Author: Salman Masood and Waqar Gillani

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/world/asia/10pstan.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Police officials said Wednesday that four militants belonging to two banned groups had been arrested and accused of involvement in the killings of Christians and riots in a Punjabi town on Aug. 1.

At least seven people were killed when armed mobs of...

Author: AP

Source: Syracuse.com

Author: Jessica Meyers Jessica Meyers

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090609dnmetbibleteach.3ff862f.html

Vanda Terrell is still getting used to saying it.

"Let's open our Bibles," the veteran Plano ISD teacher tells students daily at two public high schools in the district. And it's legal for her to do it. A new state law...

Author: Roger Alford

Source: The State Journal

Wire Service: AP

Author: Graeme Hamilton

Source: National Post

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1956333

Christian parents who objected to their children being taught about other religions in a mandatory new Quebec school course have suffered a serious setback with a ruling this week that the teachings do not infringe their religious freedoms.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Dubois dismissed a bid by parents in Drummondville, Que., who...

Author: Jeffrey Weiss

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/082909dnmetrichramadan.3d3c14d.html

Members of the Dallas Islamic Center plan to break their daylong Ramadan fast today with traditional foods in an untraditional setting: a social hall at the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas.

The mostly Turkish mosque, Richardson-based...

Author: Amy Taxin

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082100636.html

A fan-shaped baptismal font lies beneath a prominent chandelier, the centerpiece to a new worship center where priests hope to further expand one of the nation's largest Korean Catholic congregations.

St. Thomas Korean...

Author: Patrick Condon

Source: The Detroit News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090821/LIFESTYLE04/908210448/1041/LIFESTYLE04/Lutherans-to-allow-sexually-active-gays-as-clergy

The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

Author: Robert King

Source: The Indianapolis Star

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090820/NEWS05/908200448/

The Rev. John Hay Jr. reads the parable of the Good Samaritan -- who bandaged the wounds of an injured stranger and paid to have him cared for -- and sees a biblical basis for supporting universal health care, even if it means a greater government role.

Curt Smith reads the same passage and sees an example of someone who...

Source: The Chicago Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-atheistbuses-iowa,0,6880378.story

The Des Moines Regional Transit Authority has suspended a driver who refused to drive a bus bearing an ad for an atheist group.

Angela Shiel was suspended on Monday after she refused to drive a bus with an Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers ad on its side. The ad reads "Don't...

Author: Rachel Zoll

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSTgCugNoam_XAJxjVUwnFMBz6XQD9A4RB7G3

An association of U.S. Roman Catholic sisters raised questions Monday about why they are the target of, and who is paying for, a Vatican investigation that is shaping up to be a tough review of whether sisters have strayed from church...

Author: Lisa Miller

Source: NEWSWEEK

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8198770.stm

A US congressional body has put India on a list of countries which have failed to protect its religious minorities adequately.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom says India was added to the list because of a "disturbing increase" in religious violence.

It mentioned the anti-Christian and anti-Muslim riots in Orissa and Gujarat in...

Author: Aleem Maqbool

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8196013.stm

On a street in the small Punjabi town of Gojra, house after house stands gutted and looted.

One home in particular is the focus of attention. The windows and doors are gone, what is left of the furniture lies gnarled inside, and some of the ceilings have collapsed. People are peering into a small bedroom at the back of the building.

It is from here...

Author: Omar Sacirbey

Source: Religion News Service

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/muslims_press_schools_on_islamic_holidays/

Calculus and chemistry are among the pressures awaiting Mesuka Akter, a senior this year at Long Island City High School in New York City.

But unlike past school years, Akter, a Muslim, will not have to choose between missing school and missing the two holiest...