Author: Peter Wallsten

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-jews14-2009jul14,0,1886892.story

A private meeting Monday held to ease tensions between the White House and American Jewish leaders included a pointed exchange as President Obama said public disagreements between the U.S. government and Israel are useful in the pursuit of Middle East peace, several...

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Religion News Service

https://religionnews.com/2009/07/14/sotomayor-has-mixed-record-on-church-state-disputes/

As a federal judge, Sonia Sotomayor sided...

Author: Tim Cocks

Source: Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/07/14/baghdad-church-bombings-leave-tiny-christian-minority-trembling/

A spate of bombs targeting churches in Baghdad this week has Iraq’s minority Christian community trembling at the prospect of being the next victim of militants trying to reignite war.

Iraqi Christians, one of the country’s...

Author: Julia Zappei

Source: wtop.com

Wire Service: AP

Author: Nada Bakri

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302043.html

Iraqi authorities on Monday tightened security around churches across Baghdad and in two Christian towns in the northern province of Nineveh, amid fears that a series of attacks against them could escalate.

The security measures were imposed a day after bombings in and around...

Author: Florence Dethy

Source: The Toledo Blade

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090713/NEWS16/907130334

Joseph Zielinski is proud to be an American.

In America, he said, if you choose to be open to new ideas, to be open to new cultures, "we'll give you all you can handle."

And yesterday evening, in the spirit of camaraderie and brotherly love, almost 100 people of myriad faith...

Author: Jared Goyette

Source: The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1140140.html

As the political crisis in Iran turns toward a slow boil, a North Miami Beach imam is closely watching events unfold there. U.S. authorities could deport him at any moment to the Islamic republic, a country he has never visited.

Foad Farahi, 34, a doctoral student at Florida International University, will be part of a...

Author: Ivan Watson

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/13/turkey.mosque.women/index.html

There is a shiny addition among the Ottoman mosques and palaces that make up Istanbul's stunning skyline: the metallic, mirrored dome of the new Sakirin Mosque, a Muslim place of worship built with a woman's touch.

For what may be the first time in history, women have been at the forefront of the construction of a...

Author: Declan Walsh

Source: The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/13/swat-valley-refugees-sikhs-taliban

Flight from the Taliban has been a bittersweet experience for Darsha Singh, a turbaned Sikh farmer sitting on the steps of an ancient, glittering shrine just outside Pakistan's North-West Frontier province.

For two months he has been living at the Panja Sahib gurdwara, an ornate temple that is...

Author: Michele Chabin

Source: Religion News Service

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

When Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat decided in June to open a municipal parking lot that had been closed on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, his office said he was simply being practical.

Extra parking is needed to help ease lines of double-parked cars near the Old City that have become an impenetrable maze for emergency vehicles and “an issue of...

Author: Josef Federman

Source: The Chicago Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-china-protest-muslims,0,2172448.story

The riots in China's Xinjiang region and subsequent crackdown on the Muslim Uighur minority have drawn a muted response from many Muslim countries that may be wary of damaging lucrative trade ties with Beijing or...

Author: Wendell Marsh

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE56C00D20090713

Iraqi Americans Wasan Alqaisi and Sumer Majid made a Fourth of July family picnic of kebab -- served on hamburger buns with slices of American cheese.

Celebrating Independence Day in the U.S. capital, the two Muslim women were doing what generations of Americans have done before them: blending their faith and lifestyle with...

Author: Andrea Elliott

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12somalis.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

The Carlson School of Management rises from the asphalt like a monument to capitalist ambition. Stock prices race across an electronic ticker near a sleek entrance and the atrium soars skyward, as if lifting the aspirations of its students. The school’s plucky motto is “Nowhere but here....

Author: Matt Bradley

Source: The National

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090712/FOREIGN/707119872/1002

More than 300 Shiite Muslims are believed to still be in the custody of Egyptian security forces more than two weeks after they were detained last month.

Since the arrests on June 23 and 24, few among Egypt’s small community of Shiite Muslims know the identities or whereabouts of those who have been arrested, nor...

Author: Nomaaan Merchant

Source: ABC News

Wire Service: AP