Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8119273.stm

A survey of British Muslim opinion for the BBC has revealed significant divisions over the conflict with the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Three-quarters of those surveyed said it was wrong for the West to intervene militarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

At the same time, a similar number (78%) said they opposed Taliban attacks against Nato...

Author: Sebnem Arsu

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/arts/26arts-TURKISHCOURT_BRF.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

A court in Istanbul on Thursday acquitted a Turkish writer who was accused of inciting religious hatred in a novel based on the birth of Islam. Nedim Gursel’s “Daughters of Allah,” was published last year in Turkey.

Author: Staff Writer

Source: PRNewswire

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Syracuse.com

Wire Service: AP

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Syracuse.com

Wire Service: AP

Author: Stephanie Hancock

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8117185.stm

Few images shout Middle East quite like the abaya - the long, black overgarment worn by millions of women across the Arab world.

The design has remained pretty much unchanged for centuries, but a crop of young new designers in the United Arab Emirates are now giving the traditional dress a modern-day makeover.

Nothing is off limits -...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Sikh Coalition

http://www.sikhcoalition.org/advisories/TurbanBrandingPressConference.htm

On Tuesday, a majority of the New York City Council called on the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to end a policy requiring Sikh workers to brand their turbans with the MTA logo. 27 of the Council's 51 members sent a letter to Howard Roberts, president of MTA New York City Transit, charging that the...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8114590.stm

France is to set up a commission to study the extent of burka-wearing in the country, after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the veils reduced dignity.

He said the burka - a garment worn by Muslims that covers the body from head to toe - "deprived women of identity".

The French National Assembly has appointed 32 lawmakers on a fact-finding mission to look...

Author: Margaret Ramirez

Source: The Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-muslim-cooljun23,0,7699240.story

In the provocative documentary "New Muslim Cool" that premieres on PBS Tuesday night, filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican hip-hop artist Hamza Pérez, a former drug dealer turned devout Muslim.

The film focuses on Pérez, 32, and his...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Islam Online

Author: Michael Sullivan

Source: Southern California Public Radio

http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/06/22/muslim-minority-suffers-under-harsh-myanmar-rule/

Myanmar is a place of misery for many of its citizens. Political dissent isn't tolerated by the repressive, often brutal military rulers. And neither, it seems, is the country's ethnic Muslim minority, known as the Rohingya. NPR's Michael Sullivan visited the country...

Author: Doreen Carvajal

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/europe/23france.html

President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed Parliament on Monday, laying out a vision of France that included a withering critique of burqas as an unacceptable symbol of “enslavement.”

Speaking at the Palace of Versailles, Mr. Sarkozy confronted one of the most hotly debated social issues in France, saying there was...

Author: Ambika Ahuja

Source: Syracuse.com

Wire Service: AP

Author: Neil MacFarquhar

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/world/middleeast/22security.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ended his prayer sermon in tears on Friday, invoking the name of a disappeared Shiite prophet to suggest that his government was besieged by forces of evil out to destroy a legitimate Islamic government.

The...

Author: Elizabeth Bryant

Source: USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-06-20-muslim-france_N.htm

New Muslim groups are mushrooming in France, reflecting a growing disenchantment with the country's main Islamic organization and an openness to non-practicing Muslims.

The latest group, launched June 12, is a federation of some 40 Muslim associations dubbed Mosaic. It plans to offer a voice for secular Muslims...