Author: Nirmala Carvalho

Source: Asia News

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7449

More than 100,000 Indian Dalits or outcastes are meeting on Saturday in Nagpur, Maharashtra, to publicly burn copies of the anti-conversion laws adopted by some of India’s states and express their support to anyone who wants to abandon the Indian caste system. The event will also mark the 50th anniversary of the conversion from Hinduism to Buddhism of Baba...

Author: ANN PEPPER

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1308603.php

Margaret Henke and a couple of committed friends have grown their faith-based environmental group from a seedling effort that mostly preached to the converted into a force rooted in hundreds of members from a spectrum of faith communities.

And this year an October conference sponsored by the group, the...

Author: Isaac Wolf

Source: Daily Southtown

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/90355,1ND8-10.article

Cardinal Francis George feasted on Middle Eastern delicacies Monday night, conspicuously participating in an annual Muslim celebration when he has canceled many recent public appearances.

After cancer surgery in July, George scrapped much of his schedule, but he attended the 10th annual community iftar designed to bring together Muslims...

Source: Ekklesia

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_061010indo.shtml

Four months after an earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Java, Indonesian Mennonites and Muslims are rebuilding homes and forging new relationships across religious lines, says Jeanne Jantzi a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) country representative for Indonesia.

Mennonites are Christians in the Anabaptist peace church tradition. MCC is a North...

Author: Stacy Meichtry

Source: Beliefnet

Wire Service: RNS

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/201/story_20104_1.html

In his latest bid to clarify remarks that enraged the Muslim world, Pope Benedict XVI has added a cautiously worded footnote to the official text of the address he delivered at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

The footnote aimed to further assuage anger over Benedict's use of a quote by a...

Source: WLNS

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=5513506

Two mid-Michigan religious groups are using their differences to understand each other. Muslims and Christians from neighboring congregations gathered to help break down some religious barriers.

It's a narrow strip of land that separates two faith communities- the Islamic Center of Lansing on one side and University Lutheran Church on the other, but instead of dividing the two congregations, the piece of...

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/09/america/NA_GEN_US_Peace_Dorm.php

About a dozen women students, including a handful of Muslims and Jews, are living together at Rutgers University as they work toward ideals that have seemed out of reach for years in the Middle East: peace and understanding.

Rutgers was to hold a dedication ceremony Monday evening for...

Author: Dilshad D. Ali and Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Source: Newsweek

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15079909/site/newsweek/

The Roman Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA has decided to fast, but it's not waiting for Lent. After Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine emperor's statement that Islam is "evil and inhuman," the group said that, to soothe tensions, thousands of its members are fasting for Ramadan. (For the 30 days of the Islamic holy month,...

Author: JENNIFER MALONEY

Source: Newsday

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liserv094925759oct09,0,7173424.story

Local religious leaders spoke out in support of the Islamic Center of Long Island at an interfaith celebration at the Westbury mosque, which Rep. Peter King has alleged is run by extremists.

"We will not be fooled by fearmongering and appeals to bigotry," the Rev. Mark Lukens, pastor...

Author: Manmohan Singh

Source: World Sikh Council

http://www.worldsikhcouncil.org/

Representatives of the World Sikh Council - America Region (WSC-AR) and the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) met October 5-7, 2006 in Long Island, New York for a three-day Catholic-Sikh bilateral national interreligious retreat.

The retreat was held at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception (Huntington, NY) and the nearby Mata Sahib Kaur Gurdwara (Glen Cove, NY)....

Author: John Colson

Source: Aspen Times Weekly

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20061007/ASPENWEEKLY/110080065

As tensions rise between the Islamic and non-Islamic countries of the world, fed largely by an ever-growing fear and hatred of the United States among some international Muslims, a past mayor of Aspen continues to do what he can to defuse the situation.

Former Mayor John Bennett admitted this week that a recent high-...

Author: Omar Sacirbey

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p03s01-ussc.html

Aaliyah Turner used to light up the scoreboards for the Emmanuel College women's basketball team - even while observing the Islamic month of Ramadan. She would go all day without food and water until half time, when the sun set. So during this year's observance, playing a pickup game of basketball with a youth team organized through her...

Author: ALEJANDRA MOLINA

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1295183.php

In a society where religious differences can be sensitive, sometimes all it takes are young, eager minds to break the ice.

To learn more about one another's faiths, students from Morasha Jewish Day School, St. John's Episcopal School and New Horizon Islamic Elementary School will interact, engage...

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Military_Chaplains.php

Christian conservatives in Congress are expected to renew their fight to allow military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public events, contending that existing practices infringe upon basic religious freedoms.

They lost a battle last week to push through...

Source: KLTV

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5484604

On October 2, 2006 KLTV reported, "Four times a day, Hindu devotees flock to Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a spectacular temple erected not in India or Nepal, but in Stafford, Texas. 'We felt something divine about this particular location,' said temple member Nilkanth Patel. Hindus aren't the only ones drawn to Stafford. In a town with just one movie theater, two grocery stores, and 14 gas stations, there are 51...