Free Republic

Tunisia’s western city of Sidi Bouzid is now dry... Chanting “al-Charab haram” (“alcohol is sin”), dozens of Salafists burst into Sidi Bouzid’s Horchani hotel on Monday, September 3. The throng of men quickly homed in on the hotel’s liquor stock, seizing bottles of alcohol and throwing them against the walls or smashing them on the floor. The incident comes around four months after the city’s Salafist community first launched a war against alcohol consumption, pressuring or intimidating several bars into shutting down. Those who tried to resist saw their businesses come under attack, much like the Horchani hotel. ... I...

Dozens of rockets and mortar shells exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel on Sunday evening. Residents of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, near the meeting point of the Egypt-Israel-Gaza borders, were told to stay in their homes, for reasons of safety. Palestinians sources in Gaza reported exchanges of fire in the area of Kerem Shalom, including shells fired from the Israeli side, and according to the report, Palestinians have been wounded. Israeli tanks reportedly fired at least 15 shells in the area near Kerem Shalom. Egyptian state television also reported that an Islamist militant group was behind the attack....

Dr. Yassir al-Burhami, a prominent figure in Egypt's Salafi movement and vice president of the Salafi Call—the same sheikh who seeks to punish Muslim apostates, condemns Mother's Day, and advocates deceiving Israel—has just issued a fatwa, published in the "Voice of the Righteous Salaf," forbidding Muslim taxi-drivers and bus-drivers from transporting Coptic Christian priests to their churches, which he depicted as "more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar." This analogy, of course, does not begin with Sheikh Burhami, but traces back to some of Islam's early giants, including Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim, who agreed that "building churches...

While world attention has been focused on the political faceoff between the Egyptian military and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Muhammad Morsi, away from the cameras Islamists continue pushing to consolidate power. Egyptian Salafists are demanding the legalization of Islamic “sex-slave” marriages and are calling on Morsi to expel all Shi’ite Muslims and Bahai from Egypt. Prominent Muslim clerics are demanding the destruction of Egypt’s Great Pyramids.

I have never responded to the columnist down the river. But I was fascinated by Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass’ take on the recent mob attacks in and around the Streeterville neighborhood. In his interview with the unidentified doctor who was injured in the attack, Kass asked if the attack was “racial.” “I don’t think it was racially motivated,” the doctor said. “They were black, I’m Asian, but I think it was something else. I think it was about having fun because they could.” Still, whether white people are comfortable saying it out loud or choose to keep a lid...

City thieves are getting slipperier. They’ve taken to ripping off the rancid cooking oil left at the curb by restaurants — as the list of strange “commodities” sought by sticky-fingered opportunists grows. In a sputtering economy, the price of resale goods like cardboard, scrap metal, old appliances and even grease has spiked — and criminals have taken notice. Used cooking oil cost next to nothing four years ago. Now it goes for 38 cents a pound. Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents. “It’s really crazy out...

Via Washington Free Beacon: A Democratic primary race in northern New Jersey has devolved into a highly competitive proxy war over Israel, pitting the state’s pro-Israel community against a growing constituency of Arab voters who have accused a sitting congressman of putting Israel’s interests before America’s. As the race between Democratic Reps. Steve Rothman and Bill Pascrell nears its Tuesday finish, veteran political observers on the ground have expressed concern at the way the battle between the two veteran lawmakers has transformed into a troubling ethnic brawl. “One side says, ‘We want this Jew out of office’ and, frankly, it’s...

"They need to know that conquest is coming, that Egypt will be Islamic, and that they must pay jizya or emigrate," Morsi reportedly said. According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will "achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya," the additional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslims, or financial tribute. In a brief report written by Samuel al-Ashay and published by El Bashayer on May 27, Morsi allegedly made these...

The Muslim Brotherhood is claiming a lead in Egypt's historic presidential elections after polls closed on Thursday and vote counting began. A Brotherhood spokesperson said exit polls conducted by the party's campaign workers all over Egypt suggested Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi is out front of the rest of the pack. (Snip) CBC's Derek Stoffel visited four polling stations in the capital Cairo, but said most appeared deserted. The Associated Press said there were lineups in a few areas during the morning and the government had given people the day off work to encourage a good turnout.

