Author: Aziza Hasan

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=953

While making his decision on the next Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last Friday reached out to local Muslim community leaders for their input on his big decision. Prior to the Mayor's address, Deputy-Chief Michael Downing, spoke to a congregation of 1,000 worshipers after Friday prayers at the Islamic Center of Southern...

Author: Janet I. Tu

Source: The Seattle Times

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010195429_atheist04m.html

When some 600 atheists, agnostics and other nonreligious folks gather in Seattle starting Friday for a Freedom From Religion Foundation convention, there will be an emphatically nonprayer breakfast.

Not to mention hundreds of provocative bus ads, including one with Santa saying: "Yes,...

Author: Neil Johnson

Source: Tampa Bay Online

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/03/na-atheists-take-message-on-road/

Motorists along one of Lakeland's major thoroughfares are being greeted with a billboard asking a provocative question: "Don't believe in God?"

Then there's the answer: "You are not alone."

The billboard went up Sunday on eastbound Memorial Boulevard nearMartin Luther King...

Author: Jennifer Lee

Source: The New York Times

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/candidates-religion-is-point-of-contention-in-queens-race/

Dan Halloran, the Republican candidate for a City Council seat in northeastern Queens, actively practices Theodism, a neo-pagan faith which attempts to reconstruct the pre-Christian tribal religions of the European Germanic people.

While...

Author: Brad Shannon

Source: The Olympian

http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/1020811.html

New permanent rules formally signed Friday at the Capitol will bar religious displays and nongovernment displays inside Capitol Campus buildings.

The rules take effect Dec. 1 and are aimed at preventing a repeat of last year’s riot of displays inside the Legislative Building. However, the rules do allow a state-sponsored holiday tree...

Author: Bill Tammeus

Source: The Kansas City Star

http://www.kansascity.com/255/story/1540453.html

The thermometer said 97 that fierce day in late June. The sun was pitiless.

So the group of youths (with adult helpers) planning some interfaith events found refuge in the back of the Foo’s custard shop at 95th and Mission, spooning down triple-threat chocolate concretes and sundaes covered with snappy raspberries. 

Federico...

Author: Leticia Gutierrez

Source: Appeal-Democrat

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/temple-88102-people-sikh.html

Sarbjit Johl, 56, walked in the Yuba City Sikh Parade 30 years ago when it had just a few floats and attracted a couple of thousand people.

Like he's done every year since then, he'll walk part of it again this Sunday when the annual event is expected to draw an estimated 75,000 from throughout California and...

Author: David Abel

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/28/in_subway_ads_atheist_group_reaches_out_to_hubs_faithless/

Beside ads beckoning believers to explore Islam, attend services at the Boston Chinese Ev angelical Church, or...

Author: Paul Egan

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091027/METRO03/910270347/1041/lifestyle04/Macomb-County-Nativity-scene-goes-to-court

A manger scene on a road median in Warren is the focus of a court battle over religious freedoms.

John Satawa of Warren, who says his family has erected a Nativity scene in the Mound Road median since about 1945, filed...

Author: Gregory Zajac

Source: The Maneater Student Newspaper

http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/10/27/columbia-pagans-discuss-samhain/

With Halloween less than a week away, several Pagan organizations sponsored an event Sunday afternoon designed to better educate people about Paganism and how Pagans observe it.

"In the general public when I say the word, witch, they think of the media stereotype and the...

Author: Ryan Brooks

Source: The Red and Black Publishing Company

http://media.www.redandblack.com/media/storage/paper871/news/2009/10/26/Variety/Pagan.Festival.Seeks.Tolerance-3812436.shtml

Paganism is a word that carries many different connotations. To some, this is not only acceptable, but is encouraged. 

"One of the things that brings different Pagans...

Source: KYW Newsradio

http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/5523805.php?

A local Buddhist monk will spend the next four weeks constructing a sand painting to help bring peace to his adopted city of Philadelphia.

Members of the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia joined with Venerable Losang Samten on Monday in prayers and chants around a roped-off platform in the lobby of the Gershman Y, at Broad and Pine Streets in center city.  

Over the next...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.mobi/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114004048

Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, is one of 25 people President Obama tapped to advise him on faith issues. She may have met the president exactly once, but to Muslims, she's a celebrity — thanks to the headscarf, or hijab, she wears every day.

When Obama spoke to the Muslim world from Egypt last summer, Mogahed was in...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: SamayLive.Com

http://www.samaylive.com/news/punjabi-village-in-us-all-set-for-annual-sikh-parade/663476.html

Yuba City, known as the first Punjabi village in the US, is all set for the annual Sikh Parade next week.

Home to the descendants of the earliest Indian immigrants to the US, Yuba City, near the California capital of Sacramento, is famous for its annual Sikh...

Author: Kimberly Thorpe

Source: Dallas Observer

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2009-10-22/news/a-court-case-forced-a-santeria-priest-to-reveal-some-of-his-religion-s-secrets-it-s-ritual-of-animal-sacrifice-he-revealed-on-his-own/1

The Euless neighborhood is mostly quiet, a sleepy suburb of pleasant ranch-style homes,...