Author: Louisa Lim

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128628514

It is 5:50 in the morning, and dark shadows scurry through narrow alleys to the mosque, as the call to prayer echoes from a minaret in Kaifeng. This city in central China's Henan province has an Islamic enclave, where Muslims have lived for more than 1,000 years.

In an alleyway called Wangjia hutong, women go to their own mosque, where...

Author: Jon Pareles

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/arts/music/22sufi.html?_r=1&ref=religion_and_belief

Hands waved overhead. Voices shouted lyrics and whooped with delight. Children were hoisted onto parents’ shoulders. In the tightly packed crowd a few dancers made room to jump. T-shirts were tossed to fans from the stage.

Yet in the songs that Abida Parveen was singing,...

Author: Maggie Hyde

Source: St. Louis Today

Wire Service: RNS

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/article_ee43e11e-dea0-5771-979b-9b5e77b11a42.html

Ahmadi Muslims have been preaching peace since the movement was founded 121 years ago in India.

Now, they say they are just trying to get the rest of the world — including their fellow...

Author: Ciaran Giles and Jorge Sainz

Source: Beliefnet

Wire Service: AP

https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/news/2010/07/spain-parliament-rejects-burqa

...

Author: Albert Aji and Elizabeth Kennedy

Source: The Detroit News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100720/NATION/7200361/1041/LIFESTYLE04/Syria-bans-women-s-face-coverings-at-universities

Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab -- the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes --...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Express India

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Demolition-of-Hindu-temple-triggers-protest-in-Rawalpindi/649340/

The demolition of part of an 87-year-old temple triggered protests by the minority Hindu community in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi before authorities said they would prevent the rest of the shrine from being pulled down.

Hundreds...

Author: Ron Scherer

Source: Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0720/Ground-Zero-mosque-spate-of-terror-plots-fueling-fears

Several proposed Islamic centers, including one near Ground Zero, have touched off a heated nationwide debate that raises questions about the state of religious tolerance in post-9/11 America.

Author: Bob Smietana

Source: WBIR/The Tennessean

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=127568&provider=rss

As a seminary student, the Rev. Jeremy Squires 
learned most of what he needed to know to be a 
Methodist preacher, but he didn't learn much about 
other faiths, like Islam or Buddhism. 

That's left Squires, pastor of Pleasant View United 
Methodist church in...

Author: Stephen Prothero

Source: CNN

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/19/my-take-ground-zero-mosque-good-for-america-and-new-york/

I love New York, and I love the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero.

What began as a local question concerning the construction of an Islamic community center and mosque a few blocks from Ground Zero has morphed over the last few weeks into a statewide, national and...

Author: Elisabeth Hulette

Source: The Capital

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2010/07/18-47/No-student-tests-ontwo-Muslim-holidays.html

No tests will be scheduled in the county's public schools on two Muslim holidays this year: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Local Muslim leaders have been requesting the change for two years, arguing that students who practice Islam and are granted...

Author: Paul Hockenos

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/article/Educating-Imams-in-Germany-/66282/

In the snow-swept courtyard of the white-marble Sehitlik Mosque, Berlin's largest Islamic prayer house, the resident imam greets the faithful with handshakes and embraces. A slightly built, cordial man wearing an open parka, Mustafa Aydin is a Turkish civil servant on a four-year posting abroad, as are many of...

Author: Louisa Lim

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128544048

Alongside China's astonishing economic boom, an almost unnoticed religious boom has quietly been taking place.

In the country's first major survey on religious beliefs, conducted in 2006, 31.4 percent of about 4,500 people questioned described themselves as religious. That amounts to more than 300 million religious believers, an...

Author: Bill Sherman

Source: Tulsa World

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20100718_18_A1_Viewsd561266

A proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would ban Sharia law in the state court system is either a pre-emptive strike against encroaching Islamic law in the U.S. or an expression of Islamophobia, depending on who you ask. 

State Rep. Rex...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://www.mpac.org/article.php?id=1167

In an unprecedented statement of united opposition to religiously-motivated violence, nine diverse and highly respected Muslim American scholars and religious leaders have lent their voices to a special video message produced by the Muslim Public Affairs Council called "Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice." 

Author: Prerna Suri

Source: Al Jazeera English

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010714144652155297.html

Muslim separatist groups have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir for two decades. New Delhi blames Pakistan for supporting them. Pakistan denies the claim.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.

In the lead-up to talks between the two countriesin Islamabad on Thursday...