Author: Staff Writer

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gQbvkJHpaJR6xF25XfRpew2939yAD9H20CM06

Maryland is considering becoming one of the few states to allow condemned inmates to choose a clergy member not employed by the state to be in the execution chamber when they die.

Corrections officials must balance the sensitive...

Author: Bob Smietana

Source: WBIR/The Tennessean

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=127568&provider=rss

As a seminary student, the Rev. Jeremy Squires 
learned most of what he needed to know to be a 
Methodist preacher, but he didn't learn much about 
other faiths, like Islam or Buddhism. 

That's left Squires, pastor of Pleasant View United 
Methodist church in...

Author: Elisabeth Hulette

Source: The Capital

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/07/18-47/No-student-tests-ontwo-Muslim-holidays.html

No tests will be scheduled in the county's public schools on two Muslim holidays this year: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Local Muslim leaders have been requesting the change for two years, arguing that students who practice Islam and are granted...

Author: Louisa Lim

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128544048

Alongside China's astonishing economic boom, an almost unnoticed religious boom has quietly been taking place.

In the country's first major survey on religious beliefs, conducted in 2006, 31.4 percent of about 4,500 people questioned described themselves as religious. That amounts to more than 300 million religious believers, an...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: New Zealand Herald

Wire Service: AP

Author: Prerna Suri

Source: Al Jazeera English

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010714144652155297.html

Muslim separatist groups have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir for two decades. New Delhi blames Pakistan for supporting them. Pakistan denies the claim.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

In the lead-up to talks between the two countriesin Islamabad on Thursday...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Sify News

Wire Service: ANI

http://sify.com/news/hindu-statesman-zed-lauds-church-of-england-for-allowing-female-bishops-news-international-khosOcdjgij.html

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has extolled Church of England for its decision to allow women bishops, calling it a 'step in the right direction'.

Author: Christine Simmons

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071300353.html

When senators were tripping over one another to run for president in 2008, a number of them turned to a Senate adviser to discuss campaign challenges and opportunities. It didn't matter that their opponents were talking to the same...

Author: Megan Milstead and Megan Weiland

Source: Miami Student

http://www.miamistudent.net/mobile/2.8199/miami-brings-middle-east-to-midwest-1.1152892

Hoping to connect Cincinnati to Israel and Detroit to Saudi Arabia, the "Middle East in the Midwest" forum Thursday brought race, religion and politics together in one room.

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Associated Press of Pakistan

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109004&Itemid=2

Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti announced on Monday to set up a National Interfaith Council aimed at promoting brotherhood, harmony and co-existence among various sects and faiths.

Author: Cary McMullen

Source: The Ledger

Author: Manya Brachear

Source: The Chicago Tribune

...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Baha’i World News Service

http://news.bahai.org/story/782

Following the demolition of Baha'i homes in the Iranian village of Ivel –reported last week – there is another story that must also be told: that of sympathetic villagers who have commiserated with their Baha'i neighbors over the injustices they have been forced to endure.

It is also the story of an undaunted spirit and a commitment to social good that...

Author: Emily Schmuhl

Source: Mormon Times

http://www.mormontimes.com/article/15730/99-Names-of-God-and-the-glassmaker

Glass. It attracts fingerprints, invites dust and cracks under pressure.

While we're tiptoeing to the dinner table carrying Grandma's heavy tartan pitcher, Andrew Kosorok could literally consult a recipe and cook you up a fresh batch of glass. No problem.

He could then turn around and fashion,...

Author: Samuel Freedman

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10religion.html?_r=1&ref=religion_and_belief

When Barry Goldwater mounted his campaign for the White House in 1964, the Jewish humorist Harry Golden took notice. “I always knew the first Jewish president of the United States,” Mr. Golden put it, “would be an Episcopalian.”

On the surface, Mr. Golden...