Source: The Tampa Tribune

On March 11, 2002, The Tampa Tribune reported that "about 3,500 members of Tampa's Islamic community gathered at Riverfront Park [in Tampa] on Sunday and spoke about their religion and the importance of being part of America... 'Muslims are, by and large, peaceful and loving people,' said Husain Nagamia, chief of cardiac surgery at Tampa General Hospital and chairman of the Tampa Bay Muslim Alliance, which has 25,000 members... The sixth annual Islamic Charity Festival, marking Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim day of sacrifice, drew...

Source: The New York Times

On March 9, 2002, The New York Times reported that "the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim charity in the United States, sued the federal government yesterday for labeling it a financier of terrorism and freezing its assets... The Bush administration has accused the foundation of raising money for Hamas, the Palestinian group that claims responsibility for suicide bombings in Israel... In a 20-page civil complaint against the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury, the foundation...

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 9, 2002, The Boston Globe reported that the Orthodox Christian "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said he sees signs of increased openness toward religious tolerance in the Muslim world... As the 'first among equals' of Orthodox patriarchs, Bartholomew claims to be the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians... Bartholomew called the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 'exploitation of religion' and said religion must be a unifying force in society... Bartholomew's visit to the United States, which included stops in...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 9, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "an Islamic art exhibit in Town Hall [in Riverton, RI] was removed then put back on display after a dispute over whether the show violated the separation of church and state... Town Administrator James Towers ordered the posters removed [on] the first day of the exhibit's planned two-week run, after some residents and town employees complained... Three days later, Town Solicitor James Donnelly concluded the poster display was educational and didn't violate the...

Source: The New York Times

On March 8, 2002, The New York Times reported that in Dearborn, Michigan, "people have been returning from the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lives... most Muslims from Dearborn who went to Mecca did so for personal and spiritual reasons, not political ones... [But] they have also come home with a sense of uncertainty. While many of those who made the pilgrimage this year left Islam's holiest sites feeling renewed in their faith, many also left disturbed by the...

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0306/p11s02-lifo.html

On March 6, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported that "with heightened interest in the Arab-American community since Sept. 11, and with Middle Eastern immigrants more eager to tell their neighbors who they truly are, the time may be right for food to fulfill - once again - its role as the great door-opener between newcomers and mainstream America... In fact, by simply...

Source: The Chicago Tribune

https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22Plan+for+Islamic+cemetery+makes+waves+in+Georgia.%22

On March 6, 2002, The...

Source: The Portland Press Herald

http://www.portland.com/news/local/020304fatih.shtml

On March 4, 2002, The Portland Press Herald reported that on Sunday March 3, "200 people participated in an interfaith seminar called 'Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Search for a New Religious Pluralism in Maine and America'" at the University of Southern Maine. "The point of the...

Source: USA TODAY

On March 4, 2002, USA TODAY reported that "parents in two California school districts have launched an effort to have a seventh-grade social studies textbook altered or removed, charging that it contains Islamic information that amounts to proselytizing... The Pacific Justice Institute, a non-profit legal defense organization specializing in religious issues and parental rights, filed two administrative complaints on behalf of parents in the San Luis Coastal Unified and Lemon Grove school districts. Complaints may be filed in at least...

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33151-2002Mar3.html

On March 4, 2002, The Washington Post featured the article "Backlash Changes Form, Not Function: Sept. 11 Aftereffects Include Quiet Sting Of Bigotry, Some Say." It explained that while violent hate crimes have decreased, bias in the schools, workplace, and public life have continued. The article noted that "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 3, 2002, the Los Angeles Times featured an article on UCLA Medical Center's Spiritual Care Unit. The unit is "the hospital's chaplaincy training program... The full-time staff [at the hospital] includes a priest, a minister and a rabbi, with Muslims and Buddhists on call. Fifteen years ago, when the program was new, the full-time staff consisted of one Baptist minister... These days, religious diversity is redefining hospital chaplaincy work. While the patient directory at UCLA is usually about 65% Christian, the number...

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On March 2, 2002, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "about 60 Atlanta community leaders from across the religious spectrum met... to get to know each other's faiths... The assembly was an outgrowth of a group started by President Eisenhower in the 1950s. The national American Assembly... meets biannually to debate and form consensus around U.S. policy... The regional assembly is new. Its first topic was planned long before Sept. 11 --- back when leaders decided to tackle the increasing...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 2, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the Council on American-Islamic Relations has started a campaign to register more than 100,000 Muslim voters before the November elections... The effort began on Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, which comes at the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Voter registration drives were planned for California, Washington, D.C., Michigan, Missouri and Ohio... Since Sept. 11, the council has encouraged Muslims to express their opinions to policymakers."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On March 2, 2002, The Houston Chronicle featured an article on the Ghadir Khumm holiday, "a centuries-old and contested event of Islamic history... [celebrated] by Shiite Muslims at the Islamic Education Center [in Houston]... Shiite Muslims... account for at least 15 percent of the world's roughly 1.2 billion Muslims... 'Ghadir Khumm is uniquely a Shiite holiday,' said David Cook, assistant professor of religious studies at Rice University and a specialist in early Islam... The story behind Ghadir Khumm concerns Muhammad's...

Source: Spirituality and Health

The Spring 2002 edition of Spirituality and Health featured a story on the "huge outpouring of support" from the community after a window at the Islamic Center of Toledo was shot on September 11 in an act of vandalism. Cherrefe Kadri, president of the large mosque, said "YES-FM, a Christian radio station in the Toledo area, had contacted me, wanting to do something... They called out on the airwaves for people to come together at our center to hold hands, to ring our mosque, to circle our mosque, holding hands, to pray for...