Source: WLNS

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=5513506

Two mid-Michigan religious groups are using their differences to understand each other. Muslims and Christians from neighboring congregations gathered to help break down some religious barriers.

It's a narrow strip of land that separates two faith communities- the Islamic Center of Lansing on one side and University Lutheran Church on the other, but instead of dividing the two congregations, the piece of...

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/09/america/NA_GEN_US_Peace_Dorm.php

About a dozen women students, including a handful of Muslims and Jews, are living together at Rutgers University as they work toward ideals that have seemed out of reach for years in the Middle East: peace and understanding.

Rutgers was to hold a dedication ceremony Monday evening for...

Author: Dilshad D. Ali and Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Source: Newsweek

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15079909/site/newsweek/

The Roman Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA has decided to fast, but it's not waiting for Lent. After Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine emperor's statement that Islam is "evil and inhuman," the group said that, to soothe tensions, thousands of its members are fasting for Ramadan. (For the 30 days of the Islamic holy month,...

Author: JENNIFER MALONEY

Source: Newsday

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liserv094925759oct09,0,7173424.story

Local religious leaders spoke out in support of the Islamic Center of Long Island at an interfaith celebration at the Westbury mosque, which Rep. Peter King has alleged is run by extremists.

"We will not be fooled by fearmongering and appeals to bigotry," the Rev. Mark Lukens, pastor...

Author: Manmohan Singh

Source: World Sikh Council

Representatives of the World Sikh Council - America Region (WSC-AR) and the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) met October 5-7, 2006 in Long Island, New York for a three-day Catholic-Sikh bilateral national interreligious retreat.

The retreat was held at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception (Huntington, NY) and the nearby Mata Sahib Kaur Gurdwara (Glen Cove, NY).

The objective of the retreat was for the Catholic and Sikh communities to further deepen...

Author: Stacy Meichtry

Source: Beliefnet

Wire Service: RNS

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/201/story_20104_1.html

In his latest bid to clarify remarks that enraged the Muslim world, Pope Benedict XVI has added a cautiously worded footnote to the official text of the address he delivered at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

The footnote aimed to further assuage anger over Benedict's use of a quote by a...

Author: John Colson

Source: Aspen Times Weekly

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20061007/ASPENWEEKLY/110080065

As tensions rise between the Islamic and non-Islamic countries of the world, fed largely by an ever-growing fear and hatred of the United States among some international Muslims, a past mayor of Aspen continues to do what he can to defuse the situation.

Former Mayor John Bennett admitted this week that a recent high-...

Author: Omar Sacirbey

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1006/p03s01-ussc.html

Aaliyah Turner used to light up the scoreboards for the Emmanuel College women's basketball team - even while observing the Islamic month of Ramadan. She would go all day without food and water until half time, when the sun set. So during this year's observance, playing a pickup game of basketball with a youth team organized through her...

Author: ALEJANDRA MOLINA

Source: Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/homepage/article_1295183.php

In a society where religious differences can be sensitive, sometimes all it takes are young, eager minds to break the ice.

To learn more about one another's faiths, students from Morasha Jewish Day School, St. John's Episcopal School and New Horizon Islamic Elementary School will interact, engage...

Source: The Toledo Blade

[toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/NEWS08/610020366]

On October 2, 2006 The Toledo Blade reported, "Christians singing, dancing, and praying together with Hindus and Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi leading his followers in a protest against the British tax on salt. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., looking out to the crowd and bellowing, 'I have a dream.' This was the scene at Lourdes College's Franciscan Center yesterday, where a Detroit-area performance troupe presented an ensemble of...

Source: Yale Daily News

[yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=33501]

On October 2, 2006 the Yale Daily News reported, "The music is raucous, there is dancing in the aisles, and the band would not be complete without that clarinet. Dozens of polo shirt-clad students clap and stamp their feet singing the refrain. 'I will bless the Lord. Bless the Lord at all times!' This is the scene at the first All-Campus worship of the 2006-’07 school year, a student-run evangelical service in Battell Chapel. Earlier that day, other...

Original Source: KLTV. October 1, 2006

https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2513924

On October 2, 2006 KLTV reported, "Four times a day, Hindu devotees flock to Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a spectacular temple erected not in India or Nepal, but in Stafford, Texas. 'We felt something divine about this particular location,' said temple member...

Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Military_Chaplains.php

Christian conservatives in Congress are expected to renew their fight to allow military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public events, contending that existing practices infringe upon basic religious freedoms.

They lost a battle last week to push through...

Source: The Mercury News

h ttp://w ww.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15654177.htm

On October 1, 2006 The Mercury News published an opinion piece by Diana Gibson and Craig Wiesner, members of the Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, "During the exact time that the so-called 'compromise' on torture was being discussed in Congress, religious leaders gathered in Palo Alto to make their concerns about torture heard loud and clear. Muslims, Jews, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Quakers,...

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/DN-popedebate_30rel.ART.State.Edition1.3e82701.html

On September 30, 2006 The Dallas Morning News reported, "In his controversial speech this month at a German university, Pope Benedict made a broad claim: Catholic understanding of faith is necessary to properly understand the world. He whacked at Protestants...