Source: Ventura County Star

http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/religion_and_ethics/article/0,1375,VCS_151_2104695,00.html

On July 12, 2003 the Ventura County Star reported that "Arnold Pomerantz was once a vice president and division director for Payless Shoesource. Now retired, he and about two dozen other core members of an interfaith community in West Hollywood devote themselves to the teachings of Bhagavati and explain to outsiders why...

Source: Los Angeles Times

Source: The News-Star

http://www.thenewsstar.com/html/0DA2B8AF-36FF-44A6-A6BC-DCD2E6AC5D64.shtml

On July 11, 2003 The News-Star reported that "a panel of scholars and lay people from different faith groups and international communities will talk at Neville High School tonight about how to overcome obstacles to personal and world peace... The forum, called 'Overcoming Obstacles to Peace, Friendship and Joy,' is sponsored by the Eagle Vision...

Source: Waco Tribune-Herald

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/07/10/1057840259.29114.5365.1239.html

On July 10, 2003 the Waco Tribune-Herald reported that "fourteen young people � eight black and six Hispanic � are the test class for a new summer camp aimed at promoting friendships and understanding across religious, racial and cultural lines. The Youth for Peace Coalition, an educational program...

Source: India Currents

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=2469d33308a1083b5a67c6807ef9d327

On July 10, 2003 India Currents printed an editorial by Jason Halperin stating that "earlier this year, I experienced a very small taste of what hundreds of South Asian immigrants and U.S. citizens of South Asian descent have gone through since 9/11, and what thousands of others have come to fear. I was held,...

Source: The Interfaith Alliance

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2263-2003Jul3.html

On July 6, 2003 The Washington Post reported that "the 1,000-acre Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville on the James River in Buckingham, Va., schedules yoga classes, group meditations, vegetarian meals, and 10-day silent retreats several times a year. The nondenominational Mountain Light Retreat Center in Crozet, Va., specializes in Zen-based meditation. And the...

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=88751

On July 6, 2003 The Associated Press reported that "17 Fulbright scholars from countries such as Bangladesh and Brazil, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Slovakia and Spain, have come here to see U.S. religious diversity firsthand... They arrived in Utah on Saturday... It seems an odd place to study diversity, given the fact that this state has a dominant religious majority in...

Source: The Fresno Bee

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7075171p-8008034c.html

On July 5, 2003 The Fresno Bee reported that "a midmorning picnic at California State University, Fresno's J.E. O'Neill Park drew more than 300 people Friday, many eager to show that the Fourth of July is more than fireworks -- it is a time to celebrate the nation's pluralism. Chinese-Hmong dancers, Japanese Taiko drummers, Valley heartland folk players, flamenco dancers and...

Source: The State

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/6228676.htm

On July 4, 2003 The State reported that "three hundred and thirty-three years after its English charter, the Palmetto State [SC] is home to more than 20 faiths, claiming memberships that exceed 2 million followers... That diversity reflects a long-standing commitment to religious freedom that goes back to the state's founding, historians and others say... While Jews were being persecuted and...

Source: KCBS

http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2003/07/04/Fremont_Residents_Take_Fourth_of_July_Celebration_into_Their_Own_Hands.html

On July 4, 2003 KCBS reported that "Fremont [CA] residents took it upon themselves to make sure their annual Fourth of July celebration actually took place this year... the city of Fremont originally decided to cancel the event in the Warm Springs district,...

Source: Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1978214

On July 3, 2003 the Houston Chronicle reported that "a 59-year-old Kountze man has pleaded guilty to arson as a hate crime for setting a Pakistani man's gas pump ablaze in 2002. Norman Lee Warden Jr. was sentenced to 16 years in prison... Warden faced up to life in prison if convicted of the charge for a blaze he set at the Buy-N-Bye convenience store in Kountze on May 27,...

Source: Chicago Sun Times

http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-harass02.html

On July 2, 2003 the Chicago Sun Times reported that "from the first week he worked as a driver and messenger at Chicago's ABC Expediting, Usama Ghanayem says, he was harassed and demeaned for being an Arab American... A supervisor checked under his truck to see if there was a bomb, regularly asked him if he'd bombed anything lately, and derided him with epithets such as 'rag...

Source: The Associated Press

Source: Contra Costa Times

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/6213935.htm

On July 1, 2003 the Contra Costa Times reported that "immigrant and civil rights advocates say the government is punishing the Amin brothers and some 13,000 other people who complied with the registration program by seeking to deport them for 'highly technical immigration violations...' Hassan Amin, 19, and his 17-year-old brother Ahmad are in trouble because they have lived...