On September 9, 2004 the Chicago Tribune ran an article on the headscarf ban, highlighting two different perspectives on Islamic dress through two Muslim women: "Souad Morabet and Sadia Belrabet would seem to have a lot in common. Both emigrated from Morocco to France at a young age; both are now married and live in Paris... Both women describe...
On September 5, 2004 the San Francisco Chronicle reported, 'At 5 a.m. on a summer day already sticky with humidity, three dozen ascetic priests known as yamabushi -- 'those who lie down in the mountains' -- have gathered at the foot of this mountain in western Japan to pray before climbing its sacred slopes. Peaking at 5,640 feet,...
On August 22, 2004 CNews reported, "A Canadian Islamic group is trying to prevent the word shariah from being included in Ontario's Arbitration Act on the grounds it creates a 'slippery slope' that blurs dangerously the lines between family and criminal law. Currently, the law provides for voluntary faith-based arbitration, which allows Muslims, Jews and members of other faiths to use...
On August 20, 2004 Beliefnet published an editorial by mosque founder Zafar Nomani concerning his support of daughter Asara Nomani who is at the center of Mosque controversy in West Virgina. "The mosque management committee has informed my daughter that 35 members of the congregation have signed a petition to 'expel' her from the mosque for 'actions and practices that are disruptive to prayer,...
On August 19, 2004 the Los Angeles Times reported, "A record number of Muslim women are representing their countries this year in Athens, nearly every one of them overcoming unimaginable hardships. Some endure death threats for exposing their legs to foreign men; others prepare for this day without the mats, shoes or other equipment...
On August 18, 2004 The Times-Picayune reported, "Embattled former West Jefferson High School teacher Wes Mix, who was accused of using racial slurs and yanking the head scarf off a Muslim student, plans to fight Jefferson Parish public schools Superintendent Diane Roussel's recommendation to fire him. Under policies governing tenured...
On August 17, 2004 the Honolulu Advertiser reported, "In 1977, Kathy Phillips discovered Kwan Yin at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Women in search of a connection to the divine feminine have long turned to this bodhisattva — also known as Kwan Yin — for guidance... Today, more than a quarter century later, Phillips can relax herself, with a book of poems...
On August 16, 2004 the National Post reported, "When I first came to Canada as a young mother in 1976, I was surprised to see that in North America mosques -- or masjid as they care called in Arabic -- were open to women just as they were during the time of Prophet Mohammed. The Prophet...
On August 14, 2004 The Salt Lake Tribune reported, "Margaret Toscano's faith and feminism coalesced during a Mormon temple ritual that spoke of heavenly queens and priestesses who reign alongside kings and priests. Coming as it did in the inner sanctuary of what she believed was a rigidly patriarchal church, the moment was thrilling, even revelatory, and it launched Toscano on a 30-year quest to uncover Mormonism's...
On August 13, 2004 the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada reported, "In a letter to the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Prime Minister’s office has assured Canadian Muslims that their religious right to wear a hijab, or Islamic headscarf, will be respected and protected when photographs are taken for the Permanent Resident (PR) Card. The letter came after a...
On August 10, 2004 The Christian Science Monitor reported, "Muslims [in Ontario], supported by a 1991 provincial law, have been using sharia to mediate legal disputes, such as divorce and child custody. But in the spring, after a Muslim group proposed creating a formalized tribunal, what had been going on quietly for more than a decade became front-page fodder and led to a...
On August 5, 2004 Inter Press Service News Agency reported, "An Allensbach Institute survey in Germany indicated recently that 53 percent of Germans regard the headscarf as a form of repression, and something not reconcilable with western values. The German states Baden-Wuerttemberg, Saarland and Lower Saxony have all passed laws banning Islamic headscarves from public schools...Now the...
On August 1, 2004 The Washington Post reported, "The Vatican issued a letter Saturday attacking the 'distortions' and 'lethal effects' of feminism, which it defined as an effort to erase differences between men and women -- a goal, the statement said, that undermines the 'natural two-parent structure' of the family and makes '...
