A red polyester curtain that once separated men from women during prayers at the Muslim Community Center on Chicago’s Northwest Side never divided the 1,400-member congregation until it disappeared. A janitor took the curtain down in October 2004 during renovations of the prayer hall. The 6-foot-tall curtain was misplaced and never returned. Some Muslim women…
Brahms, beer and Beethoven are German, but can a Muslim head scarf be German too? Islamic communities throughout this country are beginning to wonder. What it means to be German is an excruciating riddle, not something casually broached in a cafe. But efforts to sharpen national identity through new citizenship tests have caused a furor…
By Kevin Sullivan Said Mansour, a slightly built man with a bushy beard, believes Muslims have a right to kill Americans in Iraq because, he said, “This is war; it’s not a picnic.” So, he explained in an interview last week, he had no qualms about downloading and making CDs of Internet videos depicting beheadings…
By RACHEL ZOLL As they issued an edict condemning religious extremism, American Muslims hoped to silence complaints from outsiders dating back to the Sept. 11 attacks that the community has done too little to confront terrorism. But as soon as the statement was released, sharp criticism came from another source — within the U.S. Muslim…
By RACHEL ZOLL AP religion writer As they issued an edict condemning religious extremism, American Muslims hoped to silence complaints from outsiders dating back to the Sept. 11 attacks that the community has done too little to confront terrorism. But as soon as last week’s statement was released, sharp criticism came from another source –…
