Free Republic

.... Craftsman Marco Ferrigno told Reuters on Nov. 7 that Obama’s reelection sparked the production. "Every time a major event occurs we create a new figurine, and today after Obama's victory, we have made a new figurine of Obama and will put him in our ideal Nativity scene,” Ferrigno said. Reuters reported that the shop keepers said bargain hunters could get a “big discount” on figurines of GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Italian fans of Obama said his likeness in the nativity scenes is a portrayal of how important his role is in today's world, according to Reuters.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The California man behind an anti-Muslim film that led to violence in many parts of the Middle East was sentenced Wednesday to a year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter, then issued a provocative statement through his attorney. The sentence was the result of a plea bargain between lawyers for Mark Bassely Youssef and federal prosecutors. Youssef admitted in open court that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's license under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case....

No word yet on what the violation was, but I assume it must be far more serious than using an alias or a computer. Given the insanity of the past two weeks, replete with the White House nudging Google to pull the video off of YouTube and the State Department running ads on Pakistani TV to apologize for a movie they had nothing to do with, I can’t quite believe the DOJ would risk the perception that they’re punishing this guy for a thoughtcrime unless something serious was involved. There has to be a real crime underlying this. Right? The...

Here's a little angle to the Hurricane Sandy story that might not be noticed when they are analyzing the effect the storm could have on the November 6th elections. A lot of folks in the Northeast are going to be without power this week and possibly next, especially in some important swing states like Pennsylvania and Virginia and perhaps even impacting Ohio. Without electricity, many people will choose to stay in their homes or dank emergency shelters. Without working televisions, they'll drag out the extra blankets and fire up the furnace or the fireplace while they listed to the RADIO...

The American Left used to champion free expression. We were lectured -- correctly -- that the price of being repulsed by occasional crude talk and art was worth paying. Only that way could Americans ensure our daily right to criticize those with greater power and influence whom we found wrong and objectionable. When 1950s comedian Lenny Bruce titillated his audiences with the F-word and crude sex talk, liberals came to his defense. They reminded us that vulgar speech is not a crime: The First Amendment was not just designed to protect uplifting expression, but also rarer blasphemous and indecent speech....

Last night Mitt Romney became the candidate the Republican Party has waited for since Ronald Reagan. Americans who watched the first presidential debate with an open heart and mind will sleep better. While I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art at an event for the terrific new documentary "Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007" to air at 8 p.m. EST tomorrow night on the super channel Epix, I couldn't help thinking how the debate is going. Oddly, former President Clinton was also in the documentary, speaking of how the world looks for one person that will...

Members of the American TFP and America Needs Fatima prayed the Rosary and offered public reparation and protest against the “P*** Christ” blasphemy by Andres Serrano in front of the Edward Tyler Nahem Art Gallery on 57th Street in New York City on September 27. The offensive exhibit shows a crucifix immersed inside a jar of urine. “It’s not art, but blasphemy,” said TFP Student Action Director John Ritchie. “It’s a symptom of out culture’s spiritual rot and it's shameful that world leaders issue verbose statements in defense of Muhammad, while remaining silent about this crude insult against the Sacred Person...

With the Innocence of Muslims director under arrest for rather thin parole violation charges, many on the right have wondered where the Left has been on free speech. Should the ACLU, who regularly champion flag burners, step in to protest the backlash against clearly protected speech? Where are the Hollywood elites whose livelihoods depend on churning out offensive films? Nowhere, of course, and one cannot fully blame them; people who go against jihadists often find themselves with severed heads. There is another reason – to the Left, free speech has always been a canard to promote progressive change. The ACLU...

Muslim leaders were in unison at the United Nations this week arguing that the West was hiding behind its defense of freedom of speech and ignoring cultural sensitivities in the aftermath of anti-Islam slurs that have raised fears of a widening East-West cultural divide. A video made in California depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a fool sparked the storming of U.S. and other Western embassies in many Islamic countries and a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan this month. The crisis deepened when a French magazine published caricatures of the Prophet. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was time to...

