Religion and politics

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019 file photo, ultra-Orthodox Jews watch Rabbi Israel Hager vote in Bnei Brak, Israel. In Israel's secular heartland, the role of religion in daily life played a central role in this week's deadlocked election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tight alliance with the ultra-Orthodox may have contributed to his second-place finish. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

In this Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 photo, a billboard depicting Shiite spiritual leaders and volunteer fighters from the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces who were killed in Iraq fighting Islamic State militants, is displayed in Basra, Iraq. As the U.S. and Israel step up their efforts to contain Iran, countries in Tehran’s orbit are feeling the heat. Nowhere is that being felt more than in Iraq, where Shiite forces tied to Iran pose a growing challenge to the government’s authority. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

FILE - In this July 16, 2019, file photo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos listens during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. The Trump administration is threatening to cut grant funding to a Middle East studies program at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, saying it’s misusing federal funding to advance “ideological priorities” and unfairly promotes “the positive aspects of Islam” but not Christianity or Judaism. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressees his supporters at party headquarters after elections in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

In this Sept. 4, 2019 photo, Sudanese activist Khalda Saber, poses for a photograph at her apartment, in Cairo, Egypt. Saber, a mother of two, was one of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese women who risked their lives leading protests that eventually pushed the military to overthrow al-Bashir in April. Under a joint military-civilian council in power now, they hope for more freedom and equality, and seek to overturn many of the restrictive Islamic laws from the previous era. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Fritz Creek area resident Barrett Fletcher gives the invocation before a Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting as a representative of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Homer City Hall in Homer, Alaska, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2019. A pastor wearing a spaghetti strainer on his head delivered the opening invocation at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday. The invocation by the pastor of the Homer congregation of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the second non-traditional invocation before the assembly since a court ruling. (Megan Pacer/Homer News via AP)

Pages from a confidential whistleblower's report obtained by The Associated Press, along with two printed Facebook pages that were active on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, are photographed in Washington. Facebook likes to say that its automated systems remove the vast majority of prohibited content glorifying the Islamic State group and al-Qaida before it’s reported. But a whistleblower’s complaint shows that Facebook itself has inadvertently produced dozens of pages in their names. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressees his supporters at party headquarters after elections in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. file photo, Israeli Arab politician Ayman Odeh casts his vote in Haifa, Israel. Israel’s Arab coalition appears poised to emerge as the main opposition bloc following Tuesday’s vote. The historic first would grant a new platform to a long-marginalized minority and the only major political movement still pushing for peace with the Palestinians. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supporters chant as the await results of the elections in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)