Obama Nominates First Non-Christian to Lead Religious Freedom Initiative

RELIGION DISPATCHES
By Peter Montgomery

“O. C. Blue Amulet” (2009) by Yona Verwer; print 16” x 20"

S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced yesterday (Monday) that President Barack Obama is nominating the first non-Christian, Rabbi David Saperstein, to the post of ambassador for international religious freedom. Saperstein has served as head of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism for more than 30 years, been a member of the advisory council for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and teaches First Amendment and Jewish law at Georgetown Law school. In his remarks on Saperstein’s religious freedom pedigree, Kerry called him “the gold standard,” pointing to his work “across faith lines,” with “women of faith networks,” and with “American Muslim communities.” [link]

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First Lady Michelle Obama Pushes for Arts in Schools

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Randy Lewis

First Lady Michelle Obama gave the keynote speech at a Grammy Museum event to salute teachers who use music in innovative ways as part of their lessons at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA---First Lady Michelle Obama took to an entertainment-industry pulpit in Los Angeles to stump for expanding the role of arts in education, saying that 6 million children in the U.S. have no exposure to any form of arts in school. Speaking before an audience of several hundred including L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), Mrs. Obama stressed that music and other forms of art often connect with students and enhance their interest in core subjects such as math, science and history. [link]

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India Aims to Make Forlorn City a Model for Revival

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Stephanie Strom

Graham Crouch for The New York Times

INDIA---The big question on many minds here is: How long will the electricity last? Since Narendra Modi was elected prime minister in May, residents in this forlorn city on the Ganges — at least those with wiring — have had near constant electricity, compared with the failures totaling as much as eight to 10 hours a day in the past. Mr. Modi has promised to tackle Varanasi’s legion of problems and turn this holiest — and one of the dirtiest — of Hindu cities into a showcase of Indian culture and small business undergirded by better infrastructure. The city also should benefit from other budget goals, including 1 billion rupees designated for repairing historic ghats, 2 billion rupees to support craft textile manufacturing and a 5 billion rupee package aimed at enhancing the so-called tourist circuit that encompasses Sarnath, Varanasi and Gaya, cities holy to Hindus and Buddhists. [link]

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Op-Ed: Religious Freedom in Peril

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Nicholas Kristof

A Pew Research Center study found Muslims victims of religious repression in about as many countries as Christians. A Sudanese court in May sentences a Christian woman married to an American to be hanged, after first being lashed 100 times, after she refuses to renounce her Christian faith. Muslim extremists in Iraq demand that Christians pay a tax or face crucifixion, according to the Iraqi government. In Malaysia, courts ban some non-Muslims from using the word “Allah.” In Pakistan, for example, a brutal campaign has been underway against the Shiite minority. Likewise, Iran represses the peaceful Bahai, and similarly Pakistan and other countries brutally mistreat the Ahmadis, who see themselves as Muslims but are regarded as apostates. Pakistani Ahmadis can be arrested simply for saying, “peace be upon you.” [link]

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What's a Caliphate? ISIS Announces Restoration of a Supreme Islamic State

NPR: PARALLELS
By Gregory Myles

An Iraqi Turkmen fighter looks at an icon of seventh century Imam Ali bin Abi Talib,
Islam's fourth caliph and cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.

The Islamic caliphates had a long and glorious run, but in the 21st century, they seemed consigned to history. Simply put, a caliphate is an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader, and it has existed in one form or another for most of the 1,400-year history of Islam. But on Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria declared it was re-establishing a caliphate that will be headed by its shadowy leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It's a bold propaganda ploy, because a caliphate seeks dominion over the world's Sunni Muslims, who make up the vast majority of the roughly 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe. Re-creating a caliphate has been a goal of fundamentalist Sunni groups for decades, including al-Qaida. [link]

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A Victory for ‘Religious Freedom’ is a Loss for Religion

DAILY BEAST
By Gene Robinson

WASHINGTON, DC---In the next few weeks, the Supreme Court of the United States will rule on two cases taken up this term: Hobby Lobby vs. Sibelius and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. vs. Sibelius. Both claim to be about the freedom to practice one’s own religion without interference by the government, but both are actually about whether or not broad exemptions to disregard antidiscrimination laws should be granted to people—and corporations—who oppose them on religious grounds. Most embarrassing of all is the specter of people asking in the name of religion for permission to discriminate. [link]

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Op-Ed: The Mirage of Political Islam

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Mustapha Tlili

During the decades of dictatorship in the Arab world, political Islamists marketed themselves in the West as “moderate” movements that sought to reconcile Islam with democracy. In reality, they were proponents of a messianic ideology in which the fundamental tenet is to implement God’s will on earth. While they succeeded in disguising their true intentions in talks at Chatham House or the Council on Foreign Relations, they could not possibly provide the partner America needed. As the Obama team prepared to end the wars of the Bush administration, it felt a need for friends in the Arab world. So the administration bought into the fallacy of “moderate” political Islam.

Mustapha Tlili, a novelist and a research scholar at New York University, is the founder and director of the N.Y.U. Center for Dialogues: Islamic World - U.S. - the West.

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