looking. major funding for "religion & ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter, and the corporation for public broadcasting. >> welcome. i'm deborah potter, sitting in for bob abernethy. thank you for joining us. >> humanitarian organizations continue to rush aid to famine victims in east africa, as the united nations called for more than a billion dollars in additional relief funds. a british official warned that 400,000 children could die of starvation in coming months if more action is not taken. reports surfaced this week that food supplies are being stolen and sold in markets in the capital of somalia. the world council of churches denounced any interference with aid delivery as "inhumane." president obama called this week for the resignation of syrian president bashar assad. the administration also announced new sanctions that secretary of state hillary clinton said would further isolate the syrian regime. the syrian government crackdown on protestors has intensified in recent weeks in what some have called the ramadan massacre. several hundred people are believed to have been killed since the islamic holy month began less than three weeks ago. pope benedict xvith isn spain this week to celebrate world youth day, a week-long catholic festival for young people. the pope arrived in madrid after a night of violent protests against using public funds to pay for his visit at a time of economic crisis. on the plane to madrid, the pope acknowledged the hardship facing many european countries and said it proves the need for economies to be based on ethics and the common good, not just profit. a tibetan monk reportedly set himself on fire this week in china to protest that country's policy toward tibet and the dalai lama, its exiled spiritual leader. at a tibetan monastery in another part of china, security was stepped up as the chinese-recognized panchen lama arrived there to study and meditate. the panchen lama is the second highest leader in tibetan buddhism, but the one recognized by china is not accepted by the dalai lama. more violence in pakistan this week. at least 40 people were killed, more than 80 injured, in a suicide bombing at a sunni mosque in the khyber region. the area has long been a base for islamist militants and it's on the supply route for u.s. forces in afghanistan. to the south, in karachi, more than 50 people were killed this week, apparently victims of a turf war between rival ethnic groups and criminal gangs. unrest in the country's largest city, the commercial capital of pakistan, is chronic. the government hasn't been able to stop the violence, but as fred de sam lazaro reports, one elderly devout muslim-abdul sattar edhi, is trying to help karachi cope. >> karachi is several hundred miles from the main conflict zone along pakistan's afghan border, but the war resonates almost every day in this commercial capital of some 16 million people. hundreds have been killed in recent weeks, some in targeted violence, some randomly, most across the ethnic divides. this largely islamic country is comprised of several ethnic groups, each speaking a different language. karachi is often shut down when one or another faction declares its own curfew. residents complain that the police presence is usually late and feeble. amid the deadly chaos, one of the loudest voices appealing for calm has been that of an energetic 84-year-old devout muslim named abdul sattar edhi. >> i've been asking people one question. we've been muslims for 1400 years. why don't we become human beings? why have we lost touch with our humanity? god doesn't just love muslims. he loves human beings. >> pakistan's and karachi's fledging civilian governments are simply not up to the task of bringing order, he said, imploring the country's top military leader to intervene. >> mr. kiyani, i am appealing to you. where have you been sleeping? >> edhi moved to karachi from western india not long after pakistan's creation 62 years ago. he began an ambulance service in the 1950s, trying to serve a city that was growing rapidly. it now has the largest fleet in the city, mostly simple vans with stretcher, lights, and siren. partly because the country has few such services, the edhi foundation has also grown into one of its largest social service agencies. edhi, who had little formal education, boasts that his entire budget of more than $10 million comes from ordinary pakistanis. to demonstrate, he stood on a busy karachi street for about 15 minutes. dozens of passers-by thrust money in his hands. it has helped fund food relief in neighborhoods that have been under siege for days during the fighting. >> i don't know where we would have been if edhi wasn't around, really. pin every sense, because he sees to be everywhere. even if an animal gets hurt, and there is a donkey lying somewhere or a crow falling from a tree, it seems that it is the edhi volunteers who comes to pick them up. >> edhi has been partnered with his wife, bilquis, of 40 years. she oversees facilities that house about 9,000: women in shelters, children in orphanages, schools, and this nursery for abandoned infants, most of them severely handicapped. bilquis edhi began working as a nurse for edhi's fledgling organization. she accepted his marriage proposal even though he was more than 20 years her senior. she says she admired his