Islam
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Lutherans in flap with China over Hong Kong assembly (RNS)-China has asked the Lutheran World Federation to postpone its 1997 world assembly scheduled for Hong Kong because the meeting is to be held just one week after the British colony comes under Beijing’s control. So far, the federation-which consists of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Arab-American group decries accusations in wake of 1995 blast (RNS)-Early reactions to the April 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City blamed Arabs or Muslims for the blast, accusations that”made visible the negative feelings against Arabs which lie just below the surface of everyday life,”the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee […]
TOP STORY: ISLAM IN BOSNIA: From the ashes of war, Islamic awareness rises in Bosnia
By RNS Blog Editor — February 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service GORAZDE, Bosnia (RNS)-On the east bank of the River Drina, Mufti Muhammed Effendic, leader of Gorazde’s Islamic community, inspects the latest repairs on the minaret of Sinanbeg Sijercic Mosque. The new minaret is an ungainly construction of steel poles and twisted wires with a loudspeaker perched precariously at its top. […]
Denominational Report
By RNS Blog Editor — February 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of news stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports). Vatican delays acting on views of gay ministry leaders (RNS)-The Vatican has delayed deciding whether the theological views of the Rev. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, founders of a controversial ministry with gays and […]
NEWS FEATURE: Book gives an irreverent look at Hasidic Jews
By RNS Blog Editor — February 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Robert Eisenberg urges you to imagine an America in which the only Jews will be Hasidim and other Orthodox. It’s not merely possible, he says. By the year 2075, it’s likely. The vision shapes Eisenberg’s new book,”Boychiks In The Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground”(Harper San Francisco), an irreverent, detail-packed […]
TOP STORY: Religion and Money:Colorado churches face measure to strip tax exemption
By Steve Rabey — February 8, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Churches and other non-profit organizations have long enjoyed exemption from property taxes, but this fall Colorado voters could make their state the first in the nation to end that tradition. John Patrick Michael Murphy, a Colorado Springs personal injury attorney, has collected nearly 90,000 signatures in support of a constitutional […]
NEWS STORY: Farrakhan visit to South Africa stirring controversy
By RNS Blog Editor — January 31, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (RNS)-The view of sprawling low-hung shanties outside Farhad Hussen’s Pretoria office window fades in and out of the choking canopy of cooking-fire smoke and drizzle. Bent figures float across the expanse of mud, between the wobbly shacks of wood and tin, hauling bundles of firewood and plastic […]
TOP STORY: ISLAM IN AMERICAL: In prisons, a declaration of faith often means conversion to Islam
By Ira Rifkin — January 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service STORMVILLE, N.Y. (RNS)-The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, said Imam Hasib Abdul-Haqq, the Muslim chaplain at Green Haven Correctional Facility here, is a time for patience, a time to develop the discipline that enables a person to accept his destiny. For Amir Ali Brathwaite, one of nearly 200 men who […]
NEWS FEATURE: Palestinian Christian cleric asks of Jerusalem, `Whose land is it?’
By Elaine Fletcher — January 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service JERUSALEM (RNS)-“Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!” says the biblical prophet Micah. “At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a […]
TOP STORY: THE CHECHEN REBELLION NEWS ANALYSIS:Chechens fortified by mystical approach to Islam
By Ira Rifkin — January 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Chechen separatists face overwhelming odds in their fight against the better-equipped and far larger Russian military machine. Yet they persist, taking hostages on land and at sea and displaying a seemingly reckless willingness to die for their cause. Two factors keep them fighting, according to expatriate Chechens and others familiar […]
NEWS STORY: Black churches form corporation to aid members
By Ira Rifkin — January 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Five of the nation’s largest black church groups have announced the creation of a company that will help businesses sell a variety of consumer products and services to congregation members while earmarking part of the profits to help African-Americans buy their own homes. The denominations chose the birth date […]
TOP STORY: THE MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian pacifists preach a message of harmony
By Elaine Fletcher — January 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service AL KHADER, West Bank (RNS)-When Hussein Ibrahim Issa dreams, he sees a swimming pool between the olive terraces on the hillside below his elementary school. He imagines Muslim, Christian and Jewish children learning together in a harmony of Arabic and Hebrew. And folk dancing is a required subject. Dancing, says […]
Global Religion Report
By RNS Blog Editor — January 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of international religion stories compiled by RNS staff, wire and denominational reports.) Muslims prepare for Ramadan (RNS)-The more than 800 million Muslims around the world are preparing for the start of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins with the sighting of the next new moon, […]
Global Religion Report
By RNS Blog Editor — January 5, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of international religion stories compiled by RNS staff, wire and denominational reports.) Brazil seeks to freeze assets of controversial evangelist (RNS)-The government of Brazil has asked a state court in Sao Paulo to freeze the assets of the Rev. Edir Macedo, a controversial evangelist, saying on […]
BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeologist claims to have found where Ark of Covenant once lay
By Adelle M. Banks — January 3, 1996
c. 1995 Religion News Service (RNS)-One of the great mysteries for biblical scholars and believers alike is exactly where the Ark of the Covenant stood in the temple King Solomon built in Jerusalem nearly 3,000 years ago. The Ark of the Covenant itself-the wooden chest used to store the stone tablets on which the Ten […]
