Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On April 5, 2002, The Columbus Dispatch reported that "many non-Muslims have sought to understand why the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon apparently were committed by zealous adherents of a billion-member world faith. Colleges, churches and community organizations are trying to slake a thirst for knowledge about the 1,400-year-old religion and its principles... America's sudden interest in Islam has meant full calendars for scholars and clerics over the past seven months... Columbus-area...

Source: Omaha World-Herald

On April 3, 2002, the Omaha World-Herald reported that "a western Iowa school board's decision to proceed with the singing of 'the Lord's Prayer' at graduation has sparked a legal challenge... The Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the... School District on behalf of a couple whose twins are in the school choir... The 14-year-old twins, Donovan and Ruth Skarin, are uncomfortable being forced to sing 'the Lord's Prayer'... Their parents, Donald and Christine Skarin, are not Christians, and they...

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On April 1, 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "representatives from three of the world's great religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- gathered yesterday in a chapel at San Francisco's old Presidio to listen and question each other about their spiritual beliefs... A crowd of nearly 50 people from different faiths and traditions participated in the interfaith discussion 'Inner Peace for Global Healing'... A common thread tying the discussion together was the notion that only with the discovery...

Source: The Daily Breeze

http ://w ww.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmbmuslim8.html

On April 1, 2002, The Daily Breeze reported on an interfaith dialgoue in Torrance, CA. The meeting was part of the Annual Religions' Founders Day sponsored by the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Association. Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious leaders gathered "to discuss the origins and teachings of their faiths."

Source: The Washington Post

On April 1, 2002, The Washington Post reported that in Washington DC, "Arab Christians and Muslims and Jews -- 12 in all -- assembled... [at] Glencarlyn Baptist Church -- for a Passover seder on Easter Sunday... Those at the seder attend various synagogues and mosques, and some don't attend any. They were just a group of Jews and Arabs organized... to come together for one night and show hope and trust during a time of utter bleakness." The Interfaith Seder refocused some of the traditions around the group's mourning for...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On March 30, 2002, The Baltimore Sun reported that the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD may have to rethink their required mealtime prayer because of a pending case in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. "In January, a federal judge ruled that the Virginia Military Institute's practice of leading cadets in a mealtime grace - nearly identical to the academy's - violates separation of church and state... The case highlights the tensions between constitutional protections of religious freedom and the military's often conservative...

Source: The New York Times

On March 30, 2002, The New York Times featured an article on the Good Friday procesion across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. "Following a man carrying a simple wooden cross, more than 2,000 people walked across the bridge toward ground zero. They walked in the hope that grafting Jesus' journey onto the geography of contemporary tragedy, they could find some comfort and meaning from the tenets of their faith: his death and resurrection... The walking of the Stations of the Cross [is] an annual Good Friday ritual that a lay...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On March 30, 2002, The St. Petersburg Times featured the article "seder helps bridge gap between two faiths" on the Seder organized by members of the Women's Guild at St. Anthony Catholic Church in St. Petersburg, FL. The event was conducted in partnership with "Sally Charloff... and Gloria Goldman... [from] Temple Beth David Jewish Center... [who] led and assisted the Guild women in conducting this traditional Passover meal... During the seder ceremony, Goldman recited the Hebrew prayers while Charloff read the English...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 28, 2002, The Boston Globe reported that in Hamilton, MA, "a month ago the Board of Selectmen rejected an Anti-Defamation League proclamation to combat intolerance, and yesterday a West Virginia-based hate group delivered anti-Semitic pamphlets to a downtown neighborhood... The pamphlets ask residents to 'Just say No to the Jewish ADL Agenda' and whether they want 'to prevent your daughters from procreating with subhumans.' Similar messages have been delivered to about a dozen communities around Boston... Police...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On March 27, 2002, The Plain Dealer featured an article on a Cleveland area Seder, or Passover meal, at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Jewish temple which "fed almost 400 Christians eager to nibble and sing their way through an interfaith Seder. The Reform congregation... welcomed guests from 29 churches... Passover, the most widely observed Jewish holiday, marks the moment when believers say God freed the captive Jews from Pharaoh in Egypt... The Seder means 'order' for the traditional course of the meal's events... Rabbi Melinda Mersack...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 23, 2002, The Boston Globe featured an article on "the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, a coalition of 98 churches, synogogues, unions, and community groups that ranks as one of the country's most successful grass-roots organizations... In its six-year history, the group has successfully lobbied the state" on a wide variety of issues including housing and education. "Since its founding in 1996, GBIO has stayed away from the pie-throwing, sit-in tactics favored by some activist groups, with an eye toward engaging an...

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0319/p14s02-lecl.html

On March 19, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported that "education about religious holidays, particularly Christian ones, has long been a lightning rod for parental concerns. But this year, not surprisingly, Islam as a faith has come under particular scrutiny... Study about Islam was already part of many school curriculums. But some parents have raised concerns about...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 18, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "four years ago, a 'ground blessing' celebrated plans to build an interfaith chapel on the campus of Chapman University in Orange [CA]... The 1998 'ground blessing'... included Jews, Muslims, Mormons and Wiccans. The Juaneno Indians provided a tobacco blessing... After a long dispute,... the City Council in January approved another revised plan for the 12,000-square-foot Wallace All Faiths Chapel--the final chapter in a lesson on the difficulties of finding the nexus...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 18, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the City Council of church-filled Bakersfield [CA] decided to place the national motto... 'In God We Trust'...to the walls of City Hall... 'We are doing something great tonight,' the councilwoman who suggested the posting said when it was overwhelmingly approved a few weeks ago... More remarkable has been the public debate that accompanied her proposal, the letters to the local paper condemning it and the fact that it was not supported by the mayor... The dissension...

Source: The Denver Post

On March 17, 2002, The Denver Post featured the editorial "Faith, Fear and Public Schools" by Lori Colvin-Hobbs, a parent and business director at The Odyssey School in Denver, CO where middle school students are engaged in an Asian Studies program, which includes studying Asian religions. "For many families, both Christian and non-Christian, this learning expedition was an exciting opportunity for their students... But some Christian families in our school community saw the Asian studies curriculum as a threat - crossing...