Free Republic

Despite the string of terror attacks in Paris since 2015, Parisians feel secure, according to the latest in-depth survey by the Paris region’s Urban Planning Institute. The results of the enquiry, which attempts to gauge how safe residents of the French capital feel going about their daily lives, are published every two years. Conducted by market research company Kantar TNS, the survey, introduced in 1998, asks 10,500 people living in the Paris area, aged 15 and up, a series of “rigorous” questions to see how far people living there feel secure. And the results were perhaps a bit surprising. According...

A Dearborn couple is seeking unspecified damages for being served bacon on a pair of sandwiches earlier this summer.A Muslim couple from Dearborn is suing Kentucky Fried Chicken for having recently been served bacon on a chicken sandwiches. An unspecified amount of damages are being sought by the couple, who purchased the sandwiches at a Lincoln Park KFC. They allege cheese and bacon were added to the sandwiches after they requested cheese only, according to a Detroit Free Press report. In May, a Dearborn man of Muslim faith sued Little Caesars for $100 million after he was allegedly served and...

Cowardice is all that grows in the ashes of valor. I don’t know if that fact has been remarked upon previously. Just as I don’t know the number of words launched at observing how earnestly man deploys self-praise as salve for his frailties. Though if the lucid men of antiquity have left no record, it can only be because we have lurched beyond their insight. The ongoing invasion of the West, with its now routine attendant massacres, has revealed pockets of the human psyche that probably weren’t as apparent until being pulled open by modernity’s unique social mandates. Perhaps the...

An independent K-12 Catholic school in the San Francisco Bay Area has removed religious statues from its campus in order to appeal to those of other faiths. Parents and alumni are concerned about San Domenico School's decision to remove a number of statutes and religious icons, especially those of Jesus and Mary, the Marin Independent Journal reported. "Articulating an inclusive foundation appears to mean letting go of San Domenico's 167-year tradition as a Dominican Catholic school and being both afraid and ashamed to celebrate one's heritage and beliefs," wrote parent Shannon Fitzpatrick in an email to school decision makers. "In our time...

Muslims who have already lived in Germany for a while are better integrated than Muslims in other European countries, according to a study released by the Bertelsmann Foundation on Thursday. But the study revealed some weaknesses in integration, too. The study called “Integrated, but not accepted?” compared the situations of Muslims who came to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Great Britain before 2010. Categories for assessment included language skills, education, work and social contact. Germany came out on top in a few categories, including the integration of Muslim immigrants into the labour market and low unemployment. About 60 percent of...

Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper has fired sharp criticism at the capital city, arguing that Berlin is failing to take a strong enough stance against anti-Semitic activist groups. The Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung (JAZ) published the strongly-worded article on Wednesday after several artists dropped out of a music festival currently being held in the capital when they found out that it was being backed by the Israeli embassy. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel internationally, put “massive pressure” on artists to withdraw from the Pop-Kultur festival due to a €500 donation from the Israeli embassy, JAZ...

Some 1,000 people on Saturday joined the Afghan youths who are holding a sit-down protest in Stockholm against Sweden’s deportations to Afghanistan. Participants in the Saturday demonstration formed a human chain in front of the youths in the Medborgarplatsen square in Stockholm, holding up white sheets of paper with red hearts on. The lone refugee youths have now been protesting for nearly two weeks, demanding Sweden stop deportations to Afghanistan. In an open letter to the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) Director-General Mikael Ribbenvik they ask: “Is Sweden really a moral country when you say to Swedes not to travel to...

The head of Sweden’s security police called the threat of terrorism in Europe the “new normal” on Friday as his Spanish counterparts continued to investigate Thursday’s deadly attacks in Spain. There were no immediate reports of any Swedish nationals injured when vans drove into pedestrians in Barcelona and Cambrils, killing at least 14 and wounding some 100 others, but citizens from more than 30 countries were among the dead and wounded, reported The Local Spain. Sweden’s security services Säpo said they were ready to offer assistance if needed. “Our thoughts go to those affected by the attacks in Spain and...

A 46-year-old Somali refugee identified as Hussein Hassan attacked a police officer in Kennewick, Washington, over the weekend with a large sword, striking at the officer’s head before he was shot and killed. A spokesman for the police said two officers responded to a 9-1-1 call at 6:38 p.m. Sunday about a man walking down Olympia Street near 10th Avenue armed with a sword. The two officers arrived on the scene at the same time in separate cars at about 6:40 p.m. One officer got out of his car to confront Hassan and police say the man started swinging the...

Court documents show that authorities found nothing when they searched the home of Justine Ruszczyk Damond shortly after an officer fatally shot her. Damond called for police assistance July 15 because she believed she had heard a sexual assault taking place in the alley behind her house. Mohamed Noor, one of the two responding officers, shot her. He has declined to be interviewed by investigators. Hours later, police obtained a search warrant for Damond's house and checked inside for blood, hair, guns, ammunition, knives, drugs or writings. They took nothing from the home. The Damond family attorney, Bob Bennett, says...

