Bah humbug and God bless every one

Charlotte McPherson*

Around this time of year, many university students will be having some reverse culture shock as they return home to family and friends for Christmas and New Year holidays. Of course, most will be glad to be “home,” but you will find it different from when you were living at home before going abroad.

‘Wedding’ excitement in Konya

“Brother, do not come to my grave without a ‘def’ [old Turkish percussion instrument]; it does not suit you to stand joyless in the presence of Allah...”

Rumi's Tomb, Konya, Turkey

U.N. chief says crises show need for interfaith amity

Tom Heneghan

KAICIID opening ceremony, Nov. 26, 2012

REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

VIENNA (Reuters)- The violent crises in Syria, Gaza and Mali show how important it is for different religions to work together to promote understanding rather than sow hatred, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said on Monday.

Addressing the opening of a new Saudi-backed interfaith centre in Vienna, he said the Syrian conflict was "taking on troubling sectarian dimensions" and "unrest (continues) between Israelis and Palestinians."

On Thanksgiving, Jews And Muslims Volunteer Together Despite Middle East Violence

It's an idea that feels particularly poignant this Thanksgiving: American Jews and Muslims banding together to help the homeless and other needy people.

The interfaith collaboration has been going on for five years, but the recent exchange of rockets between Gaza and Israel is weighing especially hard on both communities this week. That's why a joint session of sandwich making or a group visit to a nursing home has taken on added significance.

Sikh religion joining California universities' curriculum

Lee Romney

The first slide professor Nirvikar Singh flashed on his PowerPoint showed the faces of six Sikh worshipers gunned down the previous month in Oak Creek, Wis., by a man with white supremacist ties.

Interfaith harmony between metro Detroit Jews, Muslims during tough times

Niraj Warikoo

Imam Abdullah El-Amin,
head of the Muslim Center of Detroit,
greets Rabbi Dorit Edut of
the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue
in Detroit./ JESSICA J. TREVINO
Detroit Free Press

Jews and Muslims across metro Detroit are forging close ties in a series of events to promote harmony between the two groups amid growing tensions in the Middle East this week as fighting escalates between Israel and Gaza.

Jews are visiting mosques and Muslims are visiting synagogues in an effort organized by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a New York City-based group that's behind similar events this weekend across the U.S.

Muslims, Jews gather at Denver mosque to help feed the hungry*

Electa Draper

(Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Local Muslim and Jewish groups worked together Sunday, November 18th, 2012, to make roughly 1,000 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to hand out to Denver's homeless and hungry at the Northeast Denver Islamic Center.

Study Shows How Prayer, Meditation Affect Brain Activity

Jahnabi Barooah

How do prayer and meditation affect brain activity? Dr. Andrew Newberg, MD, is the Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomson Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College, and he has studied the neuroscientific effect of religious and spiritual experiences for decades.