This week Sunni and Shia Muslims ushered in the Islamic New Year and the beginning of the holy month of Muharram. For Shias, the month also is a time to mourn the events that sparked the centuries-old schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims.1 Pew Research Center polls conducted in 2011-2012 find high levels of concern about sectarian tensions in several countries where Sunnis and Shias live side by side.

Ms. Marvel, the 1960s-era comic book heroine who inspired a generation of teenage girls as a crime-fighting former U.S. Air Force officer in an impossibly tight costume, is making a comeback. But in the iconic character’s next incarnation, she will look very different. The role of the previously blonde, blue-eyed Ms. Marvel will be filled by a Muslim teen, Kamala Khan.

November 4 is the 34th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Islamist students who held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days. The 1979 crisis triggered a break in diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States and led to decades of mutual hostility. Today, the former embassy building houses a museum that is only occasionally open to the public. Here's a rare look inside the historic site.

“Get out! Get out!” shouted dozens of standing lawmakers at a woman ahead of a swearing-in ceremony in a newly elected Turkish Parliament on May 2, 1999. “This is not the place to challenge the state. Show this woman of her limits!” Bülent Ecevit, then prime minister of Turkey, told the assembly, encouraging deputies of his ruling party to increase the pressure on the woman to leave the assembly.

On most days, Emanuel Shfaim, 45, works from morning til night at his dry cleaning business, often joined by his wife, Nava. They are well known in the neighborhood, Jerusalem's German Colony, for the excellence and variety of their services. Need a sheepskin ottoman cleaned after an unfortunate collision with a glass of red wine? Shfaim will find a way to make the stain disappear.

A Malaysia appeals court on Monday upheld a government ban against the use of the word “Allah” to refer to God in non-Muslim faiths, reported the Associated Press. This action has overruled claims by Christian groups in the country that the decision violates their religious rights. Malaysian Judge Mohammad Apandi Ali, who led a three-member appeals court panel, stated that the use of “Allah” was “not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity.”

The Gulf emirate of Dubai Announced Monday an ambitious plan to Establish itself as the main global center for Islam-compliant products and services within three years. The glitzy city-state, Which has alreadycreated Established itself as a global hub for air transport and transit trade, as well as a regional financial center, is hoping to be the pivot of the large and widespread Islamic economy.

In the winter of 2009, I was spending my weekends in the northeast Chinese city of Tangshan, and eating most of my food from the far-western province of Xinjiang. Like many minorities, the Uighur, the native people of Xinjiang, have made their chief impact on mainstream culture through cuisine. I have always favored their ubiquitous restaurants when traveling.