Interfaith

Jews And Muslims Celebrate Holidays Together

September 22, 2009

Author: Neal Simpson

Source: Wicked Local Newton

http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/lifestyle/religion/x2023999912/Jews-and-Muslims-celebrate-holidays-together

Laden with bundles of kugel, challah and koshari, several dozen twenty-somethings filed into a Beacon Street brownstone in Brookline last Monday for an unusual feast.

They weren’t necessarily celebrating the same...

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A Doctor for Disease, a Shaman for the Soul

September 19, 2009

Author: Patricia Leigh Brown

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/us/20shaman.html

The patient in Room 328 had diabetes and hypertension. But when Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, began the healing process by looping a coiled thread around the patient’s wrist, Mr. Lee’s chief concern was summoning the ailing man’s runaway soul.

“Doctors are good at disease,” Mr. Lee...

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Board Decides to Keep Christmas In Textbooks

September 18, 2009

Author: Gary Scharrer

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6624521.html

Christmas will stay in Texas textbooks, State Board of Education members said Thursday while reviewing early recommendations for new social studies standards.

The board will not approve the new curriculum standards for public schools until next year, but wanted to assure constituents they will not accept a...

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Groups Push to End Hiring Bias Legalized for Religious Charities

September 18, 2009

Author: Carrie Johnson

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091702530.html?wprss=rss_politics/fedpage

Nearly 60 groups concerned with civil rights, labor, health and education urged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday to renounce a Bush-era memo allowing religious charities that receive federal grant money to...

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Imam Urges Muslims to Sign Organ Donor Cards

September 17, 2009

Author: Stuart Laidlaw

Source: The Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/living/religion/article/696581

With Ramadan ending in the coming days, Imam Habeeb Alli is making a special point of what he calls the greatest act of charity a Muslim can make during this holy month – signing an organ donor card.

"We cannot ignore this duty to donate our organs," says Alli, secretary of the Canadian Council of Imams.

Throughout the year,...

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Conference: Religion Joins With Science to Address Environment Issues

September 17, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Bahá’í World News Service

http://news.bahai.org/story/728

People’s spiritual beliefs affect their attitude toward climate change, with religious groups increasingly helping to frame humanity’s response to environmental issues.

That was one of the messages from a session at the 33rd annual conference of the Association for Baha’i Studies, held in mid-August in Washington, D.C. The gathering drew nearly 1,000...

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A Temple Where Hindus Welcome Muslims for Prayers

September 17, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

http://despardes.com/?p=7176

A small village in the Uttar Pradesh State is setting an example of religious amity, with its Hindu residents hosting iftar for their fellow Muslim villagers.

“Serving Muslims during the holy month gives us a unique sense of satisfaction,” Indrajeet Pandey, a 48-year-old resident of Naubatpur village, told Indo Asian News Service (IANS) on Thursday, September 17.

In Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, the...

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Palestinians, Israelis Broke Bread to Commemorate 9/11 Together

September 17, 2009

Author: Judith Sudilovsky

Source: Ecumenical News International

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=3369

Indicating a loaf of sweet braided bread on the table, the Muslim man, asked a group of Jews sharing the meal with him: "Why do you eat only this type of bread at the Sabbath meal?" 

Haysam Pakir, a 30-year-old Muslim from Nablus, a Palestinian city in the northern part of the West Bank, was speaking at a dinner...

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Pakistan Rights Groups Seek Answers On Christian’s Death

September 16, 2009

Author: Waqar Gillani and Sabrina Tavernise

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/asia/17pstan.html

A Christian man detained on blasphemy charges was found dead in his jail cell on Tuesday in eastern Pakistan. Human rights groups here said he appeared to have been killed, perhaps in collusion with the authorities.

The death of the Christian, Robert Fanish, 20, is part of a rising trend of violence against...

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Bewitched, Without Incident

September 13, 2009

Author: Mandy Stoltzfus

Source: Lancaster Online

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/242200

Witches and pagans who traveled to Adamstown on Saturday for a festival "Celebrating Earth Spirituality" were greeted by a steady rain and praying Christians in a silent protest.

The gathering held at Stoudtburg Village and hosted by Reading Pagans & Witches proved to far less controversial than the debate that brewed in the days...

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Some Pa. Shops Close Doors to Pagan Festival

September 11, 2009

Author: Ron Todt

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j4n1LLmQm_9M6UcVQdozlNOd0JAAD9ALB34O0

In the rolling hills of deeply religious rural Pennsylvania sits Stoudtburg Village, a tiny hamlet modeled on a German town. On weekends, tourists come here to visit shops on the ground floors of closely set three-story houses painted bright...

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