dedication to serve, drawn from a deep religious faith. the flowing beard, a symbol of his religious practice, was not a plus, she admits. but today, in a more conservative pakistan beards are common, but she says they are a false symbol of piety. >> people had beards because they were practicing. today there's less practice but more beards. it is this high number of narrow-minded people that have created all of the trouble we have in our country. >> when there is poverty, illiteracy, when people don't get their rights that gives rise to organizations like the taliban, and other such groups were formed, and it just spreads from that. >> experts say it's much more than religious extremism that's stoked the unrest. a lot of it stems from the way karachi has grown. modern-day karachi has been defined by migration. in 1947 at independence, when the british partitioned india, millions of indian muslims flocked to the city. so did people from other provinces of the new pakistan, like punjab and the northwest along the afghan border, and migration from that troubled region skyrocketed after the soviet invasion of afghanistan and after 9/11. today karachi's neighborhoods, its politics, and much of its strife happen along ethnic lines. >> almost all of karachi's issues are related to the conflict in afghanistan. even the "ethnicization" of the city is related to afghanistan. >> arif hasan, a prominent architect and historian, says the divisiveness first came under pakistan's military ruler in the late seventies and eighties. zia ul-haq also introduced a strict religious conservatism, which intensified as pakistan, with u.s. support closely allied with the afghan mujahadine fighting the soviet occupation. >> and it was from this city that that war was fought, supplies, training, ideological training, the heroin trade that financed that war to a great extent, it all took place from here. today, if you look the city, the supplies to the nato troops all go through the city. because they go through the city almost everyone has an interest in the city. the americans have an interest. the pakistani intelligence agencies have an interest. the taliban are here, the afghan intelligence agencies are here. they all have a presence. >> not present is any consensus on how to govern among the political parties, which are largely drawn ethnic lines, competing for turf in convulsions of violence that have taken a huge toll. >> every time you strike or the city closes down, apart from the formal losses that are made, at least half a million households don't have any earnings on that day because they are day-wage earners, so poverty has increased considerably as a result. >> on karachi's streets, edhi says there's growing despair. these men pleaded with him to help them get more police protection in their neighborhood. it is encounters like these that edhi says prompted him to call for military intervention, much to the surprise of journalists at his news conference. >> do you want a dictator to come in, like musharraf? >> brother, if for the time being you have to say salaam to somebody, there's no harm. if a civil revolution comes in there will be anarchy and millions will die. what is needed for three to six months is somebody should come and control the situation. >> are you inviting martial law? >> brother, tell me if there's a different road. >> pakistan has already been on the martial law road. until 2008, this country was mostly ruled mostly by military men. aisha tammy huq, a lawyer and talk show host, doesn't think there's much yearning yet for their return. >> we don't want those people to come back and run this country. the military is responsible for a lot. they have run and controlled pakistan for so long. the iran policy is theirs, foreign policy is theirs, everything is the military's, and so therefore we need to allow these terrible civilians who are so corrupt and so dreadful, we have to allow them a little time to get it together and to change the way things are done in pakistan. >> and it will be up to pakistan's civil society to hold politicians accountable, she says, much as it did during the rule of general pervez musharraf. civic groups led by lawyers fought successfully to restore judges musharraf had dismissed, eventually forcing out the general himself in 2008. abdul sattar edhi says he can only hope for that kind of change can happen in karachi with a minimum of bloodshed. for now, demand for his services has never been higher. for religion & ethics newsweekly, this if fred de sam lazaro in karachi, pakistan. marriage in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is for all eternity. mormons are much more likely than the population at large to be married and to marry someone of their own faith, according to the pew research center. but like other americans in recent years, mormons have been getting married later or not at all, which has alarmed some church leaders. lucky severson reports on mormons and marriage. >> this is the mormon church's crystal city chapel just outside washington, d.c. there are several others in the area, but this one is unique. the 800 members who at the end here are all single. along with worshipin they're here for one other very important reason -- to find a partner and get married. this is bishop lewis larsen, who leads a congregation of older singles