Duke Students Boycott 'Pornographic' Reading Assignment

A group of students at Duke University have refused to read a book assigned to all new students, saying the graphic novel's depictions of sexuality "compromised" their religious beliefs.

Fun Home was selected as "shared experience" reading for the Class of 2019 at the North Carolina university.

The novel is an autobiography of Alison Bechdel, a lesbian, whose father was a closeted gay man.

But some have taken issue with the novel's depiction of sex and nudity.

"I feel as if I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs to read it," student Brian Grasso wrote in a post to fellow students on Facebook.

Other students called the graphic novel, which inspired a Tony-winning musical, "pornographic".

The debate comes as US universities continue to grapple with students who disagree with assignments or lectures because of their religious or political beliefs.

Some activists have pushed for universities to use "trigger warnings" to alert students about provocative content.

Duke's Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Michael Schoenfeld said the assignment is voluntary and the book was selected by a panel of students and staff members.

"Fun Home was ultimately chosen because it is a unique and moving book that transcends genres and explores issues that students are likely to confront," Mr Schoenfeld told the Daily Dot website. But he added that "with a class of 1,750 new students from around the world, it would be impossible to find a single book that that did not challenge someone's way of thinking".

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Flooding, Landslides Hit Vast Area of Burma; Christians Denied Aid

Many villagers in Burma are still afloat in boats ferrying vital supplies for survival amid floodwaters, while others are returning to homes and fields sealed in mud. 

The recent flooding has caused damage across a wider area than 2008's Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 140,000 people and is regarded as the worst natural disaster in Burma's recorded history. 

"Despite Cyclone Nargis being the worse disaster ever in the nation, it was a localized event in that it only affected the Irrawaddy Delta," said the native director of a ministry based in Burma, David (surname withheld for security reasons). "There is a different face to this flood in that it is spread out almost across the entire western half of the nation. It covers three of the four regions known as the 'rice bowl' of Myanmar." 

Unlike Nargis, the flood from rains beginning in July has been gradual, giving residents time to escape, he said. At least 103 people have died. 

"There are surprisingly low casualties, but huge damage to farmland and animals and properties," he said. 

More monsoon rains are expected, and landslides continue to cut transportation routes and crush homes. Familiar with the submerged terrain and its inhabitants, indigenous missionaries sharing in their pain are in prime position to help. 

"Many of the worst affected regions are where we have worked for the past nine years," David said. "I know the region well, and several of the churches planted are in those areas. In one of our sister congregations, we have 28 families who lost their home either in part or whole." 

Heavy monsoon downpours began swelling rivers and creeks in Burma on July 16. A storm system in the Indian Ocean on July 30 was upgraded to a cyclone – a hurricane in the northern Indian Ocean – and dubbed Komen. Cyclone Komen tore into Burma the first week of August. Some 1.2 million acres of rice fields were destroyed as flooding hit all but two of Burma's 14 states and reportedly destroyed at least 17,000 homes. So far flooding has "critically affected" more than 1 million people, according to the United Nations, which in 2008 said Cyclone Nargis had "severely affected" 1.5 million people. 

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ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape

QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.

He bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her.

When it was over, he knelt to pray again, bookending the rape with acts of religious devotion.

“I kept telling him it hurts — please stop,” said the girl, whose body is so small an adult could circle her waist with two hands. “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God,” she said in an interview alongside her family in a refugee camp here, to which she escaped after 11 months of captivity.

The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution. Interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped the Islamic State, as well as an examination of the group’s official communications, illuminate how the practice has been enshrined in the group’s core tenets.

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Report: ISIS Shifts Gears, Readies To Take More Syrian Cities From Assad

As Turkey and the United States jointly conduct airstrikes aimed at eliminating the influence of ISIS, the terrorist group has begun to relocate its troops in an attempt to capture cities where neither Kurds nor rival jihadi ground troops are a threat– towns still officially in control of the Syrian government.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, Islamic State jihadis are being moved into Deir Ezzor, a central Syrian city by the Euphrates River far from the Turkish and Iraqi borders. The group’s report claims “large numbers of foreign fighters are weapons” have moved there in order to solidify their hold on the town, with a few neighborhoods still nominally under control of President Bashar al-Assad.

The move follows a weekend in which ISIS appeared to be bouncing back from attacks by a campaign jointly under control of Turkey and the United States. Turkey began conducting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq last month, though the government has been accused of using its force to weaken the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an enemy terrorist group to ISIS, more than it has fought ISIS itself. The United States begun striking ISIS targets with manned aircraft flying out of Turkey on August 12, the Pentagon confirmed.

Despite this campaign, however, Chinese state news outlet Xinhua reported that a major offensive by the terrorist group resulted in up to 50 Syrian rebels killed in Aleppo province, bordering Syria. The rebels were believed to be aligned with the the al-Shaitaat tribe who, while Sunni Muslims, have resisted Islamic State advances since the terrorist group first arrived in their region.

The Islamic State also took hold of the town of Umm Housh in Aleppo, which Arutz Sheva notes is “along a rebel supply line from Turkey. “ISIS is trying to seize control of these villages from rebels to cut their supply route between Aleppo city and its outskirts, and the town of Azaz,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, explained.

The advances of Turkey and the United States appear to have changed the Islamic State’s strategy from moving closer to Turkey and taking on Kurdish-protected towns directly to attempting to conquer towns held by independent rebels or regions controlled by al-Assad piecemeal. Another development that has served to benefit ISIS is the announcement by the al-Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda subgroup, that they would cease to operate in the “ISIS-free area” Turkey is attempting to create in Syria. Nusra spokesmen objected to the Turkish government’s military advance, accusing Ankara of being more invested in “Turkey’s national security” than in toppling Assad, the Nusra Front’s main objective. Al Qaeda and ISIS are rival jihadi groups.

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