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Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, thinks Muslim Americans are being radicalized in U.S. prisons, and he’s promised a “deliberate and thoughtful examination of the issue” during a hearing on Wednesday. “To which detractors say: impossible,” reports the Washington Post‘s On Faith website. As was the case with his March…

A court in central Russia has ruled that a painting of the Sermon on the Mount that features Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ is extremist, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Friday. “Unless the Kaluga Region court’s ruling is successfully appealed,” reports the Russian news agency Novosti, “the painting will be banned from exhibitions, newspapers,…

Spanking your kids can send you to jail in Corpus Christi, Texas, although corporal punishment is allowed by Texas law. “This week, a local woman avoided jail time,” reports KZTV News, “but her case made it clear that local prosecutors and judges will not tolerate what used to be a much more accepted practice. Back in…

A Tennessee pastor startled his neighborhood, his congregation and local Muslims when he invited the local Islamic community to celebrate Ramadan inside his church. Their own cultural center was under construction nearby. So, Pastor Steve Stone offered the main sanctuary at his 550-member Heartsong Church in Cordova, a Memphis suburb, as a place for Muslim faithful to pray during the holy week of…

A Buddhist group overseeing the construction of the world’s tallest bronze statue of the goddess Guanyin on the outskirts of Hong Kong is denying it will also serve as the final resting place for billionaire Li Ka-shing. East Asian Buddhists venerate Guanyin as a “bodhisattva” or “wisdom being” of compassion. She is commonly known in English…

In Bible times, the prophet Micah observed those who were exploiting and cheating the poor, says Beliefnet columnist Chad Hovind.  “They were powerful people using dishonest scales.” The ancient prophet said in Micah 6:11, “Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?” Hovind asks: What does he mean by “dishonest…

“It is with the utmost urgency that I write this blog,” announces Jordan Sekulow in the Washington Post‘s On Faith section. “A group of atheists have filed a lawsuit to prevent the inclusion of the historic Ground Zero Cross at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We have learned from their lawsuit that they, ‘have suffered,…

In a little room of a small hillside Buddhist temple that barely survived Japan’s tsunami five months ago, Yuko Kikuchi knelt down, quietly sobbing and gently caressing the boxes that hold the bones and ashes of her perished mother and sister-in-law, reports Yoko Kubota. “It’s harder now,” says 57-year-old Kikuchi, who came back to her…

U.S. kosher food distributors are stockpiling supplies for the Jewish New Year because of fears there will not be enough meat, reports Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu reporting for Israel’s Arutz Sheva radio.  Citing Kosher Today newsletter, Gedalyahu reported that soaring demand is partly due to a growing belief that kosher food is healthier and of better quality due to stringent laws of preparation.…

Despite gusting winds that blew off his hat and driving rain that cut short his sermon, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to a crowd that the Associated Press estimated at “more than a million young people” Saturday night. In the middle of the crowd was 19-year-old Blanca Beas from Green Forest, Arkansas, who for a week has faithfully…

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