A British citizen native to Taiwan was arrested in Bangkok Thursday after Thai police discovered in his belongings bodies of six tiny children, apparently all young enough to be victims of abortion, roasted and covered in gold leaf. The UK’s Independent newspaper reports that the children, aged between two and seven months’ gestation, were roasted “as part of a black magic ritual.” No word on whether any of the “foetuses” were still alive when the ritual began. Chow Hok Kuen, 28, faces a 2,000 baht fine ($64 U.S.) and a year in prison for possessing the bodies. “He said he...

Since the beginning of the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran, foreign policy establishment figures have been bubbling with optimism about the negotiations leading to a deal that will settle the crisis. The inauguration of the talks is considered a master stroke that will head off the possibility of a Western or Israeli attack on Iran and allow the European Union to back off its pledge to implement an oil embargo on the Islamist regime. All that will be needed, we are told, is a little patience, and then EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will broker an agreement that will...

Since mid-2010, precisely at the time millions of US citizens used up all of their 99 week of unemployment insurance, disability claims have risen by 2.2 million. Those on disability are not counted in the workforce and are not considered unemployed. Please consider Disabled Americans Shrink Size of U.S. Labor Force

Moscow rejects Washington's claim that a planned missile defense system is solely to deal with any Iranian missile threat and has voiced fears it will eventually threaten Russia. Russia's top military officer has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield. President Dmitry Medvedev said last year that Russia will retaliate militarily if it does not reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on the missile defense system. Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov went even further...

BAMAKO, Mali — In one town in northern Mali a man has been whipped for drinking alcohol. In another, pictures of unveiled women have been torn down. In a third, traditional music is no longer heard in the streets.

The US dollar is getting perilously close to losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Should it cross the line, the 2008 financial crisis could look like a summer storm. Yes, worries about insolvency in Europe dominate the headlines. Last week, Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s bond rating to BBB+ — a clear sign that Europe’s financial crisis is far from over. But America’s escalating debt problem is far more likely to precipitate a truly global crisis, because the dollar has for decades played such a central role in the world economy. How bad is the US problem? Former...

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- A Muslim mob set ablaze a Catholic church frequented by Southern Sudanese in the capital Khartoum, witnesses and media reports said on Sunday. The church in Khartoum's Al-Jiraif district was built on a disputed plot of land, but the Saturday night incident appeared to be part of the fallout from ongoing hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan over control of an oil town on their ill-defined border.

Egypt informed Israel Sunday afternoon that it is unilaterally cancelling the agreement of supply of gas to Israel. The announcement was made to EMG, the firm that receives the gas from Egypt, and reported on Channel 2 news. The peace treaty with Egypt includes a financial appendix, in which Egypt agrees to supply Israel with oil. Several years ago the appendix was changed so that the oil was replaced by gas. The treaty commits Egypt to supply Israel with the amount of gas it requires for a specified period, in exchange for payment.

Another Christian Holy Day and another murderous attack by Jihadists in Nigeria. This time 38 Christian worshippers were killed by a vehicle-born explosive device driven into a crowded area near an Easter worship service in the Nigerian city of Kaduna.

LAREDO — A former hit man for the Zetas cartel calmly related to jurors his role in killings on both sides of the border, testifying Monday in the drug conspiracy trial of a man prosecutors say was also a hired killer. From the witness stand in U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez's courtroom here, Rosalio Reta pointed to Gerardo Castillo Chavez, 25, and identified him as a fellow Zeta. Pressing his fingertips together and speaking in a slow, soft voice, Reta, 22, told jurors that he had been in a team of hit men headed by Gabriel Cardona, an admitted Zeta...

Nigeria imposed a 24-hour curfew Saturday in the northern city of Kano after assailants killed scores of people and wounded others in a hail of gunfire and coordinated bombings of eight government sites. The Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the blast....