Signs & Portents
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Pagan News Beagle: Fiery Tuesday, April 26
Refugees face increasing legal challenges in Europe. An Indian woman turns the tables on the country's witch hunters. And the Palestinian president makes his case to the European public for his nation. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on political and societal news from around the world! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!
Scandinavia is usually regarded as something of a social welfare utopia among progressives in America. But things are rarely quite so simple. Now, as refugees from the brutal Syrian Civil War seek protection in Europe, Denmark has taken a harsh approach that contradicts its egalitarian values.
Sadly, witch hunters are not a thing of the past. Although Pagans in the West are unlikely to face the prospect of a witch trial, women in other parts of the world are not so lucky. But they are not without aid. The BBC takes a look at Birubala Rabha, who's standing up to India's witch hunters.
Daesh's campaign of terror in Iraq and Syria may primarily ground itself in religious justifications... but it also has a strongly ethnic component as well. Many of the targets of Daesh's actions have been ethnic or religious minorities in the region, drawing some descriptions of their war as genocide. But few seem eager to embrace the term. Why not? Giles Fraiser, writing for The Guardian, has a theory.
For much of history the definition of the word "rape" has been egregiously narrow. Even today in the West, there is talk of what is or is not "legitimate rape." One example by which victims of rape have been denied recompense is the refusal of some to define sexual assault within marriage as rape. But in India, that's changing.
The prospects for peace in Palestine and Israel remain small. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth continuing to search for a solution. Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine and the head of the nation's Fatah party, speaks with German newspaper Der Spiegel about the challenges facing Palestine and why the world must not turn a blind eye to it and Israel.
Top image by Bertil Videt
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