We don't care if you're offended, and we never will. Get used to it.

Updated at 3:49 a.m. ET: CAIRO – An ultra-conservative Islamist cleric in Egypt faces charges of blasphemy after he allegedly tore up and burned copies of the New Testament at a protest in front of the American Embassy in Cairo. Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud Abdallah, also known as Sheikh Abu Islam, is part owner of a private ultra-conservative Islamic TV station known as Al Uma and was participating in demonstrations against a U.S.-made movie denigrating the Prophet Muhammad that swept the Muslim world in the last month. Egypt’s General Prosecutor accused Abu Islam and his son, the channel's executive director, of...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The head of the Arab League is calling for the international community to criminalize blasphemy, warning that insults to religion pose a serious threat to global peace and security. Nabil Elaraby's comments to a special session of the U.N. Security Council put him at odds with the United States and many of its western allies, which are resolutely opposed to restrictions on freedom of expression.

From the point of view of Muslims, one of Geert Wilders’ many crimes has been to slander Islam. But what does Islam mean by “slander”? The word does not carry the same connotations to a Muslim that it does to a European or an American. One of the most widely respected manuals of Islamic jurisprudence is Reliance of the Traveller, or ‘Umdat al-Salik, by Ahmad ibn Naqib Al-Misri. It represents the Shafiite school — one of the four major schools of Islamic law — and was written in the 14th century. Here’s what al-Misri has to say about slander (quoting...

The Egyptian Government has issued arrest warrants for seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and American pastor Terry Jones on charges of “harming national unity, insulting Islam, and spreading false information.” The charges stem from the belief that these persons are linked to the “Innocence of Muslims” video. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is expected to demand their extradition when he meets with President Obama in New York and Washington this week. The US State Department and Department of Justice are reported to be reviewing the case. “It’s an interesting question,” mused Attorney General Eric Holder. “Normally, we’d think it’s a freedom of...

Should we have the right to disobey Islamic law? The future of western civilization hinges on our response to this question. Right now people are suggesting that “hate speech” should not be free speech because when people blaspheme Mohammed, Muslim extremists riot and kill. “When some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others’ values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected in such a way.” – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon The extended liberal argument is that if you make Islamists mad, you know they’re going to kill, so you bear some responsibility for those deaths,...

Arab League chief Nabil al-Araby said Wednesday that the league, along with the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the European Union and the African Union are close to formulating an international agreement penalizing blasphemy and insults to religious figures.

Alarming, not because you or I take this stooge seriously but because lots of dopey liberals do, and not just here in the U.S. At a moment when the left’s dimmer lights are taking a second look at blasphemy laws, it’s repulsive that a guy charged with defending human rights would equivocate on speech. But not surprising: The Organization of the Islamic Conference has used the UN for years as a platform to push anti-blasphemy resolutions. That’s textbook Islamism, exploiting an ostensibly liberal institution to advance illiberal goals. Say what you want about Ban, but he’s speaking for an awful...

Not gonna happen.Via Arab News: The KingdomÂ’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh called on the international community to criminalize acts of abusing great prophets and messengers such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them all), according to a statement issued today.The statement was issued in response film in the United States denigrating Islam and ridiculing the Prophet (pbuh).Al-Asheikh also appealed to the Ummah to react to any attempt to denigrate Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by strictly adhering to the values advocated by the Prophet (pbuh) instead of unleashing violence against innocent people, the Saudi Press Agency reported.The...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities have identified a Coptic Christian in southern California who is on probation after his conviction for financial crimes as the key figure behind the anti-Muslim film that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Apparently, there are a few nitwits who still believe in the hopey-changey crapola. An Obama calendar sold in Charlotte this week compares the failed president to Jesus Christ. Here is the August 2013 page from the “Keep the Dream Alive” calendar:(IMAGE AT LINK)There’s even a video to accompany the calendar:(VIDEO AT LINK) What part of “worst jobs president since the Great Depression” do they not understand?