More than 40,000 copies of the Koran and 16,000 DVDs about the life of Muhammad have been ordered through a free public education campaign sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Unless we learn about each other, we cannot understand each other,” Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Southern California office, told an estimated 300 people at Sunday night's first banquet of the San Diego chapter.
Ayloush urged the audience, which included local Muslims and interfaith representatives, along with community and political leaders, to “promote dialogue and cooperation, rather than a clash of civilizations.”
The council, a civil rights and advocacy organization on behalf of Muslims in the U.S., has 33 chapters, including one in San Diego. Omar Hassaine, local chapter president, likewise said Muslims should reach out to the community and the media to get their stories known.
The Koran giveaway program began last year; the DVD program began earlier this year. Details on ordering them can be found on the chapter's Web site: cairsd.org.
– Union-Tribune
Mosques observe lunar calculations
Since the seventh century, Islam has operated on a lunar calendar, meaning that a new month started with the naked-eye sighting of a new moon. Muslims have for centuries followed this practice, established by Islam's prophet Muhammad, including deciding when to start the holy month of Ramadan.
But in recent decades, Muslim scholars have often disagreed when a new moon has been sighted, and whether communities should go by moons sighted locally or in Saudia Arabia, the birthplace of Islam.
That's why the Fiqh Council of North America, a panel of Islamic scholars that advises U.S. and Canadian Muslims on religious matters, asked Muslim astronomers to compute a lunar calendar based on astronomical calculations. Last month, the Islamic Society of North America declared that it would no longer rely on naked-eye sightings. According to the calculations, Ramadan begins today.
In San Diego County, several mosques – including the largest one, the Islamic Center of San Diego – are following the Fiqh Council's decision.
– Religion News Service
Political groups assess their values
WASHINGTON – With the primaries concluded and the general election looming, the question in Washington seems to be: Will the real values voter please stand up?
As conservative Christian groups gear up for their “Values Voters Summit” in the nation's capital this weekend, critics on the liberal end of the spectrum are hosting events to say they have values, too.
“We love the same God, read the same Bible and all aspire to follow the same Christ,” said the Rev. Robert Franklin, an Emory University professor and member of the newly formed Red Letter Christians, which is named for the red-colored words of Jesus in many Bibles.
Rather than focusing only on abortion and homosexuality, voters also care about issues like poverty, racial discrimination and HIV/AIDS, say supporters of progressive groups like Sojourners/Call to Renewal, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Faith in Public Life.
“Those are values, too,” said Tony Perkins, president of FRC Action, the legislative arm of the Washington-based Family Research Council. The council is co-sponsoring the conservative summit, which is expected to draw 1,400 attendees.
The weekend summit is co-sponsored by the political action group affiliated with Focus on the Family; Americans United to Preserve Marriage, headed by former presidential candidate Gary Bauer; and AFA Action, an affiliate of the American Family Association.
– Religion News Service
Illinois diocese rejects new leader
PEORIA, Ill. – An eighth conservative Episcopal diocese is rejecting the authority of the incoming head of the denomination and asking for oversight from another Anglican leader.
The Diocese of Quincy, based in Peoria, voted Sept. 16 that it would not accept the leadership of Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships. Jefferts Schori will be installed Nov. 4.
The eight dioceses are asking Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, to assign them an Anglican leader who shares their traditional views.
The other protesting dioceses are Dallas; Central Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Fresno; Pittsburgh; Springfield, Ill.; and South Carolina.
– Associated Press
