coming up -- tim o'brien on an attention-getting case the supreme court is hearing: whether an american muslim convict has the religious freedom to grow a beard. and a key summit on the family opens at the vatican. might there be changes ahead in some of the catholic church's most controversial rules? also fred de sam lazaro on the nobel prize winning humanitarian group, doctors without borders healing and making themselves heard.

>> welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. more than 2 million muslim pilgrims descended on mecca this week for the annual hajj, one of the five pillars of islam. diseases carried by travelers are always a concern, and this year saudi officials took precautions against ebola. in addition to screening all arriving airline passengers, the saudi ministry of health refused to issue visas to would-be pilgrims from countries that have been hit hardest by ebola -- liberia, sierra leone, and guinea. meanwhile, the united nations is

appealing for more medical aid as the ebola death toll continues to spiral. u.n. officials said that local health systems are overwhelmed, and ebola patients aren't receiving treatment quickly enough. they said if the disease isn't contained, the number of infected people could hit 1.4 million by january. in other news, international humanitarian groups are continuing to raise concerns about the tens of thousands of syrian refugees fleeing to turkey because of isis attacks. the u.n. estimates that more than 160,000 refugees have flooded into turkey in the last two weeks, and many of them are in dire need of food and supplies. at the vatican, pope francis held a special meeting with his middle east envoys to discuss isis offensives, the refugee crisis and the plight of christians in the region.

india's prime minister narendra modi, a devout hindu, visited the u.s. this week and met with political and religious leaders. during a speech at the un, modi praised the benefits of yoga and urged recognition of a world yoga day, which he said could help tackle global problems. modi's trip coincided with a nine-day religious fast, so he drank only water. some sikhs and human rights activists protested the visit, accusing modi of discriminating against religious minorities. meriam ibrahim, the woman sentenced to death in sudan for refusing to renounce her christian faith, made her first major public appearance since she was released and moved to the u.s. in august. ibrahim was given a hero's welcome by religious conservatives at the values voter summit in washington. >> i am not a criminal. >> ibrahim thanked people who

advocated for her. she pledged to help other victims of religious persecution, including american pastor saeed abedini, who has been held in an iranian prison for two years. the supreme court opens its new term next week with several religion-related cases on its schedule. one involves a town's rules for regulating church signs. another asks whether a company could refuse to hire a muslim woman because she wore a head scarf. and, this coming tuesday, the court will consider whether a muslim prison inmate has the religious freedom to grow a beard, which the prisoner says his religion requires. as tim o'brien reports, that argument goes well beyond one man's appeal. >> reporter: it was a burglary and stabbing at this trailer in the wee hours of a may morning five years ago that led to

tuesday's supreme court case. the perpetrator 33-year-old gregory holt. the victim, his ex-girlfriend. he slashed her throat and stabbed her in the chest, telling her, "if i can't have you, no one will." she survived, but holt was sentenced to life in prison after jurors learned of his long criminal history, including written threats to kidnap president bush's daughters and blow up federal buildings. he's being held at this maximum security prison at grady, arkansas, about 70 miles southeast of little rock. years before the offense, holt converted to islam. he now goes by the name of abdul maalik muhammad. he's challenging prison regulations that prohibit facial hair, saying a half-inch beard is a requirement of his muslim faith. and to many muslims wishing to emulate the prophet muhammad, it is. >> there are narrations of the prophet saying "grow out your beard," and a lot of people interpret that as an imperative

statement, which you have to do, and there's no room for your own judgment on that. >> reporter: criminals do give up many of their rights when they enter prison, but not all of them. in fact, in 2000 president clinton signed legislation that prohibits any restrictions on the religious liberty of prison inmates unless the restriction can be shown to be "in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest" and that it is "the least restrictive means of furthering that interest." security is a compelling interest in any prison. but how far does that go? corrections officials here cite security as one of the principle reasons they ban facial hair. you can hide things in a beard, and they have neither the time nor the personnel to check every inmate's beard to see how long it might be or what might be in it. after two lower courts ruled against him, holt -- or abdul muhammad -- mailed a 15-page

