The Religion and Ethics Report - Separate stories podcast

As Israel and the United States continue their war with Iran, even promising to assassinate the new and hardline ayatollah, Pope Leo has emerged as a champion of international law. He’s called for an immediate ceasefire. Tens of millions of people maybe hearing him, but does the leadership in Jerusalem, Washington and Tehran care? Leo understands the brutal history of Iran’s regime, but he’s worried about the strongest nations behaving as they choose, without restraint. What balance is he trying to strike? 
This week, as part of the ABC’s look at the persistence of antisemitism in Australia and the world, the Religion and Ethics team partnered with ABC TV and Big Ideas here on Radio National. In a special episode of Big Ideas, we explored the religious roots of anti-Jewish prejudice because certain Christian and Muslim texts have been manipulated to fit political ideologies. A key turning point came in the 1800s, when a racial form of antisemitism began to supplant religious bigotry, with the most lethal consequence by the 1930s and 1940s. Geoff Levey of the University of New South Wales explained this change to me and my colleague Scott Stephens. 
The bookshelves of the Dalai Lama are groaning with awards for peace and justice work, including the Nobel Peace Prize. But he recently added a more unusual accolade – a Grammy award for the best spoken-word book recording. It’s another example of how religion and popular culture are deeply enmeshed. Research by the US-based Faith and Media Initiative suggests audiences, including those with no religious belief, love religious themes on the big and small screens. 
GUESTS:
Dr Miles Pattenden of Oxford University is a papal historian
Associate Professor Geoff Levey of the University of New South Wales
Dr Anna Halafoff is Professor of Sociology at Deakin University who specialises in faith and popular culture

The bookshelves of the Dalai Lama are groaning with awards for peace and justice work, including the Nobel Peace Prize. But he recently added a more unusual accolade – a Grammy award for the best spoken-word book recording. 
It’s another example of how religion and popular culture are deeply enmeshed. 
Research by the US-based Faith and Media Initiative suggests audiences, including those with no religious belief, love religious themes on the big and small screens. 
GUEST:
Dr Anna Halafoff is Professor of Sociology at Deakin University who specialises in faith and popular culture

This week, as part of the ABC’s look at the persistence of antisemitism in Australia and the world, the Religion and Ethics team partnered with ABC TV and Big Ideas here on Radio National. 
In a special episode of Big Ideas, we explored the religious roots of anti-Jewish prejudice because certain Christian and Muslim texts have been manipulated to fit political ideologies. 
A key turning point came in the 1800s, when a racial form of antisemitism began to supplant religious bigotry, with the most lethal consequence by the 1930s and 1940s. 
Geoff Levey of the University of New South Wales explained this change to me and my colleague Scott Stephens.  
GUEST:
Associate Professor Geoff Levey of the University of New South Wales

As Israel and the United States continue their war with Iran, even promising to assassinate the new and hardline ayatollah, Pope Leo has emerged as a champion of international law. He’s called for an immediate ceasefire. 
Tens of millions of people maybe hearing him, but does the leadership in Jerusalem, Washington and Tehran care? 
Leo understands the brutal history of Iran’s regime, but he’s worried about the strongest nations behaving as they choose, without restraint. 
What balance is he trying to strike? 
GUEST:
Dr Miles Pattenden of Oxford University is a papal historian.

Donald Trump says he’s liberated the people of Iran to forge their own future, after killing their autocratic leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But as the bombing continues and any organised resistance struggles to emerge, is this ethnically diverse land, with thousands of years of history, at risk of breaking up or descending into sectarian division? Nahid Siamdoust of the University of Texas specialises in the politics and culture of the Middle East. She’s also part of the Iranian diaspora.
Acclaimed journalist Robin Wright of The New Yorker covered Iran from the start of the 1979 revolution, which brought the first ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, to power.  She’s sceptical that the United States and Israel can bring change through aerial bombardment.
As the regime in Iran fell, a handful of Shia Muslim communities in Australia went into mourning for the Ayatollah, drawing criticism from New South Wales premier Chris Minns. Khamenei was a brutal autocrat, but he was also a spiritual leader to many Shi’ites. Is it the role of the state to decide who a religious community can mourn?  Dr Renae Barker specialises in law and religion at the University of Western Australia law.