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Islam: United States
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The cities of Mecca and Medina are holy shrines of Islam. The fifth pillar of Islam, the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, begins on the 7th and ends on the 10th month of the Dhu al-Hijjah. When the pilgrim is ten kilometers from the Holy City (Mecca) he enters the state of ihram, he wears two seamless garments and neither shaves nor cuts his hair or nails until the ceremony ends. The principal activities consist of a visit to the Ka'bah sanctuary or the Sacred Mosque; the kissing of the Hajar al-Aswad (the Black Stone); seven circumambulations of the Ka'bah; and the ascent of and running seven times between Mt. Safa and Mt. Marwah (not really mountains but topographic elevations in the desert). At the second stage of the ritual, the pilgrim proceeds from Mecca to Mina, a few miles away; and from there he goes to Arafat, where it is essential to hear a sermon and spend one afternoon. The last rites consist of spending the night at Muzdalifah (between Arafat and Mina) and offering sacrifice on the last day of ihram, which is the id (festival) of sacrifice.
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NEW YORK, Jan. /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed Barack Obama's statement strongly condemning the anti-Semitism of Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan. The Senator's statement came in response to reports that his minister, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., leader of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, had honored Farrakhan as one who "truly epitomized greatness."
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Are Germans changing the face of Islam? A German human rights activist organized a rally of Islamic clerics in Cairo, which ended with a joint statement by the clerics that female genital mutilation will be considered a crime against humanity.
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