Free Republic

Public protests against three planned mosques have made news in the past week: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined others in opposing the building of a mosque a few blocks from the World Trade Center site. Hundreds demonstrated against a proposed mosque in a small town in Tennessee (pictured above). And some residents of Temecula, California, are opposing the local Muslim community's plan to build a bigger mosque, saying it could become a hotbed of radical Islam. Professor Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University's School of International Service, is not surprised by the recent...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Two Sentenced for Transporting Stolen Goods to Support Hizballah PHILADELPHIA—Michael Katz, 58, of Plainsboro, NJ, and Alaa Allia Ahmed Mohamed, a/k/a “Alaa Ahmed Mohamed Abouelnagaa,” 44, of Brooklyn, NY, were sentenced today for conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and trafficking in counterfeit goods, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Katz was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison; Mohamed was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The charges against the two were filed in conjunction with a case against four people, including Hassan Hodroj and Dib Hani Harb, who...

A Pakistani suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks has been arrested in Zimbabwe as he tried to cross into World Cup host South Africa... Imran Muhammad, 33, was arrested at the Beitbridge border post along with another Pakistani national, the state-run Herald newspaper reported, saying Muhammad was wanted for the Mumbai attacks. the two were arrested on June 20 after they found using fake Kenyan passports. Muhammad was normally based in the Chilean capital Santiago. The daily said Muhammad and 39-year-old Chaudry Parvez Ahmed flew from Saudi Arabia to Tanzania, before connecting to Zimbabwe by road.

Note: Video included at link. SNIPPET: "Now, law enforcement officials appear increasingly concerned Al-Shabaab members are trying to come back to America. But these members aren't disenchanted young men like Hassan, seeking to escape the terrorists' hold. Rather, the concern is that they are returning either to recruit more members or perhaps to plot attacks here." SNIPPET: "Al-Shabaab represents a "threat to the whole nation, all of the world," Ahmed told the IPT. "Everywhere they could recruit somebody they will try – Europe, North America, Australia, Africa…And they want to disrupt world peace." Ahmed warned that Al-Shabaab's main focus in...

The CIA's alleged torture of accused U.S. embassy bomber Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani does not justify dismissing criminal charges against him, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected the claim made by Mr. Ghailani's defense attorneys that the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment requires dismissal of the indictment based on "outrageous" government misconduct. The reason, the judge said, was that there was no causal connection between the defendant's alleged mistreatment and his prosecution in the Southern District.

Faisal Shahzad, Times Square bomb suspect in custody -- Live Updates 12:16 p.m. Two arrested in Pakistan ISLAMABAD -- An intelligence official who was not authorized to speak on the record said two arrests had been made in Karachi in connection with the bombing attempt. One arrested is named Tausif Ahmed, and he is believed to have traveled to the United States recently to meet with Shahzad, according to this official

Pakistani police have arrested at least two people in Karachi, Pakistan. One of them, Tauseef Ahmed, is believed to have traveled to the U.S. two months ago to meet with Faisal Shahzad. CBS News has also learned that Shahzad may have spent at least four months training at a terrorist camp - raided in early March by Pakistani forces. The camp is affiliated with Pakistan's Taliban, the group that claimed responsibility for the botched attack in Times Square. Its leader Hakimullah Mehsud threatened, "The time is very near when our fighters ....will attack the American states." Prior to the release...

The Utah Islamic Center moved one step closer Sunday to raising money needed to build a new mosque and school in south Salt Lake Valley. Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the board of Utah Islamic Center in Salt Lake City...Ahmed said organizers are pleased they are a third to halfway toward that goal. An estimated 25,000 Muslims live in Utah, mainly along the Wasatch Front, according to Utah Islamic Center. to serve the growing Muslim population in the south Valley. "We want to build something that hasn't been done before in Utah," Ahmed said. In addition to a mosque, organizers envision...

The plot of the hit Fox drama “24” may make for exciting television, but Muslim groups fear their representation as terrorists does more than entertain - it vilifies an entire religious group. “I think that TV has quite an effect on how people think,” said Nadeem Mazen, past president of the MIT Muslim Association. “So much of what we hear on Muslims is hearsay - an expert opinion by people with a personal agenda and not necessarily motivated by truth. And then a show like this comes along that perpetuates the ‘them’ factor.” The plot of the sixth season of...

