Author: Pamela Constable

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/10/AR2009041003638.html

When Afghanistan's government quietly enacted a sweeping law last month restricting the rights of minority Shiite women, few Afghans were aware of what it said. But since the law's contents became known here just over a week ago, it has provoked an extraordinary public debate on the...

Author: Alissa J. Rubin

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/world/middleeast/12iraq.html?ref=world

Members of the Sunni Awakening Councils, the former insurgents who switched sides to help bring calm to Iraq, are increasingly being besieged from all sides.

Thirteen members were killed by a suicide bomber while they gathered to collect their pay south of Baghdad on Saturday, in the latest of a...

Author: Eman M. Shurbaji

Source: The Bakersfield Californian

http://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/local/x1201568242/Islam-exposed-to-receptive-audience

What’s the difference between read and recite? What’s the true meaning of jihad? Do Muslim women really have to wear the hijab (headscarf)?

At the “Islam Exposed” conference last Saturday, Sheik Yusuf Estes spoke to a...

Author: Stuart Laidlaw

Source: The Star

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/616530

It's not just Christians who flock to houses of worship at Easter.

Muslims do it, too.

"In Canada, Easter has become the third Muslim holiday, after the two Eids," says Nadir Shirazi, a Toronto multi-faith co-ordinator at the University of Toronto.

Friday is the traditional big day for Muslims to attend afternoon prayers, but the North...

Author: BEN LEUBSDORF

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkwzbKJ5muvsgkDjmmdyuctp9iigD97FOHIG0

Seeing-eye dogs are a nonstarter among many Muslims who consider the animals unclean, but a horse the size of a dog just might work.

"This is a really awesome little horse," Mona Ramouni said this week as she put Cali, a 3-year-old miniature horse, through her paces...

Author: Aamer Madhani

Source: USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-04-09-insideiraqchristians_N.htm

Salma Younan remembers the day when an al-Qaeda fighter came to her home and demanded she renounce Christianity and convert to Islam.

She told him she would rather die than turn her back on her faith. "My blood is not as precious as my savior's," she recalls saying.

Security in her Baghdad...

Author: Gregg Krupa

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090409/LIFESTYLE04/904090389/1041/Dutch+officials+visit+Dearborn+to+learn+about+improving+Muslim+relations

Dutch officials visited the city Wednesday to discern why Muslims are more accepted in the United States than in The Netherlands.

Dutch society is plagued with problems of...

Author: Diana L. Eck

Source: Politico

http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Diana_Eck_EEEAFDCB-79DD-4DD3-BBE8-D1D5781FFA85.html

It is deeply disappointing that this week a U.S. District Attorney, David Jones, arguing now on behalf of the Obama administration, repeated the frightening logic of the Bush administration in continuing to deny a visa to Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe's deepest and most articulate Muslim...

Author: Dwight Ott

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090409_Court_upholds_Police_Department_s_uniform_guidelines.html

A federal appeals court has upheld the Philadelphia Police Department's policy that forbids officers to wear Muslim head scarves on the job.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling, issued Tuesday, affirmed a lower court...

Author: Robin Shulman

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/08/AR2009040804077.html

Ismi Safeya is a student at an Islamic school who veils her hair for modesty, prays five times a day and is inspired by the idea of a society based on Muslim principles.

But when the 18-year-old casts her vote for the first time in parliamentary elections Thursday, she won't...

Author: John Baur

Source: St. Thomas Source

Author: Jan M. Olsen

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/08/AR2009040802273.html

A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World.

Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting the prophet wearing a...

Author: Noha El-Hennawy

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/04/egypt-bahais-under-attack.html

The homes of some members of Egypt's Bahai minority came under violent attack by Muslims this week in a rural area in southern Egypt.

The attacks erupted in the village of al-Shuraniya in the upper Egyptian province of Sohag where Muslim residents gathered outside the...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: InFocus News

http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/33149/135/

The controversy over reports of an FBI informant infiltrating southern California mosques and the FBI’s overall conduct toward American Muslims were subjects of a Senate hearing last month, generating vague answers from FBI Director Robert Mueller and generating even more concern in a community already feeling fearful and unfairly targeted in a post-9/11...

Author: Tom Whitehead

Source: Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5126155/Imam-wins-landmark-battle-against-Muslim-McCarthyism.html

Dr Taj Hargey won substantial damages from the Muslim Weekly newspaper in a High Court libel case after it accused him of not being a true Muslim.

Dr Hargey, who previously backed a school's legal battle over its refusal...