handwritten petition to the u.s. supreme court, challenging the arkansas prison grooming policy as a violation of that 2000 federal law. "this is a matter of grave importance," wrote holt, "pitting the rights of muslim inmates against a system that is hostile to these views." when, to the surprise of many, the court announced last march that it would hear holt's appeal, the case took on a life of its own. the becket fund for religious liberty, a public interest law firm devoted to promoting religious freedom, got involved. it lined up attorney douglas laycock, an experienced supreme court advocate and one of the country's leading authorities on church-state issues, to represent holt in the high court. as for prison officials' security concerns -- >> a half-inch beard is less than the diameter of a dime. those are in fact pretty silly concerns, and in fact 43 other states, the feds, and d.c. would all allow this beard, and most of them would allow a much

longer beard. anything that is so tiny that conceivably can be hidden in this beard could be hidden much more easily in a shoe, a pocket. the lining of your clothes. >> reporter: some may find his religious claims curious given that his crime -- he slashed his girlfriend's throat, stabbed her in the chest. >> the important point here is that this is not just about him. it's about all those other prisoners that congress learned about that were not getting their scriptures, that were not getting their dietary needs, not getting the other things essential to religious practice. >> reporter: historically, those who have forced the supreme court to define the limits of government power, like gregory holt, have not been pillars of the community. the court used the case of earl gideon, a drifter with a long criminal record, to announce a fundamental right to a lawyer in all criminal cases, at state expense if necessary and the case of ernesto miranda, a serial rapist, to require police inform suspects of those rights, along with the right to remain silent. attorneys for the state of

arkansas declined our request for an interview, as did corrections officials. nor would they allow us any access to the inmate, gregory holt. holt's case has generated considerable support from groups that have long been at war on church-state issues. more than a dozen friend of the court briefs, representing nearly a hundred organizations, have been filed in holt's behalf, but only one in support of arkansas, filed on behalf of fifteen state, saying courts should defer to corrections officials on such matters. after his arrest and incarceration, holt continued to write threatening letters from prison. "death to america," he wrote in one letter, describing himself as an "american taliban" in another. >> if you threaten america, you will find no safe haven. but obama's justice department is also backing this self-proclaimed jihadist in this case, characterizing the prison's security concerns as "exaggerated or based on mere speculation."

byron johnson heads the institute for studies of religion at baylor university. his 30 years of research has persuaded him that prisons may have a more compelling interest in promoting religion than in restricting it. >> you begin to find that the more people participate in faith, the more they are mentored -- you begin to see effects, better behavior, fewer infractions or misconduct while they are in prison. they adjust better, and guess what? they are less likely to be rearrested when they get out of prison. >> reporter: johnson adds that it's actually practicing a faith that becomes statistically relevant, not just praying or reading the bible. this is the first supreme court test of the federal law designed to preserve the religious freedom of prison inmates, and it raises an important question if the law does not protect the

right of a prison inmate to grow a beard, against claims of prison security-claims dismissed by so many as so weak, what does it protect? for "religion and ethics newsweekly," i'm tim o'brien at arkansas state penitentiary, grady, arkansas. at the vatican this sunday, pope francis is opening an unusual synod, a two-week gathering of catholic bishops from around the world to discuss the church and families. among the possible topics are marriage, divorce, cohabitation, annulments and artificial birth control. even before the synod began, there was a rare public argument among some top church officials. we want to talk about this. kim lawton, managing editor of this program, and kevin eckstrom, editor-in-chief of religion news service. kevin, welcome. what was the argument about? >> the argument is basically between the two sides of the church: the traditionalists, the

conservatives who want to keep the church teaching as it is, and the more progressive side, which frankly is represented by pope francis, who are open to change. they haven't said yet what change they want to make or if they'll even make it, but they're open to it, and they're open to the idea. and so you have this really rare public disagreement between cardinals, saying the change can change, and the church should change. and the other side saying no, the church can never change. >> but what was the argument about? >> well, the argument is really about, most immediately about, communion for divorced catholics. so under church law right now, if you are divorced and get remarried outside of the church, you can't get communion. and so what they're arguing about is whether or not they should change that rule, and allow those divorced catholics access to communion. >> now there's no voting, no decision making, no change in this synod. but next year there's going to be another synod next october about the family again, and then, kim.

