Free Republic

Iran is set to host a meeting on promoting "the issue of Palestine and the Intifada" and "liberating the Holy Qods" (Jerusalem), the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Sunday. … It is intended to promote ideas on "the influence of the Islamic Awakening on the issue of Palestine and the Intifada" and "focus on ways to attain the ultimate goal of liberating the Holy Qods which embodies the dignity of the world Muslims." …

Egypt's Islamist president has given himself the right to legislate and control over the drafting of a new constitution. He has installed at the top of the powerful military a defense minister likely to be beholden to him. Under Mohammed Morsi's authority, officials have moved to silence influential critics in the media. And though a civilian, he declared himself in charge of military operations against militants in the Sinai peninsula. Over the weekend, Morsi ordered the retirement of the defense minister and chief of staff and reclaimed key powers the military seized from him days before he took office on...

Security services record Islamist exodus to Egypt Published: 12 Aug 12 10:53 CET German security services have recorded a leap in the number of radical Islamists traveling to Egypt, according to a report due to be published in Monday's Der Spiegel magazine.

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has sacked the entire leadership of the country's defense establishment. Among the officials and officers fired are Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and Chief of Staff Sami Anan. Morsi appointed Abdul-Fatah al-Sessi as Defense Minister and Lieutenant-General Sidki Sayed Ahmed as Army Chief of Staff. A judge named Mahmoud Mekki was appointed vice president. Morsi also ordered the retirement of the commanders of the navy, air defense and air force. The retired navy commander, Lieutenant-General Mohan Mameesh, was named as chairman of the Suez Canal. Morsi also cancelled all constitutional changes that gave the military enlarged...

As the debate over a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities grows, it seems that is possible that such a move would be ineffective. According to a Friday report by Yedioth Ahronoth, top US officials, who are privy to the relevant intelligence shared by Israel and the United States, said that Tehran is rapidly approaching the "immunity zone"—the critical point in time after which the Islamic Republic's nuclear program will no longer be vulnerable to a military strike. The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report, recently submitted to the White House, paints a bleak picture, as it indicates "a significant progress"...

Egypt branded Islamist gunmen who killed 16 police near the Israeli border as "infidels" and promised on Monday to launch a crackdown following the massacre that has strained Cairo's ties with both Israel and Palestinians. An Egyptian official said jihadist militants crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip before attacking the border station on Sunday. They then stole two vehicles and headed to nearby Israel, where they were eventually killed by Israeli fire. … Mursi has promised to honor Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel and has done little to suggest a major shift in ties. He has also reached...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney supports a two-state solution to solve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he told CNN during his visit to Jerusalem. In an interview with the American news network, which took place in Jerusalem on Sunday, Romney was asked if he saw the starting point for negotiations as the borders which existed prior to the 1967 Six Day War. He responded by saying, “I'm not being that specific. I'm saying that there will be borders that have to be negotiated and what the starting point is something which will be decided by the...

Every fall, it seems, Americans are subjected to the ugly spectacle of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to New York to address the UN General Assembly. There, at the podium, he is placed on a par with President Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron, France's Francois Hollande, and other leaders of civilized states. Ahmadinejad has used this podium to spew his anti-American, anti-Israel hatred. And yet he receives hearty applause from the Islamist delegates seated before him. Iran signed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights as long ago as 1948. That's when Iran was ruled by the Shah. That UNDHR contains...

A string of bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 50 people on Monday and wounded 144 more, police and hospital sources said, in one of the bloodiest days in the past weeks. Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday. …

Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab militants said on Sunday they had executed three of their own members for treason, two of them for guiding U.S. missiles to kill fellow militants. … Al Shabaab, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, said last January that a missile launched from a drone had killed Bilal el Berjawi, a Lebanese al Shabaab fighter with a British passport. Another missile killed four foreign militants south of the Somali capital Mogadishu in February, according to an intelligence officer. …

