Author: Slamet Susanto

Source: The Jakarta Post

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...

Author: Elaine Jarvik

Source: Deseret Morning News

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650215033,00.html

Noor Ul-Hasan has never been reluctant to speak up on behalf of Muslims living in Utah. But even Ul-Hasan admitted Wednesday night, she sometimes lives in fear.

It was just this week, in fact, that she balked when somebody asked her to put her phone number in a local newsletter. "I said, 'No,' because I don't want to be targeted,"...

Author: Phil Haslanger

Source: The Capital Times

Author: Angelique Walker-Smith

Source: IndyStar

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/OPINION01/612130368/-1/ZONES04

Have you heard? It's official. Christmas is back at Wal-Mart.

The specific mention of Christmas is no longer persona non grata within the array of the many holidays retailed at this time of year. But for many people of faith, the retailing of holy seasons like...

Author: LOIS E. BECKETT and EVAN H. JACOBS

Source: The Harvard Crimson

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516372

The task force charged with replacing Harvard’s Core curriculum has dropped its headline-grabbing proposal for a “Reason and Faith” requirement - a category that would have made Harvard the only Ivy to require its undergrads to study religion.

The committeehas also suggested a new course requirement on...

Author: William Yardley

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/us/13trees.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

SEATTLE, Dec. 12 -- Fourteen Christmas trees that were abruptly sent to storage on Friday were back on display Tuesday in the main terminal of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, neither taller nor brighter than they had been before but clearly drawing more attention.

“I saw people taking pictures,...

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6167695.stm

Iran's foreign minister has rejected criticism of a two-day conference being held in Iran to examine whether the Holocaust actually happened.

Manouchehr Mottaki told participants the event did not seek to confirm or deny the Holocaust, but rather to allow people to "express their views freely".

Israel's prime minister has condemned the gathering as "a sick phenomenon".

President...

Author: Linda Piper

Source: News Shopper

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.1040691.0.recycling_efforts_far_from_rubbish.php

PIONEERING recycling ideas have earned Bexley four successes in this year's National Recycling Awards.

Bexley, which is London's top borough for recycling, won awards in all the categories it entered.

It won best local authority...

Author: Abdi Aynte

Source: Minnesota Monitor

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=918

A new survey finds that Minnesota is one the most popular destinations for U.S. Muslims. The state comes in at number 12 of the top dozen states that are home to more than 80 percent of U.S. Muslims.

Conducted by the California-based Genesis Research Associates in August, the survey was paid by the Washington-based Council on American...

Author: Jonathan Tilove

Source: Pew Forum

Wire Service: RNS

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=12156

The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians, and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.

Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed...

Author: Martin Marty

Source: Sightings

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2006/1211.shtml

Two events this season led me to go back to the Sightings archive, to a column dated October 29, 2001 ("Listening to Lactantius"). Giving evidence of our passion always to be current, we cited Lactantius from the years 302 and 303, because what he wrote then spoke so directly to current affairs. Incident one here is the flap over...

Author: Deepti Hajela

Source: The Shreveport Times

Wire Service: AP

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/LIVING/612100310/1004/LIVING

NEW YORK -- Christmas morning is a bonanza for my nephews and nieces, box after box from loving aunts, uncles and grandfolk. I love watching them open all the gifts, but I have to admit to a twinge of envy, even now...

Source: The Indianapolis Star

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/LOCAL/612100485

Ingrid Mattson's recent election as president of the Islamic Society of North America gave the organization headquartered in Plainfield a national spotlight it's never known.

The white, Canadian-born woman who grew up Catholic before converting to Islam in 1987 has appeared on CNN and NPR, been written up in The New York Times and was...

Author: Glenn Lovell

Source: The Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/home/16202176.htm

The battle over Christmas in major retail stores across America was fought, and Christmas has won -- at least for now.

After last year's store boycotts launched by conservative religious groups angered by the secularization of the holidays, the number of national chains that are now using Christmas, Hanukkah and...