Monthly Archives: November 2013

Spanish court issues arrest warrant against former Chinese president over Tibet

Spain’s relations with China are about to suffer a world of hurt. On Tuesday, a Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for five Chinese ex officials, including China’s former president Jiang Zemin, 87, on claims of genocide against the Tibetan … Continue reading

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Seeing Burma in the News-Media Funhouse Mirror

Through the lens of the prevailing mainstream news media narrative, religious movements tend to be either completely invisible or distorted in order to play up violence and sensationalism. This complaint has appeared countless times in the USC Knight Chair blog, … Continue reading

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Belfast City Official Responds to Youth Discontent

On the River Lagan in Northern Ireland lies Belfast, a city divided by religion and politics dating from the time referred to as “The Troubles.” Although the bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants ended 15 years ago, political tension stills … Continue reading

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Links in the Chain of Trauma

“Leaders have tried to wipe away histories of atrocities by foot-dragging on investigations until new bloodshed dulls memories of the old.” That line from a New York Times article on Egypt’s military government jumped out at me. Authoritarian regimes know … Continue reading

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Muslims, Mormons and Mister Magoo

A New York Times piece on Mormons’ game-changing role in Senate approval of ENDA this week exemplified what smart religion coverage should be and do.  The most prominent political figures in a religious movement that threw its weight behind California’s … Continue reading

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Peacemakers gather under heavy guard to confront Nigeria’s Christian-Muslim violence

  Soldiers with automatic weapons flanked our convoy and armored personnel carriers guarded the entrance as we arrived at the opening of a peace conference here. This city, which has been a flashpoint in Nigeria’s ongoing violence among Christians and … Continue reading

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Turkey: A Day in Fatih

On weekday mornings the Fatih branch of Tekbir, a popular Istanbul-based Islamic fashion company, is quiet. One Thursday in early October Fatima, a Tekbir sales person, milled around the racks of clothes, smoothing down dress sleeves and tidying stacks of … Continue reading

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LAT: Begging the Question on Child Marriage

An October 30 article in the Los Angeles Times reports on a UN population study on child marriage and frames the problem as a primarily economic one. The 7.3 million babies born each year to girls under the age of 18 … Continue reading

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