Globe Trot: Civilians blocked from escaping the battle for Fallujah

IRAQ: The Iraqi offensive to retake Fallujah displays all the problems of resolving what began as an international conflict without an international force in play. We’re hearing a lot about war crimes by the Baghdad government’s Shia-led fighters, and not so much about Fallujah residents and others held hostage by Islamic State (ISIS) as it fights to hold its territory in Iraq. More than 50,000 residents are subject to atrocities while we watch.

Some underappreciated background on Fallujah from my book They Say We Are Infidels:

“[After the Babylonian exile] Talmudic academies that produced the best translations of Jewish law sprang up near present-day Fallujah, and religious authorities served out justice as the Sanhedrin once did in Israel. Today a professor in Brooklyn teaches Jewish business ethics using the Babylonian Talmud as his primary text, its genesis somewhere near Saddam Hussein’s hometown, where it was written in Aramaic along with Hebrew.”

REFUGEES: Some striking numbers from CNSNews on refugees admitted to the United States from Syria:

“Since … Oct. 1, a total of 2,235 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the United States. Of them, 10 (0.44 percent) are Christians: three Catholics, two Orthodox, one Greek Orthodox and four refugees identified simply as ‘Christian.’”

At the start of Syria’s civil war, Christians made up 10 percent of the country’s population. State-by-state bans on refugees or Muslims aren’t rectifying the imbalance, but state and federal lawmakers need to be addressing it at the federal level for national security, religious freedom, and humanitarian reasons (which seems like a potential bipartisan win-win to me).

SYRIA: There are no windows left in Aleppo.

SOMALIA: The textbook case of failed states is reopening its doors to foreign bankers, hoping to attract investors to get its war-torn economy on its feet again.

“WORLD obtained evidence showing Boko Haram operatives use sophisticated methods—including social media—to funnel illicit proceeds from Western sources through European banks and to northern Nigerian charities that push cash to militants.”

IRAN: Maryam Naghash Zargaran has gone on a hunger strike in prison to protest her lack of medical care. A convert from Islam, Zargaran was arrested three years ago in connection with her work at an orphanage alongside Saeed Abedini, but has gotten little attention compared to the Iranian-American pastor released earlier this year.

UK: Elton John has successfully blocked in court publication of negative stories about his partner’s cheating on him.

NOTES: I’m reading The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes and continuing a long (and fruitful) trek through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. And because it’s summertime, no Globe Trot on Friday and Monday; it will return June 8.