By LAUREN MARKOE c. 2011 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali joined other prominent Muslim Americans on Tuesday (May 24) to plead for the release of two American hikers who have been imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years. Ali, who attained heroic status among Muslims worldwide when he converted to Islam…

By OMAR SACIRBEY c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Officially, President Obama was talking to the Muslim world in his State Department speech on Thursday (May 19), but U.S. Muslims were equally interested in how their faith will be treated in a post-Osama bin Laden era. U.S. Muslims tuned in hoping for clear direction from…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Religious and human rights activists are asking U.S. churches to invite Jewish and Muslim clergy to their sanctuaries to read from sacred texts next month in an initiative designed to counter anti-Muslim bigotry. The June 26 initiative, called “Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding,”…

By OMAR SACIRBEY c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) As president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an eight-year-old group that twins conservative and Islamic values, Zuhdi Jasser is no fan of the more visible Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR and too many other U.S. Muslim groups, Jasser says, are soft on extremism…

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