In the News, September 23, 2015

September 23, 2015

Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Pope Francis' visit to the United States, the Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey, and religion's role in American elections.
BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Addressing the ​W​orldwide ​C​risis of ​R​eligious ​F​reedom
by Thomas Farr
Washington Times op-ed
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/22/religious-liberty-addressing-the-worldwide-crisis-/
The stakes are high. Contemporary scholarship and common sense demonstrate that religious freedom can over time help democracies stabilize, increase economic growth, advance the rights of women, and undermine religion-related violence and terrorism.

Fractured Europe ​B​locks ​U​nified ​R​esponse to ​R​efugee ​C​risis ​
by Robery Hennelly
CBS News Money Watch​
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fractured-europe-blocks-unified-response-to-refugee-crisis/
"No doubt, expanding the work force is a great opportunity, but we know from history that we don't fully anticipate the cultural, linguistic and religious challenges to a successful integration," ​Jocelyne ​Cesari​ said. She​ added that Europe's fractured response to the arrival of immigrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty is problematic. "We need a coherent and unified response," she said.​ ​That response, Cesari warned, has to avoid putting the immigrants into ghettos and must waste no time in getting immigrant youth into local schools.

Is Pope Francis ​A​nti-capitalist? ​
by ​Andres Oppenheimer ​
Miami Herald op-ed
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article35751684.html
“He is critical of capitalism in the sense that it’s a system that can sometimes place profits ahead of the common good,” said Jose Casanova, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. “But he’s not anti-capitalist.”

The Pope In Washington: Where the Francis Effect Meets the Kennedy Effect ​
by Paul Elie
Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/09/the-pope-in-washington-kennedy-effect
The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, the site ​of President Kennedy's requiem mass and where Pope Francis will celebrate mass with US bishops, makes it, in a sense, the most symbolically rich event of the trip. Here’s why. Come December, Francis will have spent a thousand days as Pope (today is day 924); and his thousand days—vibrant, rich in surprises, consequential out of proportion to specific acts or policies—call to mind the “thousand days” of the Kennedy administration, a theme Kennedy introduced at his inaugural and his aide Arthur Schlesinger burnished into legend.

POPE FRANCIS VISIT
Catholics in White House Often Help Obama Build Support for Thorny Policy
by Michael Shear
New York Times ​
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/us/politics/catholics-in-white-house-often-help-obama-build-suppor...
For the Obama White House, obtaining Catholic support on important elements of its agenda has often involved going around the church hierarchy. And to lead that effort it has often turned to Catholic members of the president’s senior staff, including Mr. Biden and Ms. Sebelius.

Pope Francis’ Popularity Bridges Great Divides
by Vivian Yee
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/us/pope-francis-popularity-bridges-great-divides.html
Not all observant Catholics agree with him on the issues: Some conservatives feel he has watered down true belief; some liberals are angry that he has not changed a word of Catholic doctrine.​ ​But for non-Catholics unfamiliar with dogma, Francis has already taken on a broader role, filling a void for those seeking leadership on global issues affecting the planet and the poor.

Pope-onomics: Francis’ Keys to a Better Economy – and World
by Nathan Scheider
Reuters FaithWorld
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/09/23/pope-onomics-francis-keys-to-a-better-economy-and-w...
The economic future Francis hopes for is one that comes chiefly from the bottom up. Economists can still play a role in the future he has in mind, but they may have to do their jobs differently. Key economic advisers to both Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, come from the school of “civil economy,” which seeks to foster not just wealth, but also vibrant, values-driven, self-governing economies. This approach has roots in the ancient Christian insistence on the priority of the common good over short-term profits and private property.

AROUND THE WORLD
As ​H​ostility ​F​​​​lares, Hungary’s Muslim ​Co​mmunity ​M​obilizes to ​A​id ​R​efugees
​by​ Robert Samuels
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/hungarys-tiny-muslim-community-mobilizes-to-help-refugee...
For years, living as a Muslim in Hungary meant existing somewhere between obscurity and derision. Muslims made up less than 1 percent of the population in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation. But as thousands of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa have streamed into the country, hostility toward Islam has flared.​ ​In response, Hungarian Muslims have mobilized. Rarely have their acts of service felt so necessary to them.

Islam's Tragic Fatalism
by Mustafa Akyol
International New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/opinion/islams-tragic-fatalism.html?ref=opinion
Colossal accidents in Mecca and elsewhere must be taken as alarm signals for Muslims to purge our societies of this problematic mentality and seek the great intellectual revival we need.

Palestinian Woman Is First to Oversee Muslim Wedding Vows
by Diaa Hadid
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/world/middleeast/palestinian-woman-is-first-to-oversee-muslim-wedd...
Tahrir Hammad thinks women, including herself, are too emotional to serve as judges, and accepts without question an Islamic legal dictate that sees two women as equivalent to one male witness for official ceremonies.​ ​Yet Ms. Hammad, 36, is a pioneer, having recently become the first woman to be permitted to perform Muslim marriages in the Palestinian territories.

Faith and Secular Bodies Learn to Live Together
Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/09/un-religion-and-development-0
The UN, for all its secular origins and ethos, is increasingly having to pay attention to what its jargon calls faith-based organizations or FBO, even if the tone of the dialogue can be blunt at times. The relationship between the UN development agencies and religion is evolving but by no means idyllic. A report published by the UN Population Fund states "Development actors must learn how to navigate the complex world of religion, rather than ignore or marginalize its significance."

How Long Will Erdogan Go?
By Nuck Danforth
Foreign Policy
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/11/how-low-will-erdogan-go-turkey-isis-kurdistan-akp/
On June 7, Turkish voters denied President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Part (AKP) the governing majority in the first time in over a decade. Erdogan has refused to accept the results and instead has forced another election. In order to secure the necessary votes, Erdogan has played upon the Turkish people’s fear of religious terror, the increasing momentum of the Kurdish separatist movement and the threat of ISIS along the nation’s border.

New Kurds on the Block
by Micha’el Tanchum
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/turkey/2015-09-23/new-kurds-block
Today the Kurdish issue is a qualitatively more intractable than it was in the 1990s. The Turkish state will not easily defeat thousands of urban militants who possess broad popular support. Nor will Ankara quickly recover from the social and economic damage caused by its effort to do so. There is no end to the war unless there is a resumption of peace negotiations with the PKK and the acceptance of a Kurdish rights movement within Turkey’s parliamentary system.

DOMESTIC
The Republican Attack on Muslims
New York Times editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/opinion/the-republican-attack-on-muslims.html?ref=opinion
Leave aside for a moment the unintentionally funny spectacle of a member of the current Republican Party declaring that religion should be kept out of public life, and that Mr. Carson, as an African-American, is a member of a much belittled minority. The freedom of religion embedded in the First Amendment rules out the very idea of a religious test for public office, as John F. Kennedy so eloquently argued and then proved by becoming the first Catholic president.

Politicians Seeing Evil, Hearing Evil and Speaking Evil
by Thomas L Freidman
New York Times op-ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/opinion/thomas-friedman-see-evil-hear-evil-speak-evil-in-us-and-is...
Friedman reflects on what he perceives as an alarming lack of moral or ethical integrity in today’s politics, particularly in the presidential race in which candidates continually provide false and often slanderous information to American voters without fear of repercussion.
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