The good-will tour of the Middle East by the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero is just part of the U.S. government's efforts to reach out to the Muslim world. This year, the Obama administration will spend nearly $6 million to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including mosques and minarets, in 55 nations.

Catholic Relief Services teams are navigating landslides and flood-destroyed roads to get aid to Pakistan's most needy families, including widows like Hajraiba. Included in the emergency kits are plastic sheeting to create temporary shelters, sleeping mats, cookware and a covered bucket for water storage.

James K. Glassman is a rarity: a Republican who believes, and is willing to say, that President Obama "is the greatest public diplomat we've had in decades." Glassman, who served as undersecretary for public diplomacy under George W. Bush, also believes that the controversy over the planned Islamic community center will hurt the U.S. image among Muslims abroad. And he believes that Obama's task, like his predecessor's, is to replace the conspiratorial narrative about a United States as an enemy of Islam with one in which a tolerant, freedom-loving country does right by Muslims

What do the controversies around the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, the eviction of American missionaries from Morocco earlier this year, the minaret ban in Switzerland last year, and the recent burka ban in France have in common? ...Fundamentally, they are all symptoms of...the "Clash of Civilizations," particularly the clash between Islam and the West.

The US debate over the so-called ground zero mosque in New York tracks similar fights that have taken place in European capitals in recent years over national identity and the impact of growing Muslim populations.

Imam Feisal (Abdul Rauf) will be travelling to Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) on a US government-sponsored trip to the Middle East," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "He will discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance.

The beginning of Ramadan means millions of Muslims around the world begin praying and fasting from dawn to dusk. But for many non-Muslims, the fasting practice may be the extent of what they know about Islam's holy month. Author Vali Nasr explains that it's also a time of consumerism and "political skulduggery."

Leonard Swidler, a Christian scholar at Temple University in Philadelphia, visited Saudi Arabia's ultra­conservative Al Imam Muhammed bin Saud Islamic University earlier this summer, underscoring a shift toward greater openness in some official religious institutions.