America

Muslim Syracuse residents reflect on returning to a country more divided after taking the hajj to Mecca
By Alexis Jones
September 27, 2017 - 9:49pm
After taking the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, Syracuse Muslims describe how they feel about the United States' current political climate and the American Dream.

Amina Foco was standing at a cashier’s desk in a Saudi Arabian mall when the gates of the store came falling down suddenly. The strangers to her left and right stopped what they were doing and everyone in the mall began to form lines.

The call for prayer had just gone off during Foco's trip to the mall in between the prayers and activites scheduled during her pilgrimage to Mecca, which Muslims call the hajj.

Ukrainian-Americans feel effects of Ukraine turmoil in everyday lives
By Nathan McAlone
September 30, 2014 - 8:42pm
Ukrainian-Americans in the U.S. reflect on the conflict and political turmoil back home.

On most Saturdays since February, 22-year-old Carrie Tkacz has walked past the stately rounded spires of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church and back into school, this time to study Ukrainian language. The words from class, like vegetables and colors, brought her closer to not only her heritage, but specifically her Ukrainian-born grandmother, who would giggle when she got the phrasing wrong.