Author: Deepa Bharath

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1564855.php

Sitting in a police squad car is not typical in the life of Kusala Bhikshu.

For the 57-year-old Buddhist monk, practicing Zen meditation and tending to koi fish is a normal day.

Yet, he sits next to Garden Grove Police Officer Michael Guadan, perfectly at ease, chatting about towed cars,...

Author: Deepa Bharath

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1562545.php

GARDEN GROVE - The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation of the city in connection with a lawsuit filed last year by a Buddhist temple challenging the constitutionality of the city's zoning code, officials said today.

City Attorney Thomas Nixon said he received a letter...

Author: Deepa Bharath

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1562545.php

GARDEN GROVE - The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation of the city in connection with a lawsuit filed last year by a Buddhist temple challenging the constitutionality of the city's zoning code, officials said today.

City Attorney Thomas Nixon said he received a letter...

Author: Deepa Bharath

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1562545.php

GARDEN GROVE - The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation of the city in connection with a lawsuit filed last year by a Buddhist temple challenging the constitutionality of the city's zoning code, officials said today.

City Attorney Thomas Nixon said he received a letter...

Author: DEEPA BHARATH

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/money/homepage/article_1552971.php

WESTMINSTER - Hung Vuong will never forget the day his mother died - for more than one reason. Vuong and his father drove throughout Orange County looking for a funeral home that would allow them to burn incense - a ritual that cannot be skipped or ignored in any Buddhist service. But in most places, it was...

Author: Ewen Callaway

Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/January/14/local/stories/07local.htm

SANTA CRUZ -- Change is fundamental to Buddhism, but a meditation group that has gathered in living rooms, the Santa Cruz Zen Center and even a church is glad to finally have its own space.

Vipassana Santa Cruz started 20 years ago as a group of a half dozen who met weekly to...

Author: Cathie Rowand

Source: The Buddhist Channel/The Journal Gazette

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=62,3590,0,0,1,0

Fort Wayne, IN (USA) -- Fort Wayne has always embraced immigrants -- from Germans more than a century ago to the influx of Burmese in the past 10 years.

The Mons, a minority group in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, chose Fort Wayne for the high-paying factory jobs and low cost of living.

Large...

Author: Chris Outcalt

Source: Portsmouth Herald

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/01022007/nhnews-ph-nmk-meditation.html

NEWMARKET -- Sandra Woodworth can feel a certain energy on New Year's Day. It's a peaceful feeling she tries to harness through meditation.

"It helps me to connect, knowing that this happens all over the world this time of year," she said.

Woodworth was one of several people who spent the...

Source: The Buddhist Channel

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=65,3568,0,0,1,0

Berkeley, CA (USA) -- The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), the nation’s first socially engaged Buddhist organization, announced that it has received a $15,000 grant from the San Francisco Foundation to help launch “Coming Home,” an innovative new spiritually-based project that will serve ex-prisoners and the greater San Francisco Bay Area community.

BPF...

Source: Albawaba.com

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Egypt/207610

In a landmark court case recently held in Egypt, Egyptian legal authorities banned the right of Bahais the right to state their religion on official documents. The supreme administrative court, which made the ruling, also described Bahais as "pro-Israeli apostates."

"The constitution promotes freedom of belief for the three recognized heavenly religions and they are Islam, Christianity, and Judaism...

Author: Joe Xia and Crystal Feng, Translation by Eugenia C

Source: Sing Tao Daily/New American Media

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b8bd81f8d45fca9cd0197912ef7aa8da

NEW YORK -- The suicide of a Shaolin temple monk has shocked the Chinese community in New York, who are now questioning the treatment of monks by their temples.

Heng Shan, a 27-year-old Buddhist...

Source: Baha'i World News Service

http://www.news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=491

A committee of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution expressing "serious concern" over the human rights situation in Iran, including the escalation of violations against Iranian Baha'is.

The resolution passed the Assembly's Third Committee by a vote of 70 to 48 on 21 November 2006. It will now go to the General Assembly plenary for vote, in December. The Third...

Source: Baha'i World News Service

http://news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=490

On this remote island some 30 kilometers off Papua New Guinea's northern coast, a group of villagers have begun taking their destiny into their own hands.

Inspired by the teachings of the Baha'i Faith on women's equality and community participation, a circle of mothers in Mom Village on Karkar Island have successfully initiated the construction of their own village medical aid post.

"...

Author: BARBARA KARKABI

Source: Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/4326702.html

As members of the Bahai Faith, Giti Bahar and Elham Abbassi were part of a persecuted minority in their native Iran.

It wasn't always that way.

The Bahais, whose faith does not allow them to become involved in politics, freely practiced their religion until the Shah was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic...

Author: ISSAC J. BAILEY

Source: Sun News, The

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/15942391.htm

In such an overwhelmingly "Christian" area such as the Grand Strand, it is easy to forget that there are other voices of faith. I'm hoping to bring more of them to this space in coming weeks.

I recently spoke with Margene Willis, a Bahai.

Willis was once head of the Community...