Civic

Hindus Reflect Region's Religious Diversity

December 19, 2006

Author: Kelly Griffith

Source: Orlando Sentinel

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/southwest/orl-lochinduside19121906dec19,0,5886937.story?coll=orl-home-promo

The United States has 716 Hindu centers or temples -- 42 in Florida -- says The Pluralism Project at Harvard University, considered the best source of such data, according to Vasudha Narayanan, religion director at the...

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New Virginia Program Aims to Dispel Fears of Muslim Community

December 18, 2006

Author: Kristen Gelineau

Source: WVEC.com

Wire Service: AP

http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8M3F89G4.html#

The small beige signs bearing black Arabic script have been appearing all over town on buses and at colleges.

Are they secret messages from terrorists? one panicked bus rider asked. Should the FBI be contacted? What do they mean??

Actual translation: "Paper...

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In N.J., a Leap of Interfaith: Pastor Gives Rabbi a Kidney

December 18, 2006

Source: Philadelphia Daily News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/nation/16264787.htm

A New Jersey Reform rabbi and a Methodist pastor may celebrate different holidays this month, but they have something to rejoice together - one is giving a kidney to the other.

After almost a year of waiting to hear good news, Rabbi Andrew Bossov, of Mount Laurel, Burlington County, found out this week that doctors...

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Berkshire Mall Celebrates Hanukkah

December 18, 2006

Author: Benning W. De La Mater

Source: Berkshire Eagle

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_4859360

LANESBOROUGH - Against the backdrop of holiday shoppers and neon advertising, a menorah was lit inside Berkshire Mall last night.

It was a "Menorah of Freedom," about the size of three humans, and organizers said that the public lighting ceremony was an opportunity for the local Jewish community to send a message of peace into the...

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Japanese, Muslims Recall Racism

December 18, 2006

Author: Michael Manekin

Source: Tri Valley Herald

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_4859712

When the Imperial Japanese Navy swooped over Pearl Harbor 65 years ago and destroyed more than 2,400 American lives, Mas Yamasaki was watching a church basketball game in Sacramento.

He was 12, and he didn't know that he would soon live in a detention camp at Tule Lake - sleeping on an Army-issued mattress, braving the elements...

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Non-Muslims Snap up Islamic Accounts

December 17, 2006

Author: Julian Knight

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6168800.stm

Emma Dellaway, 25, from south London, likes to know that the money sitting in her current account is not doing harm.

"I don't have much money, as I am just starting out on my career, but what I do have should not be used unethically," she says.

"I hate to think of arms going to some African country funded, however indirectly, from my account."...

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There are Limits to Freedom, Warns Khairy

December 17, 2006

Source: New Straits Time

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/National/20061217100042/Article/index_html

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians should not abuse the freedom they have to openly debate and criticise issues.

Deputy Umno Youth head Khairy Jamaluddin said he was all for the open atmosphere, where government policies and leaders could be criticised by the media and where issues could be discussed, but warned that there were...

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Can an Atheist Believe in Christmas?

December 16, 2006

Source: The Dallas Morning News/New York Times News Service

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/121606dnrelatheists.1d22264.html#

If last holiday season charitably could have been described as the war-on-Christmas Christmas - with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News declaring war on the warriors and others declaring war on him - maybe it's not such a stretch to think of this year's prevalent yuletide theme as the...

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Meditation Classes Help Tihar Inmates

December 15, 2006

Source: Daily India/Indo Asian News Service

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/93383.php/Meditation-classes-help-Tihar-inmates

New Delhi-- After a troubled past, inmates of Tihar Jail here have decided to reform themselves as well as change other jailbirds' lives through Vipassana, Buddhist way of meditation.

'We have around 500 inmates going through 10 different meditation courses of Vipassana in the jail,' said Sunil Gupta, law officer...

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A Window On Religion And Tolerance

December 15, 2006

Author: Tara Bahrampour

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121401943.html

Where Yalda Jafari comes from, there are no churches or synagogues. In fact, girls in her northern Afghanistan town had no schools for five years under the Taliban.

As if to make up for lost time, the 16-year-old sophomore from Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville...

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Shiite? Sunni? Some in US Learn Who's Who.

December 15, 2006

Author: G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p02s01-ussc.html

Some in Congress may need a primer on Islamic extremists. Five years after 9/11, three members of the House Intelligence Committee in recent interviews couldn't answer basic questions about who's Sunni and who's Shiite in the Muslim world. But other American institutions are already boning up - especially when they have a stake in...

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