how much he has become a first-class jerk and thug. But neither can be ignored and both have an outsized influence on the world today.
Police Firearms: Weaponized
Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21625818-most-chinese-police-have-long-gone-without-firearms-wak...
Most Chinese police have long gone without firearms. In the wake of terrorist incidents, that is changing.
To Celebrate Its Jewish History, Poland Presents ‘a Museum of Life’
by Rick Lyman
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/world/europe/warsaw-museum-of-the-history-of-polish-jews.html?ref=...
In eight sprawling galleries, packed with multimedia exhibitions and artifacts, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews traces the history of Jews from their first appearance in Poland in the Middle Ages to the present day. The Holocaust, the part of the story that is most often remembered, fills only one of the eight galleries.
DOMESTIC
Protests Greet Metropolitan Opera’s Premiere of ‘Klinghoffer’
by Michael Cooper
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/arts/music/metropolitan-opera-forges-ahead-on-klinghoffer-in-spite...
Political figures joined a rally, several hundred strong at Lincoln Center, to denounce the opening of the opera “The Death of Klinghoffer,” which has become the object of a charged debate about art, anti-Semitism and politics. The opera’s subject is the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jewish passenger in a wheelchair, by members of the Palestine Liberation Front during the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship.
Seeking Stars, Finding Creationism
by George Johnson
New York Times column
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/science/seeking-stars-finding-creationism.html
These days the opposition to astronomy comes not from the Vatican, which operates its own observatory, but from a people with very different religious beliefs.
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