Questions about Huma Abedin By Andrew C. McCarthy July 21, 2012 4:00 A.M. Der Spiegel pointed out the obvious: “A certain role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the transition process [to ‘democracy’] in Egypt seems acceptable to the Obama White House.” It was early February 2011, the moment when the uprising that would oust Hosni Mubarak was bubbling over in Tahrir Square. The prominent German newsmagazine figured, who better to ask about the Muslim Brotherhood than the American political establishment’s resident foreign-policy genius, John McCain? So, the reporter asked him, does Obama’s tolerance of the Muslim Brotherhood “concern you”? Senator...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria's capital of Damascus for his family's coastal stronghold in Latakia, according to news sources. Opposition sources and a Western diplomat told London's Telegraph that the strongman was in thel city of Latakia, and was directing a response to yesterday's bombing of a cabinet meeting. "Our information is that [Assad] is at his palace in Latakia and that he may have been there for days," a senior opposition figure, who declined to be named, told Reuters. The palace, which Assad has used before to conduct official business, is located in hills near the city,...

The head of Iran’s cultural heritage and tourism organization believes that in addition to economic sanctions, the West is launching another kind of “soft war” on the Islamic republic. Speaking at a ceremony to introduce the nation’s new meteorological department chief, Hassan Mousavi, said that he was “suspicious about the drought in the southern part of the country.” He went on to accuse the West as using “technology” to influence the nation’s climate, saying sand storms, droughts, and other extreme weather were the result of an unspecified method of war. … Last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Western countries...

Why are counter jihad blogs (the less than a handful left) the only ones covering these critical news stories: Chicago imam: “Qital [killing] is an essential element of Islam" July 16, 2012, Creeping Sharia via Sharia 101 from a Muslim American perspective: Silence is not an option! | Just Piper (thanks to David) In a speech by Abdul Malik Mujahid, Columbus, Ohio, September 1995., he puts out a Conference calling for Jihad: Consider the following statement: Qital [killing] is an essential element of Islam. And sometimes you don’t like it. Qital is ordained upon you, though it is hateful to...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came and went and nothing changed, not even the hot weather, except that the U.S.-led “peace process” was left behind in lost baggage. The only question is if it was lost in Washington or Jerusalem. .....

CAIRO (Reuters) - Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton's delegation in the port city of Alexandria. A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles. Protesters chanted: "Monica, Monica", a reference to Former President Bill Clinton's extra-marital...

The first reports said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Egypt to convince the powerful military to hand the reins of power to "civilians," apparently meaning the Muslim Brotherhood. Before she could make her case, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi announced the army would prevent Egypt from falling under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood (which he did not name but referred to as a "certain group)." Hillary, disadvantaged by the weight of her pantsuit, but still resilient in that uniquely American way, quickly tread the murky waters of politicking and offered bribes. Some influential Christian leaders boycotted her...

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton has been taunted by chants of "Monica, Monica" by tomato-throwing demonstrators as she visited the Egyptian port city of Alexandria. The chants, referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, were heard outside the US consulate as she visited for its reopening. An embarrassed Egyptian security official said they were chanting "Monica, Monica" and "Irhal, Clinton" (Get out, Clinton.) Tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle were thrown at part of Mrs Clinton's motorcade as it pulled up, protected by riot police, although a US official said Mrs Clinton's...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that the United States and Israel are now on the same page regarding Iran. "It's absolutely fair to say that we are on the same page at this moment trying to figure our way forward to have the maximum impact on affecting the decisions that Iran makes," Clinton said during a press conference in Jerusalem. Clinton said that the proposals Iran has made on its nuclear program in the P5+1 talks were "non-starters." She said that Iran is under more pressure than ever before, and that the U.S. would prefer a diplomatic...

Islamic extremists destroyed another two mausoleums in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu on Tuesday, attacking a graveyard attached to the city's most picturesque mosque, according to a historian specializing in the area's heritage. Salem Ould Elhadj, a researcher at the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu, said the members of the radical sect set out with picks and shovels to raze the tombs of two of Timbuktu's scholars, Baba Babadje and Mahamane Foulane, both of whom are considered saints. Their mausoleums are in a cemetery attached to the nearly 700-year-old Djingareyber mosque, built in 1325. It's made of mud and...