Today's religion and world affairs news from the United States and around the globe: Palestine, ISIS, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia.
BERKLEY CENTER IN THE NEWS
Ways to Advance the Palestinian Cause in America
by Drew Christiansen, S.J. and Ra'fat Aldajani
National Catholic Reporter op-ed
Palestinians, Palestinian-Americans and those who believe in justice for Palestine need to assess how they have failed to communicate effectively to the American public.
AROUND THE WORLD
As Catholic Church Seeks Proof, Venezuela Sees a Saint
by William Neuman
New York Times
The Roman Catholic Church in Venezuela is on a mission to document a miracle that can be attributed to one of the country’s most popular folk heroes: José Gregorio Hernández.
Netanyahu Links Hamas With ISIS, and Equates ISIS With Iran
by Somini Sengupta and David Sanger
New York Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday called Hamas and the group known as the Islamic State “branches of the same poisonous tree,” and he said Iran was the most dangerous country in the world.
Police Arrest Hundreds Over Religious Clashes in India
by Hari Kumar
New York Times
The police have made hundreds of arrests in the past several days in an attempt to stop religious riots in the Indian city of Vadodara, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
Here There Is No Why
by Roger Cohen
New York Times op-ed
Al-Baghdadi with his 1,000-year caliphate targets the West, but it is a rotten Arab order that is at risk and must find a response to ISIS and the frustrations of its citizens.
Politicians as Theologians
Economist
The West is at war with an adversary, which claims to be acting in the name of Islam. Does that mean that the West is, in any sense whatever, at war with Islam?
A Litmus Test for Kurdistan
by Jenna Krajeski and Sebastian Meyer
New York Times op-ed
If the Kurds hope to advance the cause of Kurdish independence even as they secure Kirkuk against the Islamic State, they will need to display inclusiveness no less than military endurance.
Brazil’s Evangelicals Gain Clout and Get Close to Electing First President
by Anthony Boadle
Reuters
Brazil’s increasingly powerful evangelical Christians are tantalizingly close to electing one of their own as president next month in what would be a historic shift for the world’s largest Catholic nation.
Radical Monk Joins Hands With Sri Lankan Buddhists
by Ranga Sirilal
by Ranga Sirilal
A radical monk who heads a movement accused of stirring violence against Muslims in Myanmar has announced a partnership with a hardline Buddhist group in Sri Lanka to defend their religion.
Against Barbarism, an Imperfect Lebanon Deploys Pluralism
by Marwan Muasher and Kim Ghattas
Daily Star op-ed
A force has emerged as an unlikely rampart against the barbaric and delusional leaders of the self-proclaimed caliphate, ISIS: Lebanese pluralism. Indeed, despite the shortcomings of its political system, Lebanon can provide a template for managing cultural diversity and rejecting radicalism in an unstable and fragmented setting.
DOMESTIC
Delayed Justice for the Navajos
New York Times editorial
The long struggle of American Indian tribes to be fairly compensated for decades of federal mismanagement of their tribal lands’ resources reached an important point last week with an agreement by the largest tribe, the Navajo Nation, to accept $554 million in settlement of long-running litigation over breach-of-trust claims.
James Foley Photo Removed from Anti-Islamic Bus Ads in New York
by Barbara Goldberg
by Barbara Goldberg
Reuters
American Freedom Defense Initiative paid for a six-ad series scheduled to run for a month on the city’s mass transit system. The ads, including one showing Foley in the video of his beheading released in August, suggest that Islam is inherently violent and extremist, and call for the end of American aid to Islamic countries.
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