Author: Benjamin Weiser

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18scholar.html?hpw

A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Friday reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed the government to bar a prominent Muslim scholar from entering the United States on the ground that he had contributed to a charity that had connections to terrorism.

The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, 46, a Swiss academic, was to...

Author: Gale Courey Toensing

Source: Indian Country Today

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/50469162.html

Indigenous films and videos; paintings, sculptures, baskets and pottery; demonstrations of stone cutting, totem making and other traditional artisan skills; workshops, lectures, forums and storytelling; networking with indigenous peoples from the other side of the nearby river to as far away as Polynesia; hundreds of...

Author: David Montgomery

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503902.html

Keith Ellison is what he is -- the first Muslim elected to Congress, the first African American to represent Minnesota -- while trying not to be too much of what he is. But not too little, either.

Quietly devout, he unrolls his prayer rug in the privacy of his office in...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: World Sikh News

http://worldsikhnews.com/15%20July%202009/Sikhs%20join%20Faith%20Trail%20in%20London%20suicide%20bombers%20town.htm

Sikhs in Leeds have taken the initiative to invite members of other faiths to see their place of worship in step with similar reciprocal action by others.

Four years on from the 7/7 London bombings, Muslims, Sikhs and...

Author: F. Andrew Taylor

Source: View Neighborhood Newspapers

http://www.viewnews.com/2009/VIEW-Jul-14-Tue-2009/North/29930274.html

Witches have gotten a bit of a public relations makeover in the last decade. These days, the word witch is less likely to summon images of green-skinned hags with pointed hats than it is British schoolchildren with a penchant for eating horribly flavored jelly beans.

Neither image is quite...

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Religion News Service

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=18393

As a federal judge, Sonia Sotomayor sided with Santeria prisoners who wanted to wear religious beads and Muslim inmates who wanted to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

At the same time, she ruled against Muslims who wanted a Muslim crescent and star added to post office holiday displays that featured Christmas and Hanukkah...

Author: Michele Chabin

Source: Religion News Service

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext

When Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat decided in June to open a municipal parking lot that had been closed on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, his office said he was simply being practical.

Extra parking is needed to help ease lines of double-parked cars near the Old City that have become an impenetrable maze for emergency vehicles and “an issue of...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: WebWire

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=99117

The ACLU’s fight to stop a Texas school district from punishing a five-year old student for wearing his long hair in braids as an expression of his American Indian heritage and beliefs has drawn support from a diverse group of American Indian tribes and scholars, religious freedom organizations and representatives of a variety of faith traditions.

...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: SikhNet

http://www.sikhnet.com/news/sikhs-fremont-celebrate-july-4th-seva

Residents of Fremont celebrated 4th of July with a parade like the past ten years. More than one hundred organizations and businesses participated in the parade and nearly ten thousand people watched it.

The Greater Fremont area has a significant population of Sikhs. A small civic-minded Sikh organization named S.E.V.A. has...

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Religion News Service

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=18368

Members of a new White House advisory council mapped out plans to link government and religious groups, from interfaith service projects to regional town halls on fatherhood, during a two-day meeting that ended Thursday (July 9).

Eboo Patel, founder of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, said his task force of the Advisory Council on Faith...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: WRCB TV

Wire Service: AP

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10707488

A billboard near Pell City that was put up by the Alabama Freethought Association is causing debate in the area.

The billboard on Interstate 20 between Birmingham and Talladega reads "Imagine No Religion." It was placed there by the association as part of a national campaign by the Freedom From Religion...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20090709/DC4429309072009-1.html

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Virginia today demanded that officials at the Rappahannock Regional Jail immediately end their illegal practice of censoring religious material sent to detainees.

In a letter sent today to the jail's superintendent...

Author: Carol J. Williams

Source: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pill-ruling9-2009jul09,0,6469894.story

Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the "morning after" contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a...

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Religion News Service

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/on_all_things_religious_obama_turns_to_dubois1/

From a sparsely adorned office building a stone’s throw from the White House, Joshua DuBois carefully navigates the delicate line between church and state.

Each morning, he sends a devotional message to President Obama’s BlackBerry. He...

Author: Edina Lekovic

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=844

Last week, MPAC Senior Advisor Dr. Maher Hathout joined a dozen local religious leaders for the Interfaith Inauguration of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's second term.

Hosted by the First AME Church, the Interfaith Inauguration Ceremony featured prayers and inspiring musical performances from the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddist, and Sikh...