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This week on nybooks.com: A philosopher’s defense of religion, the agony of the war in Syria, the real issues at stake in the Chicago teachers’ strike, Muslim protests and the rise of Salafi Islamism,
Turkey’s grand new mosque, and does a book have to transcend its local origins to be good?
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War
The Agony of SyriaMax Rodenbeck
Assad has ordered a sustained use of heavy weaponry against his own
people that may be unmatched by any state in modern times. In trying to
crush an initially peaceful pro-democracy movement that from its
inception was backed by the vast majority of Syrians, the Assads’ army
has wreaked devastation akin to that in Grozny or Jaffna or Sarajevo,
only across swathes of a country with a far larger population.
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Education
Two Visions for Chicago’s SchoolsDiane Ravitch
According to most news reports, the teachers in Chicago are striking
because they are lazy and greedy. Or because of a personality clash
between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and union president Karen Lewis. Or because
this is the last gasp of a dying union movement. Or because Emanuel
wants a longer school day, and the teachers oppose it. None of this is
true.
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Beliefs
A Philosopher Defends ReligionThomas Nagel
One of the things atheists tend to believe is that modern science is on
their side, whereas theism is in conflict with science: that, for
example, belief that God created man in his own image is inconsistent
with scientific explanations provided by the theory of evolution. Alvin
Plantinga turns this alleged opposition on its head.
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Architecture and History
Turkey’s Towering AmbitionHugh Eakin
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's powerful prime minister, has gone
further than any of his predecessors in moving away from the stridently
anti-religious state that Atatürk created in the 1920s. Now he wants to
build a huge Ottoman-style mosque on the highest point of land in
Istanbul.
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Borderlines
Art That Stays HomeTim Parks
Choose any “great” novel, no more than a century old, from your own
home culture; in fact, the nearer to home the better; get on the net and
check with a couple of critics what major issues the book articulates,
and what profound thoughts make it worthy of the international
recognition it enjoys. Then try reading it. A hundred to one the
simplicities and dogmatisms of criticism will dissolve…
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The Lessons of 1979
Islamist Déjà VuChristian Caryl
Perhaps it’s helpful to recall the events of 1979 as we contemplate the
tragic death of US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and the
storming of American diplomatic buildings in Cairo, Sanaa, Tunis, and
elsewhere in the Muslim world. Once again, a growing political force
from within the Islamic world has dramatically and violently
demonstrated its capacity to shape global politics.
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Cuisine
Bug AppétitNathaniel Rich
The Crispy Cajun Crickets resemble spicy, toasted sunflower seeds. Red
Beans and Yikes contains, in place of rice, blanched mealworms. The
mildly acrid worms burst in your mouth like ripe currants.
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Reading
Raymond Kennedy’s ‘Ride a Cockhorse’Brooklyn Book Festival
Stephen Ruddy, director of Upright Citizens Brigade’s “Gravid Water,”
directs a dramatic presentation of scenes from Raymond Kennedy’s 1991
novel. September 21 at BAM.
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Art
BronzeGeoffrey Wheatcroft
When we admire the beauty and intricacy of bronze sculptures in great
museums we may not think much about the medium itself, but we can think
harder at this astonishing exhibition.
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