Free Republic

During the recent Gaza war, Israel was forced to defend herself from thousands of rockets and destroy 40 tunnels dug by Hamas terrorists planning to enter Israeli kindergartens and malls from underground hatches. In response to Israel’s military defense, we witnessed vicious anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests all across Europe organized by leftists and Moslems. They were hateful, with signs calling for “Jews to the gas chambers,” duplicated here in America by various Moslem groups. Their anger, condemnation, and call for Israel’s annihilation was all done in the name of “human rights, and for women and children”… and, of course, “morality.’ So...

Activists and rebel groups have concerns about civilian casualties – particularly because ISIS has entrenched itself in residential areas. Yesterday's U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria, targeting an al-Qaida command center in Idlib, resulted in the death of at least 11 civilians, according to the Center for Documentation of Violation in Syria (VDC).On Monday the U.S., along with five Arab allies, began an airstrike campaign against ISIS and al-Nusra targets across northern and eastern Syria, including the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, and parts of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Hasakeh provinces.As U.S. officials released photographic evidence of "significant damage" to ISIS training camps...

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Iran could be "part of the solution" in defeating jihadists in Syria after he held landmark talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Addressing the UN General Assembly, Cameron said Britain had "severe disagreements" with Iran but that Tehran "should also be given the chance to show it can be part of the solution, not part of the problem." "Iran's leaders could help in defeating the threat from ISIL," Cameron said, referring to the Islamic State movement that has rampaged through Syria and Iraq. "They could help secure a more stable, inclusive Iraq, and a...

President Barack Obama favorably quoted and praised on Wednesday in his speech before the United Nations a controversial Muslim cleric whose organization has reportedly endorsed the terror group Hamas and supported a fatwa condoning the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.Obama in his remarks offered praise to controversial cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah and referred to him as a moderate Muslim leader who can help combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL or ISIS) radical ideology.However, Bin Bayyah himself has long been engulfed in controversy for many of his views, including the reported backing of a 2004...

The umpteenth case of child sex abuse in Britain perpetrated by Muslims, the Rotherham abuse case, has understandably left the self-proclaimed “progressives” and multiculturalists in disarray. The Leftist media outlets are on the defensive but still trying to maintain their ground.Their best weapons are to distract public attention by diverting it to whatever has not been committed by Muslims, and the use of double standards, of which the most shocking example is the differential treatment of Muslims versus the Catholic Church.The same people, assorted Leftists and secularists, who immediately jumped to the conclusion that all Catholic clergymen are either directly...

New York City politicians and religious leaders on Tuesday criticized a series of anti-Islam advertisements due to appear on 100 city buses, with many critics calling for the campaign to be blocked. Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the City Council, and Comptroller Scott Stringer joined a rally outside City Hall organized by the Arab American Association of New York and other groups to criticize the display ads sponsored by a group run by Pamela Geller, who writes a blog criticizing Islam. The ads, one of which features an image of American journalist James Foley moments before he was beheaded by...

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) came to prominence and notoriety when he famously shouted, ‘You Lie’ at Barack Obama during the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress. If ever there was a prime opportunity for a reprise, it occurred during an exchange between Wilson and Secretary of State John Kerry.Wilson asked Kerry if the U.S. was at war. If Kerry’s response had been a yes or no, the clip below would be no more than five seconds. As it was, Kerry took a more circuitous route to his answer, which was beyond ridiculous. After several seconds of hemming and...

Fresh terror busts in Australia expose a common Achilles’ heel of the West: Indiscriminate refugee policies turn free countries into breeding grounds for jihad. It’s the same game in America. Soldiers of Islam have weaponized our blind generosity against us. In Sydney this week, authorities detained a half-dozen Muslim plotters and arrested a top collaborator in an alleged conspiracy to kidnap and behead a random Australian citizen. The accused mastermind? Mohammad Ali Baryalei, an Afghan refugee turned Aussie Islamic State recruiter. He and his aristocratic family were welcomed Down Under decades ago. Baryalei returned the favor by taking to the...

Since the appearance of ISIS, the usual suspects on the left -- those in politics and media in particular  -- have bent over backwards to argue that it has nothing to do Obama, that his silly foreign policy, undergrad strategic considerations, and infinitely collapsible notion of American responsibilities unfolded in a vacuum and could not possibly have had any effect on anything.  No, the fault, of course, is that of George W. Bush and his neocon camarilla.  If it weren’t for Bush, a strong, wise, and humane Saddam Hussein would be present to destroy this Jihadi upsurge, exactly the way...

Americans have to face the painful reality that Arabs are, when judged by 21st century Western Standards, a crazy people. This is not meant as an insult. Early this year, the Iraqi parliament proposed a law that would permit men to marry 9 year old girls. The law had the support of a majority of parliament. The law would also permit men to beat up and rape their wives, and prevent women from leaving the house without the permission of the husband. These SOBS are supposed to be the allies of America in the fight against ISIS. The Shia regime...

