Author: Heather Scarlett

Source: Daily Kent Stater

Source: The Star

Author: Riddhima Seal

Source: The Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City_Supplements/Calcutta_Times/I_wont_change_my_name_Swastika/articleshow/1409705.cms

With the EU imposing a ban on the swastika, we find out what happens to all the women with the same name, applying for a visa to European countries.

The recent proposal of Germany calling for...

Author: TOM CAIAZZA

Source: Woodbridge Sentinel

[ws.gmnews.com/news/2007/0124/Front_Page/006.html]

EDISON - Two state legislators have taken steps to further accent the state's diversity by introducing legislation to recognize the Indian holiday of Diwali.

Senator Barbara Buono (D-18) and Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (D-16) are seeking hearings on duplicate legislation in both houses that would make Oct. 15 through Nov. 14, Diwali month, a festival that celebrates, among other things, the...

Author: Sandip Roy

Source: New American Media

[news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=645ddebf5e4c7f6712f75261ca0766e8]

Deepa Mehta’s film Water has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It’s the third in a trilogy following Fire and Earth. It looks at a colony of widows set in a sacred city whose lives are upturned by a new widow, a child, in their midst. Mehta’s films have caused movie theatres to be burnt down in India by angry mobs and they have also won...

Author: Alanah May Eriksen

Source: The Rotorua Daily Post

Author: Larry Hughes

Source: Poughkeepsie Journal

[poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070126/COLUMNISTS06/70125057/1005/LIFE]

The Poughkeepsie Institute is a state of mind, not a place.

The now 10-year-old collaboration between area colleges and the City of Poughkeepsie produces an annual report on a particular issue. The 2006 effort resulted in “The Civic Effects of Faith Based Organizations in Poughkeepsie,” a study offered up in a 35-page report and 12-minute video...

Source: The Statesman

Author: SOMINI SENGUPTA

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/world/asia/26yoga.html

NEW DELHI, Jan. 25 — Hollywood celebrities swear by it. Yuppies the world over have fallen on their knees to embrace it. Now, the question of whether public school students in India should be required to take up the sun salutation, or “surya namaskar” as the common yoga exercise is known in Sanskrit, has engendered a legal...

Source: Woodbridge Sentinel

[ws.gmnews.com/news/2007/0124/Front_Page/023.html]

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - The township might be the home of the only temple for a particular sect of Hinduism in all of New Jersey, if the Zoning Board approves.

An application presented Jan. 11 was filed by Bharat Sevashram Sangha of North America Inc., which currently maintains a house in Kendall Park for use in religious practices. The project, if approved, would entail the construction of a 6,904-square-foot temple on Route 27.

According to...

Author: Vasudha Narayanan

Source: The Washington Post

[newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/vasudha_narayanan/2007/01/hearing_voices_of_women_poets.html]

Hindu women have been both empowered and subjugated by their religious structures. Yes, there have been terrible crimes against women, as in most religions. And yet, it may be argued that within the Hindu traditions women have also created opportunities to be poets, patrons, philosophers, performers, and ritual specialists.

The public face of...

Author: MEERA RAJAGOPALAN

Source: INDIA New England News

Source: Hinduism Today

[hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2007/1/22.shtml#1]

LONDON, ENGLAND, January 21, 2007: (HPI note: The following press release is from the Hindu Council UK.)

While Germany holds the European Union presidency, its Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has, without realizing its wider implications, proposed to ban the swastika throughout Europe. This is evidently to demonstrate Germany's repentance of the treatment meted out to the Jews by the Nazis. Although such a show of repentance is something everybody can...

Author: Inni Kaur

Source: Sikh News Network

http://www.sikhnet.com/Sikhnet/news.nsf/NewsArchive/06DEF1320D6CE07287257267007C6B64!OpenDocument

On Sunday, January 14, 2007 the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan in conjunction with the Interfaith Center of New York presented a talk ‘By the Book’. Application and interpretation from the four scriptures: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Sikh faith...

Author: Heather MacDonald

Source: Inside Bay Area

[insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_5043953]

OAKLAND - Responding to a call from Mayor Ron Dellums, religious leaders from several Oakland churches, mosques and synagogues Thursday launched an effort to combat the rising tide of violence and hopelessness in Oakland.

Dubbed the Network for Interfaith Action, the effort is still in the planning stages but will focus on reducing violent crime in Oakland and improving public schools, said Harold...