Author: El

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122970914

A commission in France recommended Tuesday that the full Islamic veil, or burqa, be outlawed in public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

For the past six months, a debate over the burqa has embroiled the country — and it's not over yet.

The debate erupted last summer when President Nicolas Sarkozy abruptly...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: RTTNews

http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1189421&SMap=1

The Election Commission of Bangladesh has begun the process to ban religion-based political parties in that South Asian country by issuing a directive to three Islamic parties to amend their charters found to be in conflict with the country's Constitution.

It wrote to the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh Khelataf Andolan...

Author: John Tagliabue

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/world/europe/27swiss.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Bertram Decker’s second-floor office in Nestlé’s big food plant here looks out over the town’s only minaret, a wooden turret topped with a gilt star and crescent.

The minaret, atop a Turkish cultural association, is one of only four in all of Switzerland,...

Author: Nataliya Vasilyeva

Source: Yahoo News

Wire Service: AP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_religious_freedoms

Religious freedoms are being rapidly curtailed throughout Russia as the Orthodox Church seeks to boost its dominance, human rights activists warned Monday.

In its annual report on...

Author: Liz Gooch

Source: The New York Times

Author: Yolande Knell

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8478397.stm

Worshippers arriving for mass at St Mary's Church in central Cairo say they were shocked but not surprised by a deadly attack against Coptic Christians in southern Egypt earlier this month.

"Copts have been suffering for a long time," comments Magda accompanying her teenage son to the service.

"There have been a lot of tensions between Christians...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Hindu

Wire Service: AP

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article94649.ece

A Muslim mob torched unlicensed churches and priest’s home in western Indonesia last week and security forces have deployed to ensure order, a government spokesman said on Monday.

No one was hurt when hundreds of villagers burned down two Protestant churches on Friday in Sibuhuan...

Author: Samira B. Rizvi

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6829305.html

Ailia Ahmed wants to start the new year right, so she's organizing a blood drive to mark Moharram and the Islamic new year.

The Islamic year isn't one meant to be celebrated with big parties, but instead, for Shiite Muslims, is a somber occasion commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein...

Author: Dina Rabie

Source: Islam Online

Author: E.J. Schultz

Source: The Fresno Bee

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1792504.html

James Fredrick Menefield lost his freedom eight years ago when he was sent to prison for murdering his girlfriend. But the Pleasant Valley State Prison inmate says he should not lose the right to follow dietary rules that come with his strict Muslim faith.

The state of California is on the verge of agreeing with him.

In proposed regulations,...

Author: Nick Higham and Margaret Ryan

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8472111.stm

An exhibition that has just opened at the Science Museum is celebrating 1,000 years of science from the Muslim world.

From about 700 to 1700, many of history's finest scientists and technologists were to be found in the Muslim world.

In Christian Europe the light of scientific inquiry had largely been extinguished with the collapse of the...

Author: Julia Zappei

Original Source: The Boston Globe

Wire Service: AP

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/1161363

Vandals tried to burn down two Muslim prayer rooms in Malaysia on Thursday, following a string of arson attacks on churches amid a dispute over...

Author: Michelle Boorstein

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012004488.html?hpid=moreheadlines

A poll about Americans' views on Islam concludes that the strongest predictor of prejudice against Muslims is whether a person holds similar feelings about Jews.

The Gallup poll, released Thursday, also finds that people who report...

Author: Tara Hagan

Source: The Observer

http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2268897

Members of the local Baha'i community are keeping a close eye on a controversial trial underway in Iran.

"We're deeply concerned," said Afsaneh Yazdani, secretary for the Baha'i community in Sarnia, where, members are praying for seven fellow Baha'is currently on trial.

The group -- two women and five men -- have been jailed since...

Author: Larry Neumeister

Source: The Washington Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012002692.html

Two prominent Muslim scholars once accused of having ties to terrorism can reapply to travel to the United States now that the State Department has concluded they pose no danger to the country, federal spokesmen said Wednesday....