As Marcia Macy chatted with her dog walker in the driveway of her Wheaton home Thursday, a young Muslim man passed her and hooked a plastic bag containing a Quran on her doorknob. Unlike most religious solicitors, the man didn't try to speak with her or engage her in debate. He simply left her a 378-page paperback English translation of the holy book of Islam. "I'd read it just to see what it says, but I believe in Jesus, not Allah," said Macy, a longtime Christian. "They have a right to do it . . . but I feel pretty strong in my faith."

via chicagotribune.com

A police force and the Crown Prosecution Service have issued a public apology after admitting they were wrong to claim that a documentary exposing Islamic extremism had been misleading and distorted. In a joint statement issued on their websites, West Midlands Police and the CPS also accepted the findings of an Ofcom inquiry which cleared Channel 4's Dispatches programme of any wrongdoing.

via ukpress.google.com

The Supreme Court stayed the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement which held that Sikhs were not a minority community in Punjab. A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balkrishnan issued notice to Sahil Mittal, a resident of Sangrur on whose writ, the High Court had struck down state government's notification permitting the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) to give 50 per cent reservation to Sikh students in colleges run by it.

via expressindia.com

The Hindu Vidyalaya (Sanskrit for school) celebrated its 15th anniversary on May 3. The Vidyalaya is held at the Hindu Society of Calgary, 2225 24th Ave. N.E.. It is a Sunday school for children, youth and adults. Instruction is provided in Hindustani music, yoga, Hindi language and religion every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. In addition, the school also serves as a cultural centre for East Indian children and youth through participation in various events throughout the year like the Diwali show and Holi mela.

via canada.com

Hindu groups are appealing to the Indian government to ban screenings of the upcoming Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru in that country because it "appears to be lampooning Hinduism." Bhavna Shinde of the Mumbai-based Hindu organization Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Society for Scientific Spiritually, is quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying that India's Central Board of Film Certification should.

via kbsradio.ca

Finally, on 19 May, MPs will get their chance to lay hands on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. After waiting weeks to discover if they would be allowed free votes over its most contentious elements, the bill is now to be subjected to the amendments desperately sought by religious and right-wing groups: curtailing stem-cell research, stopping the creation of saviour siblings and ensuring the naming and tracing of sperm donors. I look forward to a good punch-up . . . and defeat for the godly interventionists. The alternative - their victory - is too unpleasant to contemplate.

via newstatesman.com

DENPASAR, Indonesia - Indonesian members of a minority Muslim sect facing mob violence and a government ban attempted to seek asylum at the Australian and German consulates here Thursday, they said. Six followers of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect had travelled from neighbouring Lombok island to seek refuge abroad, sect member Sulhaen told AFP in front of the Australian consulate on the holiday island of Bali. ‘We've been living in terror, it will get worse if the government officially bans Ahmadiyah,’ Sulhaen said.

via khaleejtimes.com

A significant number of West Virginians (and some others in America) evidently take the view that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. In a surpassingly depressing report from the coal-miner state on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, The Los Angeles Times noted voter views that go like this: "We do not need a Muslim to lead the good ole USA."
To more than a few Americans, it would seem, the very fact that "Hussein" is a Muslim should invalidate his candidacy, even though the U.S.

via search.japantimes.co.jp

A popular US televangelist who backs Republican presidential candidate John McCain has apologized for calling the Catholic church "a great whore," a Catholic spokesman said Tuesday. "I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful," Texas-based preacher John Hagee wrote Monday to Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights president William Donahue, who made the letter public.

via news.yahoo.com

Zoroastrianism was founded by the prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago. The precise date of the founding of Zoroastrianism is uncertain. An approximate date of 1200-1500 BCE has been established through archaeological evidence and linguistic comparisons with the Hindu text, the Rig Veda.
Zoroaster Zoroaster was born in Northeast Iran or Southwest Afghanistan.

via bbc.co.uk

Seems that one person's smut is another person's morning latte. A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee. The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."

via startribune.com

It is thrilling evidence that God is doing a mighty work among Muslims. According to the website Islam Watch, in Russia, some two million ethnic Muslims converted to Christianity last year. Ten thousand French Muslims converted, as did 85,000 Turkish Muslims. In India, approximately 100,000 people abandoned Islam for Christianity. In his book Epicenter, author Joel Rosenberg details amazing stories of Muslims converting to Christianity.

via polrax.iespana.es

The potential repeal of a century-old Florida law barring state funding for religiously affiliated organizations is to be put before the voters there this fall, at the end of a lobbying battle that has attracted the attention of President Bush and has engaged a coalition of liberal or secular educational groups. The vote is widely considered the first of numerous state battles over the funding ban. It exists in 36 other states but has been targeted by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based law firm, and by activists in the states.

via washingtonpost.com

THE Queen swapped her hat for a headscarf yesterday when she arrived at a mosque during her four-day state visit with Prince Philip to Turkey. During a visit to the impressive 15th century complex of Sultan Mehmet I, which houses the Green Mosque and Tomb, the monarch removed her hat and white shoes and replaced them with a chocolate-coloured headscarf and slipper-type socks. She was given a detailed guided tour of the interior of the building by the head of the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Professor Ilber Ortayli.

via news.scotsman.com

Growing up at Congregation Olam Tikvah, Michelle Pearlstein remembers how Israel was taught at religious school: "Black and white -- you can't trust anyone, and it was a united front in support of Israel." Today, Pearlstein, 35, is the Israel specialist at the Fairfax synagogue, where she teaches what is now the mainstream approach: "We call it 'Israel, warts and all.' " The change in curriculum is but one manifestation of the changing relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state.

via washingtonpost.com