Because of them, telephone taping was carried out a year before the massacre.Two of the Moroccoan Islamist Fugitives Were the Key to Investigate Jamal Zougham Before 3/11.LD (Luis del Pino) The surprising flight of nine Islamists from a Moroccan prison last week has taken an unexpected turn, when it was discovered that two of them, the Chatbi brothers, were allegedly linked to the top sentenced for 3/11, Jamal Zougham, and his stepbrother Mohamed Chaoui, arrested like Zougham on March 13th, but released a few weeks after the Madrid attacks. Although that relation between Zougham and the Chatbi brothers was finally...

<p>SNIPPET: "NAIROBI, Kenya — An American man of Somali origin arrested in Kenya over suspicions of terrorism says police have released him along with two other men."</p> <p>SNIPPET: "Suleman Essa said Friday that Kenyan police did not tell him why they arrested him..."</p>

Note: The following text is a quote: Somalian Charged with Making False Statements on Application for Asylum Defendant is Accused of Making False Statements Concerning Participation in Terrorist Organizations United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in San Antonio, a federal grand jury has indicted 24-year-old Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, a citizen of Somalia, on two counts of making false statements under penalty of perjury to federal authorities concerning his association with global terrorist organizations. The indictment, returned yesterday and unsealed this afternoon, alleges that on October 28, 2008, the defendant falsely omitted on an application for asylum that from...

Daily Independent (Lagos) "Nigeria: Police Arrest Suspected Terrorist At Abuja Airport - Probe Al-Jazeera Report On Extra-Judicial Killings" Maxwell Oditta And Abel Orukpe 26 February 2010 SNIPPET: "Lagos — Barely two months after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian was arrested by U.S. authorities for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines Flight 253 flying from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan, with 289 passengers on December 25, 2009, the Police at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, has arrested a 36-year-old suspected terrorist Ahmed Ibrahim Muhammad from Eritrea. A highly dependable source in the Abuja airport told our correspondent...

A pair of 17-year-old Somalis from Minneapolis were charged this afternoon with first-degree murder in the killings of three people last week at a south Minneapolis market in what Hennepin County's top prosecutor called "a robbery gone bad." Ahmed Shire Ali and Mahdi Hassan Ali were accused in a criminal complaint of killing two store employees and a customer who walked in just as the robbery got underway. He was immediately shot. "It's a tragic, senseless shooting," said County Attorney Mike Freeman, in announcing three counts of first-degree murder against each defendant. "It's a robbery gone bad." The two suspects...

Date: January 8, 2010 ISCC affiliated Imams Issue Important Fatwa Attack on Canada and the United States is Attack on Muslims Over 10 million Muslims Live in North America Calgary) Twenty Imams affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada have issued a Fatwa today declaring the attacks on Canada and the United States by any extremist will be the attack on 10 million Muslims living in North America. This is the first Fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the United States as attack on Muslims. Following is the text of the Fatwa. FATWA (religious edict)...

Private Bergdahl - assuming he's still alive - is spending Christmas as a captive of the Taliban. His captors spent the last day or two uploading a video showing Private Bergdahl reading a statement. The video was divided into four segments and uploaded to YouTube on 25 December 2009. The YouTube account is:

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

"Stop, stop, you're killing me: Knoxville Muslim says he was joking about carrying out jihad terror attack at shopping mall Ha ha! A real side splitter! Look out, Letterman!" SNIPPET: "...pushed for the detention pending trial of Hazam Ali Ahmed. The 35-year-old Ahmed was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms after authorities last week found two guns inside the Central Convenience Store on Keith Avenue that he operated. However, testimony at Monday's hearing shows Ahmed has been on the radar screen of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force since at least January 2006." SNIPPET: ""He referred to...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 14, 2009 Terrorism Defendants Sentenced in Atlanta Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced. "With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people...

Breaking News: Pakistan Reportedly Detains Five D.C.-Area Muslims on Suspicion of Terror IPT News December 8, 2009 **Updated December 9, 9:00 a.m. EST A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five foreign nationals after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The raid took place at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001. According to the report, "The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of...