Free Republic

“We want to send a message to the world,” said Tad Stahnke, director of policy and programs for Human Rights First, “that Americans do respect religious differences and reject religious bigotry and the demonization of Islam or any other religion.” Do the Qur'an readings below constitute demonization of Christianity? Would Tad Stahnke care to explain why not? Here are some readings that the congregants in the various churches might enjoy: Christians have forgotten part of the divine revelations they received: "From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the...

Anneke Green has a disturbing analysis in the Washington Times which indicates the very likely specifics of the burial ceremony aboard the USS Carl Vinson—repeatedly noted by witless counter-terrorism czar John Brennan to be in strict “conformance to Islamic requirements”—for pious Muslim jihadist Osama Bin Laden, orchestrator of the mass murder of Americans on 9/11/2001. As Green reports, “Navy Military Funerals, (pp. 34-35)” a protocol developed by the Navy, describes in explicit detail what transpires during a Muslim sea burial: The body must have been washed and wrapped “as required for the bodies of Muslims,” which refers to ceremonial cleanings...

Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism will bestow its highest honor to Al Jazeera English, the university announced Wednesday. The Columbia Journalism Award is given annually during the school's commencement to recognize an individual or organization for "singular journalism in the public interest," according to a press release. It will mark only the second time that the award is being given to an organization. "Al Jazeera English has performed a great service in bringing the English-speaking world in-depth coverage of the turmoil in the Middle East," said Dean Nicholas Lemann. "We salute its determination to get to the heart of...

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told Sean Hannity tonight that he will announce his intent to run for President of the United States tomorrow. Ron Paul also praised notorious anti-Semite Michael Scheuer as someone he respects on foreign policy. And, of course, Ron Paul still blames the United States for Islamic extremism.

Durbin to host hearings on protecting Muslim civil rights By Daniel Strauss - 03/23/11 09:50 AM ET Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plans to hold hearings on protecting American Muslims' civil rights, his office announced Tuesday night. The hearings come a few weeks after Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) held controversial hearings of his own on the radicalization of American Muslims. Those hearings were widely criticized by Democrats who worried that they unfairly singled out Muslim Americans. But an official with knowledge of the matter said that Durbin's hearings are not meant to counter King's. Instead, it comes "in response...

SD lawmakers reject bill targeting Islamic lawsWednesday, 16 February 2011 11:37 PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ The South Dakota Senate State Affairs Committee has rejected a bill that would have prohibited state courts from using certain foreign laws, including forms of Islamic law known as Sharia. The bill would have made void any court decisions or contracts signed in a country that doesn't have the same protections as the U.S. and South Dakota constitutions. Republican Sen. Dan Lederman of Dakota Dunes said his bill would protect South Dakotans who travel abroad or deal with foreign countries. Lederman's proposal mimics laws discussed...

Let My People Go  Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic EqualityBy S. S. HasanOxford University Press. 320 pp. $49.95.Reviewed by Robert W. ShaffernSana Hasan, an Egyptian scholar best known for her Enemy in the Promised Land, has written another important book in Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt—a book in which she honestly confronts the sorry condition of Christians in Egypt, where the “problems faced by the Christian minority are for many . . . a taboo subject.” Hasan courageously describes the discrimination and harm often visited upon one of Christianity’s oldest communions—the Coptic...

A group of 100 faculty members at UC Irvine signed a letter asking the Orange County district attorney to drop criminal charges against 11 Muslim students who disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. The group, including five deans, said the Muslim Student Union was wrong to disrupt the speech last year by Ambassador Michael Oren but that the students and the group had already been disciplined by the university. Orange County prosecutors announced last week they were charging the students with two misdemeanor counts, including conspiracy to disrupt the speech. If convicted, each faces up...

Speaking in the Catholic church in Tbilisi on December 25, President Saakashvili thanked the Holy Sea for "steadfast support" to Georgia's territorial integrity. "I am especially grateful - and I have told it to Pope Benedict XVI [at a meeting in May, 2010] – for Vatican’s steadfast support to Georgia’s freedom, independence, and territorial integrity," said Saakashvili, who congratulated the Catholic community on Christmas. Saakashvili also said: "I want to assure you that each of you should count on the support, love and assistance of the Georgian state." "Georgian Catholics are an integral part of Georgian history and an important...