>> well, then there could be some change. i mean, nothing's ever guaranteed, especially when you're talking about the catholic church, but this is supposed to be the time for just discussing and debating some of these issues. and then decisions would come later down the road. and on this issue of divorce and remarriage, you know the church doctrine is that sacramental marriage is forever. it cannot be dissolved. and so therefore they don't recognize divorce, and therefore if you are divorced and you get remarried, in the church's eyes you're living in adultery, and that's why you cannot take communion and other sacraments. and so what the cardinals are arguing about is does it affect the doctrine that marriage is not able to be dissolved if you change how you treat people who are in those situations. and i think some of the conservatives are worried if you start tinkering around with that, what other issues and areas of teaching can be tinkered around with? >> but there's a lot more they could be discussing and probably will be discussing.

>> right, i mean at this meeting that's the issue that the media and a lot of outside people are really looking at. >> yeah, but that may be the easiest one for them to deal with. >> it's certainly the one that has the most momentum right now for change. but this conference is also, this summit is talking about things like how migration affects the family. and you know, how modern family life and poverty, and you know, all of those things put strains on marriage and how the church can minister to people, minister to families on a whole range of issues. and so all of that. and there may be some really interesting changes in some of those areas that people aren't focusing on right now. >> right. and there really is a larger issue of whether the church can change at all. there's a difference between doctrine and discipline, and so the church is not going to come out and suddenly say that, "oh yeah, anybody can marry anybody and it's fine." or that gays and lesbians can get married. you know, that's not going to happen. what they're talking about is the discipline. and so how does the church react when these people present themselves to the church. so when a divorced couple comes to the church, how does the church respond?

when a gay and lesbian couple come, or when an unmarried couple with kids shows up at church what should the church response be? and that's really kind of what they're talking about. and the larger question is, can they change at all? is the church teaching -- >> and where is francis in this? >> i would put francis slightly left of center. now that's in relation to the wider church. >> that's a big matter of perspective. >> he's no raging liberal, but he's not an arch-conservative either, and he has voiced openness to at least talking about change, which that in and of itself is kind of a significant move. >> and a lot of people are sort of spinning this meeting as an interesting test case for the impact francis may have on the church. his personality, his style, his tone. that, you know, that's all out there, but what kind of impact will that have in the real life of the church? and so some people are pitting this as conservatives versus liberals, but people are watching to see what francis's legacy will be.

>> kim lawton, many thanks. kevin eckstrom, many thanks to you. all over the world, wherever people are suffering because of war or persecution, epidemics or natural disasters, the movement doctors without borders tries to help if it can. there are 25,000 doctors without borders volunteers serving in 70 countries, not only healing and protecting people, but also demanding that others who can help step up and do so. fred de sam lazaro reports. >> reporter: they've been front and center in the fight against ebola, but picture any humanitarian crisis in recent memory. chances are the men and women in white t-shirts and the hallmark

red logo are in the picture. the images likes these, from the syrian conflict often taken with their own cameras. msf, medicins sans frontieres, is in 70 countries today, bringing aid to victims of war, natural disasters, and epidemics. to the rest of the world the group, also called doctors without borders, brings a sophisticated publicity campaign, sometimes with a bully pulpit. its president, dr. joanne liu, for example, spoke on ebola at the united nations in early august. >> medicins sans frontiers has been ringing alarm bells for months, but the response has been too late, too little. it is your historic responsibility to act now. >> reporter: her group has a two-fold mission: medical care and, as they put it, bearing witness to speak out when people are denied human rights, including medical care. it goes back to msf's founding

in 1971 by a group of french red cross volunteers working amid grave violence in nigeria's civil war. sociologist renee fox writes of their anguish in a book about msf. >> they pledged their commitment to not speak of what they saw in the field, very much in keeping with the professional confidentiality that physicians keep vis-a-vis their individual patients. and when they saw these abuses taking place, this young small group of french physicians and medical journalists came together with the conviction that there was something wrong with not speaking out.

sanitation if needed. the teams move swiftly into disaster zones, as we saw in this 2008 report from the hurricane-ravaged haitian city of gonaives. the construction workers aren't finished yet, but the hospital work is already in full swing since it's the only hospital in gonaives, a city of more than 200,000 people. one reason it can move quickly is the group's prolific fundraising, globally $1.3 billion a year. critically, it has few strings attached. >> 90% of their finances come from people like you and me who make modest contributions or more than modest contributions to msf.

