FAITH & BELIEF

Muslims around the world celebrated with prayer before the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of Ramadan 2012 or the Islamic holy month of fasting. The three-day festival, sometimes abbreviated as Eid, marks the end of the month-long fasting during Ramadan, which began on July 20.

During state-sponsored protests across Tehran, Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel!"

The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Paulos, died on Wednesday aged 76.

The gunmen checked the passengers’ travel documents, separated the Shias from the others, marched them outside and executed them at point-blank range.

The posters added: “This land belongs to Allah and we will make sure that nothing against His will happens here.”

Evangelist Billy Graham was admitted to a North Carolina hospital with bronchitis, a spokesman for the 93-year-old told said. Mission Hospital and spokesman Larry Ross said Graham was “alert and in good spirits.” He was kept overnight to evaluate and treat a respiratory infection believed to be bronchitis.

So far, the Republican presidential nominee has not responded to the invitation.

Magaliesburg is a stronghold for white Afrikaners.

The Taliban's anger at Khan appears to be due to the former cricketer’s lack of religious conviction and left-wing, secular ideas.

Four members of a Muslim sect in Russia's Tatarstan region have been charged with cruelty against children, after the authorities discovered last week 70 members living in catacomb-like cells in an eight-level underground bunker on the outskirts of the city of Kazan, under the orders of a self-proclaimed Islamic prophet Fayzrahman Satarov.

Also: While Missourians overwhelmingly voted in favor the prayer amendment, they simultaneously rejected a proposal for the November ballot that would have called for a minimum wage increase.

If more people followed the Sikh way of life, the United States (indeed, the whole world) would indeed be a much better place.

This is one aspect of World War II that generates much discomfort and controversy in both India and in Europe.

Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio, who spent the last 30 years in Syria and was recently exiled, said the country still very much needs the U.N.'s help to find a peaceful solution, but the end of Bashar al-Assad's days as president is near.

Pat Robertson said today on the 700 Club that "Satanic atheists" were the cause of the Sunday shooting that occurred in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, explaining that "they're angry with the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshiping God."

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a former Sikh turned Christian, responded Sunday to the Wisconsin Temple shooting, saying it's sad such an incident happened at a peaceful place of worship.

"That turban has tragically marked us as automatically suspect, perpetually foreign and potentially terrorists."

As the inevitable speculation begins in the wake of the shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday, it is important to note Sikhism is unrelated to Islam. Sikhism is believed to have more than 20 million adherents around the world and thought to have an estimated 250,000 of them in the U.S.

Not only did this represent a grave violation of fair trade practices, but it also smacked of a naked ploy to consolidate their political bases (who, no doubt, agree with their views anyway).

China has banned Muslim officials and students under the age of 18 in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang from fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in an effort to clamp down on religious extremism.

Barhoum also alleged that the journey to Auschwitz overshadowed the ?true Palestinian tragedy".

Romney has said that "there's no question (my experiences in the church) helped shape my perspective" and that his trip to Israel, which included a visit to the Wailing Wall, had a spiritual impact on him.

Friday marked the first day of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, who are expected to fast and practice abstinence from dawn until sunset. View the slideshow to see photos from start of Ramadan around the world.

The Roman Catholic Church and other large religious organizations in the U.S. have experienced flat or even falling memberships, while the number of Americans who report being atheist, agnostic, or believing in nothing in particular has risen to almost one-fifth of the country's population.

Nasrallah – who finds himself increasingly isolated in the Middle East – must realize that Wednesday’s bombing in Damascus which killed three of Assad’s top lieutenants, poses grave danger to his organization.

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, the Islamic world will have much to reflect upon this year. In Syria, a civil war looms if it hasn't already arrived. In Egypt, a fledgling democracy is being tested. In Afghanistan, an exhaustive American war is coming to a dubious end.

At least 1 million evangelical Christians took part in Saturday's annual March for Jesus in Sao Paulo, demonstrating the growing trend of Protestantism in Brazil.

The practice of arranged marriage remains widespread in India, across all religions, ethnic groups and social classes.

A recently ordained Chinese bishop has been detained after he resigned from his post at the government-run Catholic Patriotic Association, which oversees the state-sanctioned Catholic church in China.