The House overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to grant President Obama authority to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels waging war against Islamic extremists. Despite vocal opposition from both war-weary liberals and defense hawks who feel the Syria plan should include more robust steps, majorities in both conferences voted 273-156 to back Obama’s plan to give military aid to vetted members of the Free Syrian Army. The “yes” vote was made up of 159 Republicans and 114 Democrats; opposition was just as bipartisan, with 85 Democrats and 71 Republicans voting no. The Syria language was considered as an amendment to a stopgap...

The Grand Mufti of the Department of Social Justice (aka, DOJ) has issued a fatwa prohibiting states from using zoning laws to deny building permits for Islamic “culture centers” -- Mosques with “youth centers.” … as a grand jury investigates another Minneapolis mosque for radicalizing recruits for ISIL, the Justice Department is suing local officials for blocking a new extremist mosque in the area. Attorney General Eric Holder sued St. Anthony, Minn., after the Minneapolis suburb rejected the Abu Huraira Islamic Center and its 15,000-square-foot mosque over zoning issues. The mosque website openly endorses jihad. Its website says that Muslims...

During a televised debate, last week, candidate for U.S. Congress Staci Appel (D-IA) opposed the idea of revoking passports of Americans who have admitted to joining and fighting with terrorist organizations. Appel said, “I would not be urging taking away their passports. I think we need to make sure that we work through the system and look through it on a very diligent basis.” Her comment came after Republican candidate David Young said that if he were elected to Congress, he would call on the State Department to revoke the passports of admitted terrorists. Young, who previously served as U.S....

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, tore apart President Obama’s claim that “ISIL is not Islamic,” calling Obama both the “excommunicator-in-chief” and “enabler-in-chief” for islamist groups. Jasser labeled Obama the “excommunicator-in-chief” for publicly declaring who is and isn’t ‘Islamic’ during his prime-time address on the Islamic State. Jasser argued the Islamic State is indeed ‘Islamic’ and is representative of the dangerous combination of religion and state in Islamic countries: [The Islamist groups] want nothing more than to suppress the voices of reform. If you talk to reformers, they will tell you that the Islamic State...

Holder apparently never explained what kind of “violent extremism” he hopes to counter. Susan Jones of CNS News writes that it “sounds like he wants law enforcement and community leaders to meet regularly, to share information on people who may have traveled overseas to join ISIS, or on people who may be plotting attacks right here in the U.S.” Yet if Holder did make any reference, however oblique, to jihadis traveling overseas to join the Islamic State, Jones did not quote it. The only thing Holder says that is close to that, at least according to this report, is this:...

The brother of British hostage David Haines murdered by Islamist militants issued Sunday a tearful video statement about growing religious radicalisation in which he quoted a verse from the Koran. "We are seeing more and more radicalisation in every walk of life. It is not a race, religion or political issue, it is a human issue," Mike Haines told British media. His voice breaking with emotion, Haines read out a passage from the Koran saying: "Since good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou evil with something that is better." He added: "The Muslim faith is not to blame for...

With its slogan “Out with the racists, in with the feminists,” the party has broadened traditional feminist values to also fight discrimination on the basis of race, sexual identity and physical disabilities.

Ted Cruz has made a serious mistake—one supported by sentiments of millions of American evangelicals—and it could cost the lives of many Christians. I suppose you’ve heard by now that Ted Cruz was recently “booed off stage” for a senseless, ill-placed “stand with Israel” gaffe at a banquet for persecuted Middle East Christians. The worst part of his comments is not that they were calculated for self-serving political purposes—as others have noted already. Although that is certainly bad enough, it is hardly as offensive as the main implication of what he said. Apparently, we must agree with him, or else...

The value of the ISIS oil trade has been widely estimated at between $1 and $3 million per day, though experts have warned that the figure could be a high estimate. On Wednesday, as part of President Barack Obama's plan to "systematically degrade, dismantle and defeat" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the U.S. Treasury Department said that it would step up pressure on the extremist group's illicit oil sales. In a blog post that day, David Cohen, the department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that the "Treasury is committed to ensuring that [ISIS] is unable...

The Rev. Bruce Shipman, an Episcopal chaplain at Yale University, resigned in the wake of his letter to The New York Times that blamed rising anti-Semitism in Europe on Israel. The Episcopal Church at Yale issued a statement on September 4 announcing that Shipman, “on his own initiative, had resigned as Priest-in-Charge of the Episcopal Church at Yale, effective immediately.” The statement does not reference the letter to the Times, saying instead, “It is our belief that the dynamics between the Board of Governors and the Priest-in-Charge occasioned the resignation of the Rev. Shipman.“The Episcopal Church at Yale, its Board...