Category Archives: Currents

Religion and Democracy at Odds for Some Afghan Youth

by Katherine Davis In what was widely lauded as a sign of increasing stability in Afghanistan, 7 million Afghan voters headed to the polls this week. The Taliban had pressured Afghans not to take part in the vote. They even … Continue reading

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Religious Right Stages a Skirmish to Win in a War It’s Losing in Mississippi

According to the stark red-state vs. blue-state narrative that shapes news media coverage of contemporary politics in the U.S., conservative places are becoming redder and progressive places are becoming bluer with each passing election cycle. But in the tightly interwoven … Continue reading

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The Good, the Bad and the Underreported

You know you’re a journalism geek when good reporting excites you. Such was my experience upon reading Sonia Paul’s most recent post for the New York Times’ India Ink blog. I’ve been working with students in Diane Winston’s J585 reporting … Continue reading

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Covering the Long History of Ethnic, Religious Violence in Crimea

by Heather McIlvaine Last week, armed men wearing military uniforms displaying no markings of nationality – but widely assumed to be Russian – seized control of Simferopol International Airport and a military airfield in Crimea, an autonomous peninsula in southern … Continue reading

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Depth of Myanmar Crisis Still Poorly Reported

The government of Myanmar has forced Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) to cease its operations in Rakhine state, home to Myanmar’s tiny Rohingya Muslim minority. Rohingya Muslims constitute one of the world’s poorest ethnic groups—MSF has for … Continue reading

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Anne Frank and Antisemitism in Japan

by Grace Lim Japanese authorities revealed on Friday that almost 300 copies of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl had been mutilated in public libraries in Tokyo and other nearby cities. The landmark book portrays the experience of a … Continue reading

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Who’s He Wooing? Salman Khan’s Trickiest Dance Number

By Matt Hamilton Last month, Bollywood star Salman Khan inflamed religious divisions when he appeared in public with prime minister candidate Narendra Modi. Modi, from the center-right Bharatiya Janata Party, has been dogged by accusations that as governor of Gujarat, … Continue reading

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Orthodoxy’s Last Stand

By Graham Clark A political firestorm turned literal in Kiev on Tuesday. Ablaze, the city’s Independence Square became the flashpoint of a conflict that has been heating up for more than a month. The intensifying physical violence has prompted widespread … Continue reading

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Religion, politics and law collide in “The Hindus” lawsuit

by Rosalie Murphy Last week, publisher Penguin India signed an out-of-court settlement and agreed to stop circulating The Hindus: An Alternative History, a scholarly study of ancient India by University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger. In six months, Penguin will … Continue reading

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Everything is Connected

The pressure of the atmosphere around you, the average intensity of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface, the force of gravity, genetics, nutrition, whether Mommy loved you—there’s a limitless number of variables in the equation that produces an individual. That … Continue reading

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