June 15, 1983

''Every day I go out in the field. And I say, 'What am I doing here? I've got all these debts and I'm up against all these big companies.'

Religious groups and preservationists, who have clashed for years over giving landmark status to houses of worship in Manhattan, have taken their battle to Albany for the first time. At issue is a proposal by the city's religious establishment to exempt houses of worship across the state from local preservation laws. The measure was introduced in the Senate and Assembly two weeks ago. Mayor Koch, the Municipal Arts Society and the New York Conservancy oppose the measure, and prominent preservationists, including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, have written and telephoned legislators to denounce it as a threat to the city's architectural treasures.

Key House Democrats, including some liberals on the Ways and Means Committee, said today that they were opposed to a proposal by Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. to limit personal income tax reductions this year to $700. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has opposed the limit as a bad political maneuver. He said it could be difficult to pass the bill on the floor of the House of Representatives if the committee's Democrats are divided. Mr. O'Neill proposed in a speech last week that, when income tax rates are reduced July 1 by 10 percent, the tax savings be limited to $700 a filer for the calendar year 1983. The reduction in rates is the third and final step in President Reagan's program of lowering income taxes.

From a slender minaret of the Id Kah Mosque, a loudspeaker summoned the faithful to evening prayer. A street vendor removed his cloth shoes, knelt on a piece of cardboard under a poplar tree and pressed his forehead to the ground in the southwestward direction of Mecca. Inside the rambling mosque in this heavily Moslem city in western China, a row of other worshipers facing the whitewashed wall took up the affirmation of God's greatness - ''Allah akhbar!'' Daily prayer, one of the five pillars of the Moslem faith, goes on today in the world's most populous atheistic country. After harsh but ultimately unsuccessful persecution by Maoist radicals, the authorities have allowed Islam to flourish and become China's most active religion. 13 Million Moslems Statistics from last year's nationwide census indicated that China has about 13 million ethnic Moslems, more than the combined populations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Unofficial estimates put the number closer to 20 million.

Women are now admitted to the Triangle Club, where men once held down all the female roles in the club's shows. The Daily Princetonian named its first female chairman four years ago, and 10 of Princeton's 13 student eating clubs, including Colonial, Cap & Gown and Tower, have women. Despite the dire predictions of some alumni, most of Princeton has adjusted to coeducation since women arrived on campus 14 years ago. But pockets of resistance remain - most notably at what are arguably the three most prominent clubs - Ivy, Cottage and Tiger Inn. None will admit women, and as a result, all are in court. For generations of students, the clubs, clustered along Prospect Street, have been as much a part of the campus as the Princeton Tiger and Nassau Hall. Woodrow Wilson, class of 1879, railed against them, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Class of '17, wrote about them, and, each year, hundreds of students clamor to join them, in an annual rite called bicker.