Religion Dispatches
…we didn’t know this could happen. Diplomacy as usual backed by no tangible international pressures is a recipe for ongoing death and destruction. The time has arrived for the international community to create a heavy cost for the kinds of crimes depicted in this report… What happens to the bodies of the victims of mass killings that come to our attention is not something many of us think much about. But as gruesome as it may sound, it follows that…
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…the world.” Still, human rights advocates in Uganda and the U.S. said the American government should have done more to press Museveni. Museveni had previously assured international human rights advocates that he would reject the legislation, but apparently he caved in to domestic political pressures, using as cover a “scientific” report that he had commissioned to evaluate whether or not people are born gay. “Museveni is fighting to keep his poli…
Read More…a ragtag assortment of safari tourist caravans, SUVs, and cars—across this international border. Kazangula lies about two miles off of the Livingstone-Sesheke highway down a narrow hardtop road riddled with potholes. That road is crowded with this odd parade of vehicles pulled off onto the shoulder awaiting their turn on the ferry. The line begins more than a mile outside the town. The truckers, tour operators, tourists, and regular citizens who a…
Read More…inished in 1914, the small Central American country has been a conduit for international travel and trade — the history shows in its demographic diversity. Panama’s Muslim converts work to carve out space for themselves, in a country that doesn’t seem to know they exist. In creating Al Haqq, they hope to reinforce the foundation of their community and, in turn, their faith. Most Muslims in Panama live in the major cities of Panama City and Colón…
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…ent developments in Ecuador, Bolivia, and within the United Nations are as American as apple pie: they are to some extent in the spirit of a diverse range of American voices that led to the pioneering Endangered Species Act of 1973 signed into law by Richard Nixon. Yet today, those who call themselves conservative are generally hostile to environmentalists, often considering them to be politically or spiritually dangerous socialists or pagans. Un…
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…ed — an incident which, committed anywhere else in the world, would prompt American conservatives to level claims of anti-Christian persecution — change any American minds? Now we have Operation Protective Edge, which, Noam Sheizaf writes today, could have been avoided. Instead of claiming that Hamas rocket fire into civilian areas in Israel left it “no choice,” Sheizaf argues, “the Israeli leadership could start dealing with the root causes of th…
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…ostles, now led by Convening Apostle John Kelly, changed its name from the International Coalition of Apostles (ICA) to the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders (ICAL). ICAL explains: “the function of the apostolic gift-bearing fruit is more important than the title ‘apostle’ and the majority of apostles throughout the world are called pastor, bishop, prophet, and some are called superintendents.” This, therefore, allows like-minded leader…
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…cating hunger and poverty, maternal health and abstinence. OutRight Action International has launched a petition to Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN, calling C-Fam a hate group and urging that the group be removed from the delegation. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, has threatened that the US will withdraw from the Human Rights Council unless it implements “considerable reform.” Graeme Reid, director of Human Right’s Watch’s LG…
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…entious objection? The reasons are many: the need for freedom of religion, international agreements on the conduct of war, motivations for military service, and backdoor drafts. The majority of religions in the United States allow participation in what Christians call “just war.” President Obama asserted that the failure of just war in World War II compelled the United Nations to create agreements such as the Nuremberg Principles and Geneva Conven…
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…srael is a legitimate nation-state created by the United Nations, the only international body we have. Her comment was not about “the occupation,” it was about the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. And that legitimacy is not merely a “Jewish claim” (though it is that also); it is an international declaration. Israel did not conquer Palestine in a war. The Arab world rejected partition in 1948 and Israel accepted it. The state was created with the…
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