Author: Glenn Lovell

Source: The Mercury News

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2006/12/11/christmas-back-in-stores/

The battle over Christmas in major retail stores across America was fought, and Christmas has won -- at least for now.

After last year's...

Author: Rebecca Rakoczy

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/living/faithandvalues/stories/2006/12/09/relinterfaith1209a.html

A candle is lit. A brass bowl is struck. The ringing sound echoes in a simple cinder-block office as eight women of different beliefs -- including a "fallen-away" Catholic, a secular humanist and an agnostic -- contemplate what they're grateful...

Source: The Courier News

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20893705-5003402,00.html#

A MULTICULTURAL festival promoting religious harmony among Sydney youths will be held on the eve of the first anniversary of the Cronulla riot.

The Summer Youth Festival takes place at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, and will feature food stalls, folk and hip-hop music, lion dancing, drumming workshops, live art, chanting, art exhibitions and...

Source: Boston Herald

Wire Service: AP

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=171107

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair stoked a simmering debate over religious tolerance and cultural assimilation on Friday, saying it was the duty of all immigrants to integrate into British society.

Blair announced plans to more carefully allocate funding to faith groups, saying grants would no longer be awarded...

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:2785.450259202/rid:4f7eb1eb0b432aa8d45eed8b3cb021e9

(Los Angeles - 12/8/06) -- Moving beyond the ongoing crisis in the Middle East which often puts Muslim and Jewish Americans at odds, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) are launching "NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change" -- an...

Author: MARK LANDLER

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/world/europe/08mosque.html?ref=europe

MUNICH — Helga Schandl says she has nothing against Muslims. For three decades, she worked in Munich’s wholesale food market, where many of her colleagues were immigrants from Turkey. “I have experienced integration firsthand,” she said.

Yet Mrs. Schandl, a 67-year-old Bavarian,...

Source: Luton Today

Source: Hindu Press International/Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism Press Release

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2006/12/7.shtml#2

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA--Mr. R. Thiagarja, Honorary Secretary General Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, sends the following press release:

"The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism...

Author: Jerome Eric Copulsky

Source: The Martin Marty Center

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2006/1207.shtml

Last Friday, Barack Obama, the charismatic junior senator from Illinois and possible Democratic presidential hopeful, made news by speaking at an AIDS conference at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, one of the flagships of contemporary evangelicalism. To an audience of more than 2,000 evangelical leaders, the...

Author: Mustafa Akyol

Source: Turkish Daily News

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=61126

The visit by Pope Benedict XVI has sparked a new debate in Turkey about the rightful limits of religious ecumenism. The Turkish media have been discussing whether a Muslim cleric can revere Christian symbols like the sign of the cross, and whether it is really necessary to be so accommodating in order to establish genuine religious...

Source: The Peninsula

Wire Service: Reuters

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=December2006&file=World_News2006120725651.xml

Kuala Lumpur • Malaysia sought to defuse religious tensions yesterday, asking the state’s top lawyer to investigate the case of a hospital that had...

Source: Channel New Asia

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/245663/1/.html

SINGAPORE: A multiracial group of young Singaporeans has found a useful way to spend the school holidays.

The 19-member group will be heading to Punjab in North India to help the needy children there.

Young Singaporeans from the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Sikh community make up the team.

They will be lending hands to...

Author: Scott Sonner

Source: North Lake Tahoe Bonanza

Wire Service: AP

http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20061206/Nevada/112060003

RENO - Friends and family of a Nevada soldier killed in Afghanistan more than a year ago plan to gather at a veterans cemetery today to dedicate what they say is the first government-issued memorial plaque in the country to include a symbol of the Wiccan faith.

The...

Source: Catholic Online

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=22247

SYDNEY, Australia – The right to a safe ecological environment is a universal right and Catholics are called to respond with resolute action to the reality of global warming, said the Catholic bishops of Australia.

The Catholic bishops joined with religious leaders from 15 other Australian faith communities to demand stronger individual,...

Author: TOM GODFREY

Source: Toronto Sun

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/12/05/pf-2637825.html

TORONTO -- Federal immigration officials are working to fast track foreign religious leaders into Canada as landed immigrants after being pressured by ethnic communities nationwide.

Immigration Minister Monte Solberg is studying ways of granting priests and monks permanent resident status since many arrive as visitors to work in...