Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On November 25, 2000, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "Ramadan, Islam's holy month of fasting, will soon be observed by about 25,000 Muslims in the St. Louis area. Thirty years ago, a relative handful of Muslims lived here. More than 30 years ago, a Muslim in St. Louis might find three men and three women in a room at St. Louis University breaking their Ramadan fasts together, recalled Waheed Rana, a founding member of the community here. In the upcoming month of Ramadan, more 25,000 Muslims in the St. Louis area...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 25, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "a few days before the Islamic holy season of Ramadan, many of Leah Greenwald's seventh-graders at McFadden Intermediate School in Santa Ana were meeting a real, live Muslim for the first time in their lives. Maria Khani, a speaker from the Council on Islamic Education, wore a black jacket, a long gray skirt and a silk head scarf--but said that at home she dressed as she pleased. She brought in a Koran, a prayer rug and a small model of a mosque--but also a toy camera, just...

Source: The Plain Dealer

On November 25, 2000, The Plain Dealer reported that "thousands of miles away from her family in Pakistan, Sabeen Mushtaq couldn't help but think of her relatives as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached. The George Washington University freshman was living away from home for the first time and missed her family's holy season traditions - especially the egg omelets and homemade bread that her mother cooked for suhur, the family's morning meal...With the advent of Ramadan this year on Nov. 27 (a movable season because the...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On November 25, 2000, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "at the first glimmer of sunrise Monday, Muslims around the world will begin the monthlong observance of Ramadan, one of the holiest periods of their year. During daylight during this period, Muslims are prohibited from eating, drinking and engaging in sexual activity. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic year, is one of the five pillars of Islam --- the others are the affirmation that there is only one God, daily prayer, charity and...

Source: The Times-Picayune

On November 25, 2000, The Times-Picayune reported that "Palestinian-born Karem Abdullah, his wife and their two young sons plan to leave their Metairie home and go to the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain at sunset today and Sunday to try to sight the new moon...Of about 5,000 Muslims in the New Orleans area, possibly hundreds are expected to be outdoors for the same purpose, on both shores of the lake, on sections bordering the Mississippi River and on the few manmade hills around, anywhere that gives them a clear and broad view...

Source: The Kansas City Star

On November 25, 2000, The Kansas City Star reported that "early next week Bahiyah Shakur will be rising before dawn and eating a light breakfast before beginning a day without food or water. She will repeat this every day for a month as part of the observance of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Because it follows the lunar calendar, the actual time and date of the start of Ramadan is governed by the sighting of the new moon. Before leaving for work Shakur also will start reading the Qur'an, which Muslims are supposed to...

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On November 25, 2000, The Houston Chronicle reported that "Sheik Mamdouh Mahmoud was 10 years old when he finished memorizing the 114 chapters of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. 'I started when I was 4 and finished memorizing it by 10,' said Mahmoud, now 28 and imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston's southeast zone mosque. Committing the Quran, also known as the Koran, to memory is expected of imams and is commended to devout Muslims. A person who memorizes the holy book is known as a hafiz, Mahmoud said. Muslim...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 20, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "In a milestone for Muslim philanthropy, an emergency appeal to save the only free medical clinic in South-Central Los Angeles netted more than $ 284,000, ensuring the facility's survival for another year, community leaders said Sunday. A fund-raiser Saturday night brought out an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 people, whose contributions will give the University Muslim Medical Assn. clinic on Florence Avenue a respite from closure while organizers seek grants and other...

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

http://libpub.dispatch.com/cgi-bin/documentv1?DBLIST=cd00&DOCNUM=13261&TERMV=202:9:211:7:218:4:

On November 20, 2000, The Columbus Dispatch published an article entitled "Religious Leaders Urge Tolerance Among Faiths."

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 19, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "for Samar Aziz, the road to providing her sons with an Islamic-based education is 76 miles long and full of gridlock. 'It's a killer,' she said of the drive between her Tustin home and the private Islamic school in West Covina where her boys, ages 4 and 5, are taught not only to read and write--but also what it means to be a Muslim. 'It's hard. It takes a toll on the family.' Aziz has prayed for relief, and on Saturday, in a field of dirt and rocks in Irvine, her prayers...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On November 19, 2000, The Baltimore Sun reported that "Maryland's Muslims used to have few places to worship outside Baltimore or Washington. Over the past 15 years, however, as more Muslim families have settled across the state, mosques have sprung up in places such as Gaithersburg, Prince Frederick and La Plata. In church-dotted countrysides, where suburbia has arrived but rural ways endure, many Muslims say they have found themselves more at home than they anticipated. They are often very successful, active in their communities...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 18, 2000, The Los Angeles Times reported that "It began as an audacious vision by a handful of idealistic Muslim medical students: move Islam out of the insular immigrant communities and take the religion's charitable ideals into the streets. Four years and 14,000 patients later, the UMMA clinic on Florence Avenue has drawn widespread attention as the only free medical clinic in South-Central Los Angeles and the nation's first major Muslim foray into health care for the poor. In this spotless clinic festooned with...

Source: The Financial Times

On November 15, 2000, The Financial Times reported that "Rasheedah Shahid, a 21-year-old student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, thought she had the perfect part-time job. As a ticket sales representative at Disney-quest, an indoor interactive theme park in Chicago, she would make some money, have the chance to buy shares in the company and receive free tickets for her family. But on her first day of work, when the time came to take her employee ID photograph, the human resources representative told her to take off her...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On November 11, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that "A Washington, D.C.-based Islamic advocacy group has helped a Florida woman gain the right to wear the Islamic headdress for women while at work. Fatimah Herman, a Muslim worker with National Maintenance Inc. in Crestview, Fla., was sent home in early September and told she violated company dress policy by refusing to remove her head scarf while at work, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. After Herman asked the council for help, it sent a letter to the...

Source: The Baltimore Sun

On November 11, 2000, The Baltimore Sun reported that "For years, Roman Catholic leaders have forged warm and friendly ties with Imam W. Deen Mohammed, leader of the Chicago-based Muslim American Society, the nation's largest body of African-American Muslims. Mohammed has become a friend of Baltimore Cardinal William H. Keeler, who in 1996 escorted the son of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad to Rome to meet Pope John Paul II. The next year, Mohammed invited Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolare, a worldwide lay...