aged 31 to 55. >> if you were to look across the general spectrum of single adults, the trend in america is not to even marry at all but to cohabitate. that is not a trend in the mormon church. >> if there's any doubt, talk to some of the singles here. >> i know that god wants that for me. i know that man was not meant to be alone, nor was woman, but that we complement one another. >> were you ready at 22-23 to get married? >> i sure think i was. i think i've been ready for a long time, but i haven't been plucked from the vine yet. >> my grandma offered to find someone to pay someone to date me, because she was fairly convinced i was not able to do that on my own. >> mormonism is the marriage religion. >> sociology professor brad wilcox is director of the national marriage project at the university of virginia. he says the marriage rate in the u.s. has seen a dramatic decline since the 1970at a 14-fold increase in couples cohabiting. but among practicing mormons, marriage is still sacred. >> they sacrilize marriage, obviously, and they view marriage as an eternal institution that exists beyond this space and time. >> professor wilcox is speaking about temple marriages, where members in good standing are sealed together for time and all eternity. >> when you die and your spouse dies, you will be united as a husband and wife. when your children die, they will be united with you as a family and that the family unit continues on, and i know that that's a concept that is not generally taught in the christian world, but it's very sacredly held concept in mormonism. >> marriage has always been a sacred principle of the mormon church, but it took on an added dimension when church president thomas monson, who is considered a modern-day prophet, expressed alarm at the church's most recent general conference that not enough members are getting married. >> now i have thought a lot lately about you young men who are of an age to marry, but you have not yet felt to do so. i see lovely young ladies who desire to be married and to raise families, and yet their opportunities are limited because so many young men are postponing marriage. >> one reason church leaders are pushing marriage so urgently is that so many young men in the mid-20s are falling away and becoming inactive, focusing on the kinds of things that occupy other young men -- getting an education, a job, and having fun. it's important to the church and to its young men that they get married, because only married men can hold high leadership offices, and the church says only mormons who marry can reach the highest realm in the afterlife. since serving a church mission, many young mormons in the dc area have spent their time pursuing advanced degrees. beverli jo dewalt has been working on a career at the state department. >> most of the folks out here are people that have pursued an education, pursued a career and not with the purpose of delaying marriage, but with the idea that we want to have a full life that includes all of those things. >> i've been just very busy with business, and it wasn't until about six months ago when i really decided i do want to get married. >> how about you, steve, what's your excuse? >> well, beyond the obvious or -- >> steve archibald is 28, has a master's in accounting. >> there's definitely a lot of pressure to get married, but at the same time there's not pressure to rush into any kind of decision. we can all say that we're looking. we're doing our best to try and find the potential "10" out there. >> one high church leader suggested that in looking for a mate, young mormons like steve should stop reaching for a "10." >> it's my job as bishop is to bring a little reality on this, that what they thought they were going to marry probably never did exist. you know, people have faults. some might be a little overweight, some might be losing their hair, and that doesn't mean that they are not a fantastic person. >> this is an annual social event in washington for single mormons aged 31-55. washington may not be the hub of the church, but there are between 50,000 and 70,000 members living in the area, the largest concentration east of the mississippi. for women in their mid-30s who want to start a family, more and more are taking the initiative. >> we are a traditional church, and you would say women don't initiate. but i think that changes when you're around 30. yeah, women are much more proactive in my ward. >> having lived in other places i've seen other cultures, that women that do take a lot of the initiative. >> so have you had it happen to you? >> have i had women take the initiative with me? yeah, absolutely. >> 34-year-old beverli jo dewalt says she is now ready. >> i had the opportunity to be married when i was 21 -- a great guy, a fantastic guy -- but i didn't feel ready, and i think had i gotten married at that point i wouldn't have been happy. >> do you think there's a downside to getting married too young? >> don't ask me, because i married in my mid-30s, so i'm kind of like my own congregation. >> bishop fonz allen has a congregation of 21-to-30-year-old singles. he says getting married young and struggling can be a good thing. >> many of us in the earlier years, we got married while we were still going to school, and we had children while we still going to school, and we look back on those times