Source: The Seattle Times

Source: Yahoo News

On May 3, 2002, The Associated Press reported "Teen Sentenced for Burning a Temple." The article noted "A teen-ager was sentenced to three to nine years in prison Friday for burning down a Sikh temple in anger over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Joshua Centrone, 18, is the second of four teen-agers to plead guilty in connection with the Nov. 18 fire at the Gobind Sadan USA Temple in Palermo, 30 miles north of Syracuse. ... Numerous hate crimes have been committed against Sikhs since Sept. 11. Sikhs have been mistaken for Arabs or Muslims...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On May 3, 2002, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "backers of a bill that would give faith-based organizations access to federal funds rallied at Senate offices Wednesday, but... critics in the House criticized the measure, saying it would allow religious discrimination... The Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment Act has three main goals: creating tax incentives for charitable donations, giving low-income workers incentives to save money and allowing faith-based social service groups to...

Source: The New York Times

On May 3, 2002, The New York Times featured an editorial in favor of new hates-crimes legislation. "In the wake of Sept. 11, President Bush sent out a welcome message that this nation would not tolerate attacks on Muslims or any other Americans because of their religion or national origin. Now Congress has a chance to back up the president's promise by passing an important hate-crimes bill, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, which would expand the scope of the federal government to investigate and prosecute anyone who...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On May 2, 2002, The Baltimore Sun reported on the "Range of events planned for 'Day of Prayer.'" The article explained, "Organizers of the 51st annual event say it has taken on greater relevance and urgency since Sept. 11. They expect 'unprecedented' participation. ... But critics say the observance amounts to governmental promotion of religion. ... Others question the National Day of Prayer's inclusiveness. Although officially nonsectarian, the events tend to be heavily weighted toward Christianity. There is scarcely an...

Source: Mercury News

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/3114529.htm

On April 22, 2002, the Mercury News reported that "in an unprecedented partnership, Santa Clara County [CA] and San Jose City College are teaching immigrants how to maneuver through the political system and build strong community networks... In doing so, the county hopes to groom a new generation of...

Source: The Post-Standard

http://www.syracuse.com/news/syrnewspapers/index.ssf?/newsstories/20020422_cffilm.html

On April 22, 2002, The Post-Standard reported that filmmaker Richard Breyer and screenwriter David Coryell, both professors at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications "are working together to document the aftermath of the Nov. 18 arson at Gobind Sadan USA, a Sikh temple in Palermo, [NY]... Ralph...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 21, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that one of South Korea's most famous shamans, Kim Kumhwa,...travels the world with a group of performers to re-create selected rituals known as kut (pronounced coot)... [These] rituals are part of the country's folk religion and central to its music and dance traditions... Kim was initiated at the age of 17 into her role as a mudang, or shaman, by her grandmother, also a mudang. Her path to shamanism began, she says, when she was 11 and came down with a serious illness that she...

Source: The Chicago Tribune

On April 21, 2002, The Chicago Tribune reported that in Norman, Oklahoma, many Muslim students and residents have been questioned, detained, and arrested on various charges. "As federal investigators searched for terrorist cells across America last fall, they conducted an intense sweep in this college town... Joseph Meinhart, a Roman Catholic priest, read about the arrests... in the local newspapers. After learning that friends of the students were afraid to visit them in jail, fearing they, too, would be arrested, Meinhart...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On April 20, 2002, The Plain Dealer featured an article on Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche, "a renowned scholar and a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk... [from] the Namdroling Monastery in southern India." Gyatso was in Cleveland, OH for a week of teaching sponsored by the Palyul Changchub Dargyeling Ohio, a center for Tibetan Buddhist studies in Chagrin Falls, of which he is the spiritual director. "About 35 local clergy joined... [Gyatso] Wednesday for a vegetarian kosher lunch at Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church. Afterward...

Source: The Washington Post

On April 20, 2002, The Washington Post reported that in a speech "to about 300 people at the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Tex... House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told evangelical Christians last week that only Christianity offers a reasonable answer to basic questions about the purpose of life... DeLay said that God is using him to promote 'a biblical worldview' in American politics... A recording of DeLay's speech was released by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 20, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that "Beliefnet.com, an Internet site aimed at feeding Americans' interest in religion and spirituality, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection... Steve Waldman, Beliefnet.com's chairman and chief executive, said the company, which began operation in December 1999, asked for bankruptcy protection last week... Each month, Beliefnet.com logs 15 million 'page views' from 1 million people, and sends out 150 million e-mail newsletters to subscribers on various topics,...

Source: The New York Times

On April 18, 2002, The New York Times reported that "Churches and other religious organization are receiving the first grants released through the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The grants totaling more than $15 million are for employment training and came from the Labor Department. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said the grants included 25 of up to $25,000 each to help small congregations and community groups provide job training and other employment programs. Another $5 million will help religious groups...

Source: The Hartford Courant

On April 15, 2002, The Hartford Courant featured an article on Reza Mansoor, a Muslim-American doctor from Connecticut, who recently gave a talk at an Evangelical Lutheran church which was co-sponsored by the New Britain Conversations on Race proje ct. Mansoor "has been spreading the word about his faith since September, not to gain new adherents to Islam but to overcome the fear and misunderstanding since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C... Despite the prevalence of misunderstandings about his faith,...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On April 13, 2002, The Houston Chronicle reported that, according to two recent studies, "the number of people who say they don't belong to a religion has doubled over the last decade... For personal reasons, 29.4 million people said last year that they skip church, mosque and synagogue - up from 14.3 million in 1990, a rise from 8 percent to 14 percent of the U.S. population... That's the word from the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted in 2001... by the Graduate Center of City University of New York......