When Moina Shaiq realized even her own friends were scared to ask her about her religion for fear of offending her or sounding uneducated, she put an advertisement in a California newspaper: “Questions and answers about being Muslim.” […] With an uptick in anti-Muslim crimes in the U.S., Shaiq said she started the “Meet a Muslim” talks to educate people about her faith and culture while addressing people’s misconceptions and stereotypes. …

Prosecutors in the southwest German city of Saarbrücken are investigating an Iran-born AfD politician over accusations that she made Islamophobic statements. A prosecutor’s office spokeswoman said on Wednesday that AfD politician Laleh Hadjimohamadvali — a candidate in the upcoming national elections — is suspected of defamation of religious groups, as well as incitement to hatred. Hadjimohamadvali was born in Iran and has said that she fled to Germany to get away from Islam in the 1980s after the 1979 Iranian Revolution led to the establishment of an Islamic Republic. According to the Saarbrücker Zeitung, Hadjimohamadvali said during a party gathering...

Imam Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis in California delivered a sermon on Friday in which he quoted an antisemitic hadith and prayed for Allah to “annihilate” Jews “down to the very last one.” The video of Shahin’s sermon was posted to the Islamic Center of Davis’s YouTube channel on Friday (Update: the video has since been removed), and translated and excerpted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), though portions of the sermon were delivered in English. In his sermon at the Islamic Center, Shahin quoted, in Arabic, one of the most notorious antisemitic hadiths (teachings...

Halal simply means permitted or lawful. So when we are talking about halal foods it means any foods that are allowed to be eaten according to Islamic Sharia law. This means that for any food to be considered halal it must comply with the religious ritual and observance of Sharia law. Here at Halal Choices we are concerned with the halal slaughter of animals such as beef, lamb and poultry. To be halal certified the animal must be facing Mecca, have its throat cut while still alive and then ritually sacrificed by a Muslim who recites a prayer dedicating the...

The massive number of court cases challenging asylum decisions have stretched authorities “to the limits”, a leading judge told German media on Thursday. The chair of the Association of German Administrative Law Judges told publishing group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that the number of people bringing legal challenges against their asylum request decisions has overwhelmed the administrative courts. “The situation is dramatic for administrative courts.” said the organization’s chair, Robert Seegmüller. “We are now completely stretched to our limits.” RND further calculated based on national and European data that there are currently around 250,000 asylum decisions waiting to be challenged in...

A Muslim school in Sweden that separated pupils by gender on a school bus did not break anti-discrimination laws in doing so, the country’s Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) has judged. But the same could not be said about gender segregated sports lessons. Earlier this year, a documentary by Swedish broadcaster TV4 featured footage of the privately-run Al-Azhar Primary School in a Stockholm suburb, showing boys entering a bus from the front, and girls from the back. It led to criticism from politicians, including Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, and an investigation by Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman. The school explained that some of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught Wednesday by a live microphone railing against the European Union’s “crazy” insistence on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a precondition for closer ties. Netanyahu was meeting with leaders of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a regional summit. Netanyahu was discussing Iran, Syria, the Islamic State group, and EU-Israel relations when some of his comments — and those of other leaders at the meeting closed to the media — were accidentally broadcast to journalists in another room. Netanyahu also made a rare public admission that Israel has struck Iranian arms convoys...

An editor of the left-wing Haaretz daily chastised French President Emmanuel Macron for calling anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism, praising anti-Zionism as “resistance” against racism and apartheid. Asaf Ronel, the world news editor for Haaretz, criticized Macron’s recent statement that anti-Zionism was a “reinvention” of anti-Semitism. “We will never surrender to the messages of hate; we will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism,” said Macron on Sunday. Responding to Macron’s comments via Twitter, Ronel rejected the comparison, and denounced Zionism as being “inherently racist”. Ronel also praised anti-Zionism for “resisting” the evils of modern Zionism....

However, the media-driven PR campaign backfired as the news of the opening of the Berlin 'liberal mosque' reached Muslim communities in Germany and abroad. The liberal utopian dream quickly turned into an Islamist nightmare. [snip] The newly unveiled 'liberal mosque' in Berlin was supposed to showcase a 'gentler' Islam. An Islam that could be reformed and modernized while it emerges as the dominant demographic force in Europe. German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle touted the opening of the mosque as a "world event in the heart of Berlin." [snip] However, the media-driven PR campaign backfired, as the news of the opening...

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would introduce a law which would focus immigration on trained professionals, if she is re-elected in September. Speaking at the presentation of her party program in Berlin, Merkel said that the CDU, along with Bavarian sister party the CSU, would introduce a “skilled employee migration law.” The Chancellor said that the goal of the law would be that “no job vacancy remains unfilled,” Spiegel reports. A booming economy and an aging population have put pressure on the German government to increase the levels of immigration into the country...