2017
May
23
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 23, 2017
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Yesterday, conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared to do something quite unusual: He sided with his more “liberal” justices, and cast the deciding vote. It was a triumph of principle over politics.

The court ruled 5 to 3 that North Carolina violated the US Constitution by using racial gerrymandering to create two congressional districts. The landmark case reaffirmed that political parties can’t use race as the basis for creating a contorted map or district of voters. In the 1990s, Democrats tried to use redistricting as a form of affirmative action for blacks. At the time, Justice Thomas said it was wrong. In another case in 2001, Thomas  said it was wrong, as he notes in a concurring opinion. This latest case was about Republicans using racial redistricting to empower white Republicans. Once again, Thomas said this was wrong.  

On this issue, Thomas is both a model of consistency as well as a champion of the constitutional principle of equality.

Here are our five stories for today – and a view from our editorial board on the concert attack last night in the city of Manchester, England.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Eric Ueland, Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee, hands copies of President Trump’s fiscal 2018 federal budget to a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill, on May 23.

How do you measure compassion? The White House budget director says this administration wants to measure it in terms of the number of people it gets off food stamps and welfare. Here’s a look at the ideals shaping the Trump budget.  

Last night’s bombing at a pop concert in England could be seen as an attack on childhood. By definition, terrorist attacks aim to create fear, and this was an attempt to instill fear among British parents and their children. The Monitor’s Sara Miller Llana, a mother herself, looks at how parents can deal with those concerns.

Taylor Luck
Muslim artist Izdehar Soub and Father Boulos Baqaeen speak in front of Ms. Soub’s mural at St. George's Church outside Karak, Jordan, a city in which Christian and Muslim residents have lived in harmony for more than a millennium. 'Sectarianism is very alien to us,' says the artist.

This next story offers a stellar example of brotherhood. It’s not just about love thy neighbor – it’s about defending him or her, too. These Jordanians fiercely resist any effort to divide their community by religion.

Taiwan often portrays itself as a counterpoint to China: more liberal, more democratic, and more socially tolerant. But Taipei’s effort to lead Asia in legalizing same-sex marriage may yet founder in the face of conservative family values.

Jessica Mendoza/The Christian Science Monitor
Bob Inglis, a lifelong Republican and former US representative for South Carolina, says conservatives need to join the national discourse on climate change. His nonprofit, republicEn, strives to come up with climate actions that align with conservative values.

Here’s a shift for you: A small number of Republicans are no longer simply denying climate change. Instead, they’re focusing on solutions that fit their conservative values. This could be a first step toward disentangling climate change from identity politics, Jessica Mendoza reports.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Muslim men pray for victims of the attack at Manchester Arena at a mosque in Manchester, Britain May 23.

In the months before the May 22 suicide bombing in the city of Manchester, England, the British were in a lively debate about efforts to counter the radicalization of Muslims. No doubt the mass killing at a concert by a 22-year-old local man will revive the debate. Yet, given the country’s pioneering interventions in its Muslim communities, the rest of the world can still learn from how it has deterred both extremists and would-be ones.

Under a government strategy known as Prevent, more than 8,000 people have been referred for possible inclusion in anti-radicalization programs since 2012. At the same time, security forces have been on alert for the possible return of hundreds of people who left Britain since 2014 to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Officials claim that more than a dozen potential terrorist attacks have been thwarted.

Before the Manchester bombing, the last major attack in the country was the 2005 train and bus bombings in London. Despite this, Britons worry that the country is not doing enough – or is doing the wrong thing.

The heart of the debate is deciding on the proper approach in dealing with young Muslims.

Do you treat them as potential threats, relying on secret informants in mosques, secret cameras in public areas, and secret screening of their online viewing? Such tactics may indeed prevent some extremists but do so at the risk of alienating others against Britain’s democratic values.

Or do you engage them at multiple levels of their lives – their social or emotional problems, their education and job prospects, and their understanding of Islam?

Last year, a government committee suggested renaming the deradicalization program from Prevent to Engage, a sign of an emerging preference for the second approach. And the Muslim Council of Britain, which represents mosques and Islamic schools, decided to begin its own program of offering a counternarrative against jihadist propaganda to young Muslims. The council said the government was watering down Islamic theology in its approach.

One big issue is that government efforts are led by security officials, which scares off many Muslim families from seeking help if a relative appears to becoming radicalized. In some cities, such as Birmingham, local community groups are as active as police in countering extremism, supporting Muslim families in ways that encourage participation in anti-radical efforts. One of the most effective tactics is to have survivors of terrorist attacks or defectors from jihadist groups talk to young Muslims.

Britain’s debate is steadily tilting its anti-extremism program toward treating young Muslims with compassion rather than fear. After the Manchester bombing, it is a debate well worth watching.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

There is no power greater than Love.


A message of love

Feisal Omar/Reuters
Somali women receive food and supplies from the Turkish Red Crescent in a camp near Mogadishu, Somalia. Rains began to spread over most areas last month, bringing some relief from drought. But malnutrition persists, with the number of children admitted to International Red Cross feeding centers nearly doubling over the past year. More than half of the country’s 12 million citizens could need aid by July, reports Reuters.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

On behalf of the Monitor staff, thank you for taking the time to think more deeply about the day’s news and how perspective matters.

Come back tomorrow. We're working on a series of charts that might challenge your assumptions about immigrants. (We’ll also have that piece we mentioned yesterday on the future of Iran.)

More issues

2017
May
23
Tuesday

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