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...

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: Staff Writer

Source: The New York Times

Wire Service: AP

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/europe/13burqa.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

A Muslim woman who tried to go swimming in a head-to-toe swimsuit called a “burquini” has been barred from her local pool in the Paris suburbs in the latest skirmish between religious practices and secular authority in France...

Author: Alejandro J. Beutel

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=875

"Engagement." That would be the word to describe what took place at the Department of Justice-sponsored interagency meeting between representatives of various government agencies and members of Arab, Muslim, Sikh and South Asian organizations.

The purpose of the meeting was for various community and government groups to interact with one another,...

Author: Megan K. Scott

Source: ABC News

Wire Service: AP

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=8302958

In a Muslim country, celebrating Ramadan is relatively simple: Most people are fasting from sunrise to sunset.

But in the U.S., most people are eating, and enticing food commercials, an overabundance of restaurants and watching others eat can make celebrating the holiday more challenging...

Author: Edward Cody

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/08/AR2009080802609.html

It was market day on Place Leon Sublet, the main square in this little working-class town southeast of Lyon. In the shadow of an old Catholic church, unhurried shoppers wandered the food stalls.

It could have been a portrait of France at its most traditional, except that many of...