Religion

U.S.: Sikhs Need Not Apply

By IPS Correspondents
A North Carolina man is joining a growing group of Sikhs who are looking to U.S. courts to remedy the "ignorance and intolerance" faced by practitioners of the religion, especially since the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, which they say "unleashed a torrent of discrimination".

BALKANS: Kosovo Talks Bring Hope

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
Serbia has lost all its military and legal battles over Kosovo, but there is hope that the internationally sponsored talks between Belgrade and Pristina in October may bring some normalisation in relations between Serbia and its breakaway province.

DEATH PENALTY: Arab States Pushed Towards Abolition

By Cam McGrath
Rights activists met in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria this week to discuss and adopt effective strategies to persuade Arab regimes to abolish the death penalty.

U.S.: Forget ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, It’s the Great Sharia Conspiracy

By Daniel Luban
A new report denouncing the threat to the U.S. from sharia, or Islamic law, marks the latest development in a summer filled with intensifying attacks on Islam in the United States.
Women rally in support of Park51, which describes itself as a "nonsectarian community, cultural and interfaith spiritual center". Credit: Greg Butterfield/IPS

Thousands Rally for Islamic Centre on 9/11 Anniversary

By Haider Rizvi
If you think that most citizens of the United States are racist or anti-Muslim, perhaps you have been relying too much on television news , especially the shows produced by the private networks in the United States.

US: Religious Leaders Condemn Growing Islamophobia

By Jim Lobe and Daniel Luban
Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Centre towers destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Cooking over felled trees by a demolished home in Johr al-Dik. Credit: Eva Bartlett

MIDEAST: Ramadan Goes Down Under Rubble

By Eva Bartlett
With power cuts up to 16 hours to full days, a soaring heat wave and unbearable humidity, the Israeli-led siege on Gaza is but one of many factors leaving Ramadan miserable for the majority of Palestinians in Gaza.

EGYPT: Brotherhood Struggles Against Shut Doors

By Adam Morrow
As Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood gears up to contest November parliamentary elections, some analysts note the relatively few gains made by the Brotherhood- led opposition over the last five years in an assembly dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

LEBANON: Rich Feast Through Month of Fasting

By Mona Alami
Although not a celebration in the traditional sense, Ramadan in Lebanon is a time of joy for many, during which families reconnect and share their wealth with the poor. But in this country of extremes, not everyone has the luxury of celebrating the holy month.

Thai Buddhists on a Long March to Muslim South

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Wearing a floppy cotton cap for shade, an exhausted Sarawut Kunrapang enters the compound of a mosque in the blistering afternoon sunshine. It is the latest stop for this 27-year-old Thai Buddhist in his walk for peace since mid-July from Bangkok.
Gaza is running out of drinking water. Credit: Eva Bartlett/IPS

MIDEAST: Darkness Dawns at Ramadan

By Eva Bartlett
"It's been days without electricity and water. We can't do anything, and it's unbearably hot now." Abu Fouad, 83, speaks of the power cuts plaguing all of the Gaza Strip.

MIDEAST: Barriers Rise Between Ramadan Gatherings

By Mel Frykberg
For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred metres from her house.

MIDEAST: God Grant Us a Permit to Pray

By IPS Correspondents
For Muhammad el-Baradiyeh, 38, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is always a blessing.
At a Ramadan dinner table in Cairo. Credit: Cam McGrath

Food Cartels Feast on Ramadan Profits

By Cam McGrath
Opportunistic food traders have been blamed for soaring food prices across the Middle East that have added a financial burden on families observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

BALKANS: The Turks Return

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
It's not often that the leading Belgrade daily Politika devotes two of its four foreign pages to the praise of one nation, but it did so for the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.
Credit:

COSTA RICA: Gays Unite Against Referendum on Civil Unions

By Daniel Zueras
Human rights organisations and the gay community in Costa Rica have joined forces to try to block a referendum on a law for civil unions between partners of the same sex.

MALAWI: Vaccination Foiled by Divine Intervention

By IPS Correspondents
Dowa, central Malawi: medical staff struggle to vaccinate frightened children clinging to their parents, as an armed policeman stands guard.

Muslim Centre Prevails in Battle over Site Near ‘Ground Zero’

By Aprille Muscara
In a case viewed by many as a test of religious tolerance in the post-9/11 era, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously Tuesday morning against designating the future location of a Muslim-led community centre as a historic landmark.

ISRAEL: Women Take On the Orthodox

By IPS Correspondents
Jerusalem is a city blessed but also cursed by its own holiness. No more so than here at 'Ground Zero', the religious epicentre within the walled Old City, beneath the most disputed holy site -- the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary as known to Muslims, Har Habayit or the Temple Mount for Jews.

Dutch Christian Group Backs Settlements

By IPS Correspondents
Sandwiched between giant car and furniture stores on a motorway stop-off, a blue-and-white Star of David flag droops nonchalantly on a stifling summer's day. The factory-like building beside it could easily be missed by a traveller who blinks too soon, yet the work undertaken here in the Israel Centre is far from commonplace.

Trinidad Seeks to Close the Book on 1990 Coup Attempt

By IPS Correspondents
For the past 19 years, Wendell Eversley has been staging a one-man protest calling for a public inquiry into the failed coup by a group of radical Muslims against the then Trinidad and Tobago government headed by Prime Minister Arthur N.R. Robinson.
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