Source: Radio Australia

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/programs/s1893868.htm

Thailand is in the middle of drafting a new constitution. Many lobby groups have been voicing their opinions since the drafting process began last September. But one of the most controversial lobbyists is the Thai Buddhist clergy, who are again calling for the religion to be part of the new constitution.

HILL: Buddhism's influence on Thai culture is obvious to even a...

Author: Omar Sacirbey

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2007/04/09/keeping_the_faithful/

Rafiq Akbar of Dorchester is one of the few people who can say they went fishing with Malcolm X. But it wasn't fishing in the usual sense.

"Fishing means going out and informing the African-American of his heritage and what he wasn't taught while enslaved here in America," Akbar, 80, explained one...

MPAC

http://www.mpac.org/issues/islamophobia/islamophobe-strikes-again-mpacs-response-to-steve-emersons-latest-baseless-attack.php

Source: WBAL-TV

Wire Service: AP

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/11576686/detail.html

BALTIMORE -- A radiologist who was kicked out of the University of Maryland Medical Center after he performed a Muslim ritual has filed a $30 million lawsuit against the hospital.

The suit said Dr. Mohammed Hussain was at the hospital last month to undergo surgery. He was washing his hands and feet in a sink in a lobby bathroom when a security guard came in...

Author: Wayne Woolley

Source: Pew Forum

Wire Service: RNS

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=13185

The lights in a Jersey City mosque flickered at dawn and more than a dozen West Point cadets stirred in sleeping bags scattered across the prayer room.

As Imam Hussein Wahdan began the melodious call to prayer in Arabic, bearded men filed past the cadets, kneeled and then bowed to the floor to begin their...

Source: Aftenposten

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1665371.ece

Norwegian anti-immigration politicians in Bergen have promised to chase off Muslims with pigs feet and squealing noises if Bergen's central square is used for prayers.

The leader of the Demokratene, an extreme populist party formed by outcasts of the populist Progress Party, Vidar Kleppe, said Wednesday that he backed the remarks of city council representative Kenneth Rasmussen....

Author: Hussam Ayloush

Source: The Press-Enterprise

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/localviews/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_0408_ayloush_iv_loc.dfc11a.html#

With the rapid spread of misinformation on the Internet and TV, and the destructive conflict in the Middle East, no one can afford to ignore a widening cultural, religious and political divide between the West and Islam.

Zogby...

Author: George Basler

Source: Press...

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/30/news/UN-GEN-UN-Islam.php

GENEVA: Islamic countries pushed through a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday urging a global prohibition on the public defamation of religion — a response largely to the furor last year over caricatures published in a Danish newspaper of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

The...

Source: Islamic Republic News Agency

http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-20/0704076794172311.htm

Muslims are pervasive among all of Britain's ethnic groups and represent more than half of all non-Christian believers, according to a new fact-file.

The fact-file, based on an analysis of the UK's last census in 2001, showed that 52 percent of non-Christian believers were Muslim, compared with 18 percent Hindus, 11 percent Sikhs, nine per cent Jews and 5...

Author: BARBARA KARKABI

Source: Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/4694492.html

As nearly 400 Shia Ismaili Muslims gathered this week to celebrate Muhammad's birthday, they heard a story from the time of the prophet.

A Bedouin once asked Muhammad to explain the religion of Islam from start to finish, said Hamid Mavani, associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University.

...

Source: Houston Chronicle

Wire Service: AP

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/4694503.html

PARIS — French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy has backed off his proposal to modify French law to allow state support for mosques, but said in an interview he wants to keep Islam in France "cut off from foreign influences."

Sarkozy, of Jacques Chirac's ruling conservative party, has upset many in...

Author: Michelle Brooks

Source: News Tribune

http://newstribune.com/articles/2007/04/06/community/269com01.txt

A place to gather with family and friends for meals and community.

A holy site for prayer.

A mosque to call the House of God.

For more than four years, a few dozen local Muslims have gathered in a tiny office space for weekly prayers and gatherings. Several others of the faith have chosen to...