FAITH & BELIEF

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year known as the first of the High Holy Days, is being celebrated as the holiday comes from sundown on Sept. 16 to nightfall on Sept. 18.

The Yemen wing of al Qaeda has asked Muslims to kill more U.S. diplomats in Islamic countries, terming the anti-Islam film made in the U.S. as a another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam, stated a Reuters report citing a posting on an al Qaeda website.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Lebanon Friday amid heightened tensions in the Muslim and Arab world as protests spread, some violent, in response to an anti-Islam movie produced in the U.S. The pope's three-day visit is focused on expressing support for Christians throughout the region who increasingly feel threatened amidst the rising influence of Islamists following the Arab Spring.

Anger over the film 'Innocence of Muslims' has reached Sudan, where 5,000 protesters attacked the German embassy in Khartoum.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the subject of the controversial anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims,” which has sparked riots and violence across the Middle East, including the murder of the U.S. envoy to Libya.

Pew reports the largest demographic of Republicans are white evangelical protestants, while the biggest chunk of Democrats are -- surprise! -- religiously unaffiliated.

Pakistani Hindus arriving in India are demanding refugee status, citing a pattern of persecution and discrimination in Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

A Roman Catholic priest in northern Connecticut has been rebuked by the archbishop of Hartford after he participated in his cousin's same-sex marriage ceremony. Archbishop of Hartford Henry J. Mansell rebuked the Rev. Michael DeVito, of the Sacred Heart Church in Suffield, following the Aug. 17 wedding in New York.

In a rare official complaint from a Vatican senior official in Jerusalem, Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custodian of the Holy Land, said in a Friday statement that Israel has failed to respond adequately to frequent discrimination against Christians.