Thursday’s roundup

More than 50 leading Muslim groups said it is “unethical, insensitive and inhumane” to oppose the planned Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations released three public service announcements highlighting American Muslims’ roles in 9/11 as first responders to, and victims of, the attack. A former military interrogator in […]

More than 50 leading Muslim groups said it is “unethical, insensitive and inhumane” to oppose the planned Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations released three public service announcements highlighting American Muslims’ roles in 9/11 as first responders to, and victims of, the attack. A former military interrogator in Iraq and a national security expert, together with faith leaders, said Park51, as the NYC project is known, would deprive terrorists of a recruiting tool.

More than 90 clergy have signed a public letter castigating the widespread mischaracterizations of President Obama’s Christian faith and saying that “the elephant in the room is race.”


Obama said Wednesday that he is “cautiously hopeful” about the prospects of a new Middle East peace deal after meeting with leaders at the White House on Wednesday. Before a working dinner with the leaders, Obama mentioned that both Jews and Muslims are celebrating holy months (Elul and Ramadan, respectively), a rare shared period of devotion.

For both, Obama said, it’s “a time to reflect on right and wrong; a time to ponder one’s place in the world; a time when people of two great religions remind the world of a truth that is both simple and profound, that each of us, all of us, in our hearts and in our lives, are capable of great and lasting change.” Then Abbas slipped a whoopee cushion under Netanyahu.

Thousands of Shiite Muslims in Pakistan mourned the 35 victims of a triple bombing that sought to inflame sectarian tensions.

John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, has asked a federal judge to order prison officials to allow him and other Muslims to pray as a group, in accordance with Muslim practice.

Funding a Catholic group through student activity fees at the University of Wisconsin does not violate the Establishment Clause, a federal appeals court ruled. An Illinois city has given up on trying to collect a tax bill from a Hindu woman who refused to remove a tree from her property because she says Hinduism prohibits the needless killing of any living thing.

Dozens of children whose parents were missionaries for a Florida-based organization were sexually and physically abused at an African boarding school, according to a new report.


The Mormon church says it has changed its genealogical database to prevent the names of Jews killed during the Holocaust from being posthumously baptized. But not everyone is convinced the problem is settled, the SLT reports.

The United Methodist Church is using the results of a massive congregational survey to halt a decades-long drops in members. RNS reported on the study last month.

Focus on the Family says schools’ anti-bullying and tolerance programs promote political aims like same-sex marriage. The Toronto Vegetarian Association barred the Seventh-day Adventist Church from having a booth at the annual Vegetarian Food Fair because of the church’s opposition to homosexuality.

Physicist Stephen Hawking says God wasn’t necessary for the creation of the universe.

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