HUNTINGTON, N.Y. — A multi-faith coalition of clergy and community and political leaders spoke as one against bigotry Friday at the Masjid Noor Mosque in Huntington. The gathering followed the arrest this month of Centerport resident Stephen Pratt, 55, for allegedly vandalizing the mosque. Police said Pratt, charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime, threw a container of white concrete sealer into the mosque driveway on Dec. 31. Pratt also was charged with harassment for a Jan. 10 incident in which police said they saw him throw a glass bottle from his vehicle into the mosque driveway at 1032 Park Ave. "We're vulnerable whether we are Jews or whether we are Christians; whether we're white or whether we are black," said Town Supervisor Frank Petrone. He was joined at the rally outside the mosque by community and religious leaders representing Christians, Jews and Muslims who denounced the vandalism. "We're all vulnerable because, unfortunately, our society still has not accepted the fact that we are one people," he said. Suffolk County Hate Crimes Unit detectives, aided by Second Precinct Crime Section officers, were conducting surveillance at 7:16 p.m. on ... 
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NEW YORK — As I listen to sound bites of news, a swarm of words sting me: Iran, Israel, nuclear, Palestine-Israel at a standstill, Muslims kill Jews, and Jews kill Muslims. As a Muslim woman who teaches classes about the Holocaust at a Catholic college, I am constantly frustrated by the media coverage of the Middle East which overwhelmingly serves to highlight and entrench national and religious tensions, prejudice and conflict. A recently-aired documentary by 
ZICHRON YAAKOV, ISRAEL — The image of Israel’s Haredim has taken a public battering over the past few months, particularly over the issue of discriminatory conduct toward women, which even a few Haredi groups have disavowed. But in an unusual act of outreach, some of these ultra-Orthodox Jews have recently found an original way of engaging with people outside their own closed religious world:
BRIGHTON, U.K. — I am on the train, travelling south from Tel Aviv to Be’er Sheva. Three Bedouin women dressed in hijab (headscarves) enter the train ahead of me and my daughter, each with a toddler. They see there are no seats together, so they opt to sit on the floor, near the doors. I find seats for myself and my daughter. Across the aisle from us sits a man with a kipah, a cap worn by Orthodox Jewish men. A Bedouin woman in hijab and her toddler sit facing him. The toddler is cranky; she is tired of sitting on mother's lap. She wants to explore. Her mother holds her firmly as she squirms and whines, trying to pacify her. Because she is using simple Arabic language for
When I moved to Egypt to study Arabic in 2004, I was amazed how often Muslims there said alhamdulillah (i.e., praise God). When I asked friends “How are you?”, they replied alhamdulillah (praise God). When I congratulated Mahmoud’s children for their high marks in school, they replied alhamdulillah. Even when Haala cut her hand deeply with a sharp kitchen knife, she repeated steadily alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, as we worked to stop the bleeding. To my amazement, she was genuinely thankful, mindful her
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