SHMUEL TRIGANO: THE OPEN RACISM OF THE FUTURE STATE OF PALESTINE By Shmuel Trigano, Paris University Published in: Original Submission to SPME Faculty Forum October 28, 2010 During a meeting with the Egyptian press in Cairo at the beginning of August, Mahmud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, and the man on whom the United States and Europe have placed all of their hopes for peace, revealed what was at the back of his mind with regard to the Jews and the nature of the regime he plans to set up in the future State of Palestine. The official demands...

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Princeton University students voted down a referendum by a pro-Palestine student group calling for the Ivy League university to expand its hummus offerings, the school's student government said Friday. It was a quirky campus vote about a chickpea dip that delved into international relations. The student group Princeton Committee for Palestine wanted university-run stores to sell an additional brand, arguing that Sabra, the only brand currently offered, supports human rights abuses. Sabra is based in Queens, N.Y., and Richmond, Va. Company officials say the firm makes donations only to charities in North America - and not to...

Before 1948 an estimated 900,000 Jews lived in what we now know as the Arab states. Since then, the vast majority have left, forcibly in many cases, bringing the total down to fewer than 8,000. The conflict with Israel has undoubtedly been a major factor in this. The history of Jewish communities in the Arab world is not widely known and tends to be denied or played down by Arabs, often for political reasons.

Jurors in Michigan have rejected the concept of a "dhimmi" status for Christians, ruling that four evangelists who went to an Arab festival not just to be present but to "change minds" did not commit a breach of peace as police had claimed. The word comes from the Thomas More Law Center, which defended the four Christians after they were charged for being at an Arab festival June 18 in Dearborn, Mich. The verdict came from a jury of six Dearborn residents late Friday, who concluded that Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla, Negeen Mayel and David Wood were not guilty of...

An early sketch shows a boy in a wheelchair who later becomes the Silver ScorpionComic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new superhero — a Muslim boy in a wheelchair with superpowers. The new superhero is the brainchild of a group of disabled young Americans and Syrians who were brought together last month in Damascus by the Open Hands Intiative, a non-profit organization founded by U.S. philanthropist and businessman Jay T. Snyder. The superhero's appearance hasn't been finalized, but an early sketch shows a Muslim boy who lost his legs in a landmine accident...

Who cares if Wellesley public school middle students were taken on a field trip to a Boston mosque, supposedly to study mosque architecture, and the boys wound up prostrate on the floor, worshipping Allah? It was good for them, because they learned to relax! So just stop worrying about the Constitution, already. Islamic worship can be meditative. Try it sometime. So says a self-described "atheist leader of a church youth group," whose letter to the Boston Globe is today's winner of the Grand Prize Dhimmi Award! Congratulations for leading the way in cheerful submission to our new Islamic overlords. Here's...

Two Algerian Christians have been tried for breaking Ramadan fasting rules, with hundreds of people protesting outside the courtroom against judicial authorities. Hocine Hocini, 44, and Salem Fellak, 34, were arrested on August 13 on the building site where they worked in the northern region of Kabylie after they were spotted eating lunch. The pair admit to eating but insist it happened in a discreet place. Muslims are not allowed to eat during daylight hours during the Ramadan holy month. In Algeria breaking the fast can be punished with three months in jail. The ministry of religious affairs says there...

Shocking video was released today by Americans for Peace and Tolerance: [video] The video was taken inside the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center - Boston's controversial Saudi-funded mega-mosque - during a Wellesley Middle School social studies trip to the mosque, ostensibly taken to learn about the history of Islam first-hand. Yet the video reveals that the students are being blatantly mis-educated about Islam. A mosque spokesperson is seen teaching the children that in Mohammed's 7th century Arabia women were allowed to vote, while in America women only gained that right a hundred years ago. This seems to be an...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday backed the controversial firing of a transit worker who burned pages of the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero.NJTransit fired assistant train coordinator Derek Fenton Monday, just two days after he ripped pages from the Koran and torched them with a lighter on the ninth anniversary of 9/11."We're supportive of the action taken by NJTransit," Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak told the Daily News.But one New Jersey state senator defended Fenton's constitutional right to free speech and criticized his firing.Fenton was not in uniform and apparently not on the clock when he...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer...

The recent health-care reform legislation carries a controversial mandate that all Americans obtain health insurance, but careful study of the passed law reveals there are some groups – the Amish, for example – that can obtain an exemption. For devout Muslims, however, whose religious beliefs forbid purchasing insurance...