>> we don't need to wait for funding from a government to be able to react to a crisis. >> reporter: msf's sophie delauney adds they don't accept money from governments with a stake in or heavy influence over events. >> for example, we would not take funding from the u.s. government in afghanistan. we would not take funding from the french government in chad for our programs in chad. >> reporter: msf's reputation drew dr. benjamin levy to sign on for a six-month stint. >> it is almost like relearning medicine. >> reporter: we met levy in a field hospital in ethiopia near its border with somalia, from where tens of thousands of refugees were fleeing famine and civil war. >> it was something that i had wanted to do for a long time, a place where sort of the idealism of medicine came to practice, and i think that was always a beacon to me as a place where i could do my training, learn my craft, and then go and use it in a way that made me feel like it had all meant something.

>> reporter: levy, who now works for the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta, remembers a culture of debate. >> i was able to voice my concerns and my opinions when it came to our medical activities. there was healthy debate as to what diseases we could treat, what diseases we didn't have the capacity to treat, and where to take the programs that we were running as the emergency ended. >> reporter: msf says such openness encourages innovation. for example, until the early 2000s malnutrition was treated in hospitals, which took weeks. msf field workers urged a switch to a fortified peanut butter that had showed early promise. it's now the standard for most malnourished children-cheaper, portable, and given at home. >> it always comes from the tenacity, the determination of some individuals who are not satisfied with the status quo. >> reporter: not only do they

care about me, and they care about the community, but the people respect them. >> megan klinger, a 34-year-old nurse from montana, works in an ebola care facility in nigeria. she says that respect from local people is a key reason she chose msf over other nongovernment organizations. >> i've been to countries that don't allow that many ngos, but msf is usually always one of the ones that is allowed through. they're very well known. >> reporter: getting well-known is a key security strategy msf uses in war zones, where it works in advance to gain acceptance and assurances from all sides of the conflict. >> you're going to treat their brothers, their cousin, their family, etc, it's a very good protection, actually. the second criteria that we use is we want to be able to have an evacuation route. the third criteria is are we able to put in place the best

possible security measures, or safety measure in the case of ebola? >> i was in abkhazia, which is a breakaway republic in georgia. i was there during the 2008 conflict. during the conflict i know my mom was very concerned and called all the state congressmen to try to get me evacuated out. but i actually -- the embassy called, and i said i feel better here with msf than you guys evacuating me out at this point. i felt very secure with the evacuation plan we had if needed, and i chose to stay. >> reporter: msf did evacuate out of somalia, following the months-long kidnapping of two staff members. the group closed a hospital earlier this year in syria after five staffers were kidnapped. there are no msf facilities currently in areas controlled by the group that calls itself islamic state. in other places like burma, sri lanka, and yemen msf decided to stay on, agreeing to not criticize government policies it acknowledged were repressive.

the mission of bearing witness has had to be tempered by real-life considerations, says author fox. >> would witnessing do harm to the people they want to help? what about the many people indigenous to the country who are working with them? when they were young, they thought witnessing was an unmitigated virtue. as they matured they came to see how complex the ramifications of witnessing might be. >> reporter: bearing witness means being politically pragmatic she says, without being political. for "religion and ethics newsweekly," this is fred de sam lazaro. finally, it's a busy week on our calendar. the jewish high holy days conclude with yom kippur, the day of atonement. then on wednesday evening jews begin celebrating sukkot, the feast of tabernacles, recalling

their ancestors' 40 years of wandering in the desert by building temporary shelters. also, hindus end their major nine-day festival of navaratri with dussehra, which commemorates lord rama's killing of a demon. and, this weekend, muslims worldwide mark the end of the hajj with eid al-adha, the feast of the sacrifice. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. and visit our website, where there is always much more, and where you can listen to or watch every program. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, more scenes from this year's hajj.

>> rose: welcome to the program. i'm charlie rose. the program is "charlie rose: the week." just ahead, the latest developments on ebola in america. my exclusive interview with russian dissident mikhail khodorkovsky. and the stars of the ensemble comedy, "this is where i leave you." ♪ cannot hear that >> heey. what, no, we're just sitting in awkward silence. >> rose: we have those stories and more on what happened and what might happen. >> there's a saying around here: you stand behind what you say. around here, we don't make excuses, we make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up and make it right.