today, now when we're older, as the best times of our life, when we were struggling. so we don't encourage people to wait to get married. >> folks who get married in their teens are more likely to get divorced, and that's true across the board. it's true for mormons and it is true for secular folks. people who get married in their mid-20s are pretty safe when it comes to the risk of divorce. >> nationally, the divorce rate is down, from 50% to 43%. among mormons it's about 20%. church leaders say it's because of the strong emphasis on family. one night is set aside each week for family home evenings, and also because of the church's teachings on chastity. >> in our faith we don't allow for premarital sex, and i'm sure that does happen, but it's a rarity, and we are teaching them to hang onto their values. >> 26-year-old megan baer recently got engaged. she says she's glad she waited. >> we have sex drives just like everybody else, so of course it's very hard, but i love what we call the law of chastity, which is no sex before marriage and complete fidelity when you're in marriage, and i think it's kept me from a lot of regret and pain. >> professor wilcox says 85% of americans have sex before marriage. >> individuals who have more sexual partners prior to marriage are more likely to get divorced compared to those who do not. it's something about forming a bond with someone that is then broken, and the way in which that may lead to a certain distrust of the opposite sex or a certain kind of loss of faith in relationships or in romance. >> another reason for the low divorce rate is that mormons usually try to date someone of their own faith. some we spoke with said they had dated outside the church, but it hadn't worked out. others are like steve. >> i do not date non-mormons just because we're pretty lucky in this area. the numbers are in our favor, speaking for us guys. in our congregation alone here today will have 300 individuals, and close to 200 of them will be women. >> after the church service, the search for a lifelong eternal mate continues in earnest. bishop larsen predicts that by the end of this year, at least 20 couples in his congregation of 200 will be engaged or married. for religion & ethics newsweekly, i'm lucky severson in crystal city, virginia. >> on our calendar this week, the hindu festival, jan-mash-tami, which celebrates the birth of the popular deity krishna. also this week, muslims observe the "night of power," marking what they believe was the beginning of god's revelation of the qur'an to muhammad. the holiday comes near the end of ramadan. during ramadan, muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and then break their fast with a meal called the iftar. at one mosque in the washington d.c. suburb of falls church, virginia, several hundred people usually attend the nightly iftar, according to one of the imams. and this year they are welcoming even more, not all of whom are muslim. the dar al-hijrah mosque has announced a policy to allow in anyone who wants a meal. there are only two requirements: those who show up must be dressed appropriately and must be sober. imam johari abdul-malik is the outreach director at dar al-hijrah. he says he can't tell who comes to break the ramadan fast and who comes simply because of hunger. for him, it doesn't matter. >> the prophet mohammed said none of you are a believer if you go to bed with your stomach full and your neighbor's hungry. so your belief, all this praying, and all of your devotion is invalid if you can sleep at night knowing your neighbor is hungry. and in ramadan this mosque feeds maybe 800 to 1,000 people every night so i said, you know, if we are feeding that many people at night will it matter if we feed an extra 100 people. one of the beautiful parts being in a very large and diverse mosque, i mean, we speak over 37 different languages, have people come from every ethnic group. so when you look out across the community. you see every complexion and style of dress and face and so it is not possible to tell who is a muslim and who is not a muslim. and i have experienced it and it is a good experience to know that you're table is open. that your neighbor has gotten over the fear of you to join you to break bread. the quran says that the food of the muslim is lawful for the jews and the christians and that food of the christians and the jews are lawful to muslims. this way we can all sit at the same table to break bread from the same god who has provided for all of us. >> that's our program for now. i'm deborah potter. you can follow us on twitter and facebook, find us on youtube, and watch us anytime, anywhere on smart phones and iphones. there's also much more on our web site, where you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, more scenes from the pope's trip to spain. >> he >> holy father, i bring in your honor these gifts from africa, bananas and coffee. major funding for "religion & ethics newsweekly" is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based private family foundation dedicated to its founders' interest in religion, community development, and education. additional funding by mutual of america e designing customized individual and group retirement products, and that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter, and the corporation for public broadcasting.