Religion - April 2009

❯

Religion is Key to Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

The most violent hotspot in Africa right now is not the Darfur region of Sudan. Nor is it Somalia or Zimbabwe. The deadliest place in Africa today is in northeastern Congo, where the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgency that originated in northern Uganda in the 1980s, is wreaking havoc on defenseless Congolese communities. Since September 2008, LRA fighters have attacked dozens of villages and towns, killing over 1,000 civilians and displacing close to 200,000.

April 24, 2009
Michael Poffenberger & Maria Presley
Religion - April 2009

❯

Chile’s Secular Triumph Challenges Catholicism

Chile’s cultural and political history have shaped a nation that has long been considered one of South America’s most socially conservative and religiously homogeneous, in which the Catholic Church´s stronghold over Chilean law and society was unquestioned for decades. Yet the role of religion in Chile is evolving. Chile has entered an era of secularization, which is driving changes both in social norms and in government policies.

April 24, 2009
Religion - April 2009

❯

Western Europe and Its Muslim Minority: An Unbreakable Cycle of Alienation and Mistrust?

The majority of Western Europe today is a secular, nominally Christian society. In recent years, however, the growth of Islam as a minority religion has introduced significant changes to Western European culture and society. As a result of immigration and demographics, Europe’s Muslim population has tripled over the last thirty years and is predicted to continue growing at a similar rate over the coming decades. It is estimated that there are currently between fifteen and twenty million Muslims living in the European Union, representing 4-5% of its total population.

April 24, 2009
Annie Verderosa
Religion - April 2009

❯

A Crisis of Christianity: Why China’s most explosive religious movement worships underground

In one of her last actions as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice signed a statement identifying China as one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world. Yet Christianity appears to be exploding in China, and some say that the atheist state of China may be home to more Christians than any other place in the world. According to estimates by Chinese and foreign scholars, there may be anywhere from seventy to 300 million Chinese Christians—membership eclipsing that of the Communist Party itself.1 Yet, the Chinese government only recognizes 21 million “government-approved” Christians who attend churches operated and controlled by the state’s religious body.

April 24, 2009
Annie Cho
Religion - April 2009

❯

Sunni-Shiite Tensions Flare in Egypt-Hizbullah Dispute

Abdel-Magid Mohammed has had a busy two weeks. On April 8th, Mohammed, who is Egypt’s public prosecutor, announced he and his staff were interrogating fifty operatives detained on Egyptian soil for allegedly spying for Hizbullah and conspiring to destabilize the Egyptian state. As details of the operatives’ intent emerged, and the number charged with spying for Hizbullah narrowed from fifty to nine, the flames of political discord between Arab powers were fanned. Though the arrests occurred months before, their public revelation now has heightened tensions between Shiite Hizbullah, its patron Shiite state Iran, and Sunni Egypt.

April 24, 2009
Foreign Policy Digest Editors
Religion - April 2009