At a summit in Dubai, scholars and clerics are gathering to destroy the Somalian rebels’ religious credibility Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has been busy of late. This weekend he is attending a summit in Dubai, along with an international cast of scholars and clerics, to refute the ideologies of groups that “abuse the name of sharia by imposing their own literal, ill-informed interpretations onto others”.

Muslims in the west need to find their own expression of the universal teachings of Islam The death last month of the Swiss-born British Muslim Charles le Gai Eaton provided a reminder of the surprise that sometimes greets Europeans who have made the decision to convert to Islam. Eaton could be seen as a curiosity because he chose a faith not traditionally associated with his ethnicity. However, a defining aspect of Islam, from its inception, has been that it is race-blind

Terry Sanderson paints the Catholic bishops’ pre-election statement as a cliche-ridden ‘damp squib’. Judge for yourself The question: Should religious leaders tell us how to vote? The National Secular Society’s Terry Sanderson thought the Catholic bishops’ pre-election document a “damp squib ..

Editorials — Fri Mar 12 12:00:00 UTC 2010 Tom Allio steps down today from his positions as the executive director of the Catholic Commission of Summit County and the social action director of Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

Catholic prelate says priests and deacons should keep sermons brief and maintain eye contact to keep flock well-tended The book of Genesis says God created the heavens and Earth in less than a week. Now, Catholic clergy are being asked to follow suit and keep their sermons to under eight minutes in a recommendation issued from the Vatican. Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, says homilies should be brief to cater for people with short attention spans

Entertainment — Thu Mar 11 12:00:00 UTC 2010 CLASSICAL MUSIC Apollo’s Fire presents Mozart Celebration — 8 pm Friday, First United Methodist Church, 263 E. Mill St., Akron . Ballet Comes to Severance Hall

A new religious conservatism is on the march in Egypt, with women the biggest losers It’s no secret that in Egypt religious conservatism is growing. The only people denying this fact are the conservatives themselves, who tell us that we are on a path to hell in blind imitation of the west. This conservatism has taken many undesirable forms, all of which highlight the disturbed psychology of the Egyptian people in recent years

• Former choirmaster did not know of sexual abuse • Pupils claim headteacher was sexual ’sadist’ The elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI admitted today that he slapped pupils at a Catholic boarding school where he was choirmaster and was aware of violent incidents that took place at the school, but not the extent of the abuse. He asked victims for forgiveness for his failure to act. Georg Ratzinger, 86, who was choirmaster at the Regensburger Domspatzen in Bavaria between 1964 to 1994, said he occasionally struck boys in his care, according to what he said had been the “normal reaction” at the time.

LOS ANGELES: Maybe it was the expanded best-picture category or, who knows, maybe it was that Neil Patrick Harris opening number. Whatever it was, Oscar ratings were up big time.

The owner of Fred Martin Chevrolet is hoping he’ll get a letter this week from General Motors telling him his franchise will be reinstated.