Free Republic

A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison by Denmark’s High Court for making and possessing a bomb. Somalian citizen Libaan Ahmed Warsame has also been sentenced with conditional deportation from Denmark. He was found guilty of making and storing a bomb in the basement of an apartment building on the Peter Fabers Vej residential street in Aarhus. The device was discovered by a resident in the building in October 2016, and the area was closed off for several areas as armed police evacuated the block and arrested Warsame. A bomb disposal unit was...

A collapse of exploratory talks on forming a new German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel would likely trigger snap elections, a prospect fraught with risk for Europe’s top economic power. The inconclusive September 24th general election left Merkel seeking new partners as she attempts to embark on a fourth term. However, a failure of her conservatives to find enough common ground with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the ecologist Greens to embark on formal coalition talks would leave the country in political limbo. Before new elections could be called under Germany’s Basic Law, the Bundestag lower house of parliament...

President Emmanuel Macron says the French state fueled homegrown extremism by abandoning its poorest neighborhoods, and is promising tough and “sometimes authoritarian” new measures to combat the problem.The pledge is part of a multibillion-euro plan that Macron is laying out Tuesday focusing on suburban housing projects plagued by crime and joblessness. Macron was unusually harsh in his criticism of previous governments, saying radicalization took root because the state abdicated its responsibility in impoverished public housing, and extremist preachers filled the void. …

People in England and Wales have two weeks to hand in guns, other weapons and ammunition to police stations without being punished for possession. People who surrender firearms will not automatically be charged, but will be if they are later connected to a crime. Police say many firearms are held in ignorance of their illegality. The parents of 18-year-old Yusuf Sonko, who was shot dead in Liverpool on 2 June, have called on people to hand in any firearms. Papa and Kajdijah Sonko spoke to BBC Breakfast about finding out that their son had been killed. Mr Sonko said he...

Iran’s nuclear deal is “not negotiable”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bassam Ghassemi said Saturday in response to remarks by French president Emmanuel Macron. Macron called for vigilance towards Tehran over its ballistic missile program and regional activities in an interview published Wednesday by the Emirati daily Al-Ittihad. “We have told French leaders on several occasions that the Iran nuclear deal is not negotiable, and that no other issues can be included in the text” of the 2015 agreement, state news agency IRNA quoted Ghassemi as saying. France, the foreign ministry speaker said, is “fully aware of our country’s intangible position...

A Swedish radio station says a pirate broadcaster briefly broke into its Friday morning show and broadcast an English-language pop song with lyrics urging Westerners to join the Islamic State group. […] Bauer Media operates the Mix Megapol station in Malmö on which the song was aired. Malmö is Sweden’s third-largest city. The 24Malmö news site said the song, titled “For the Sake of Allah,” played non-stop for about 30 minutes on the FM and internet-based station. …

Police in the city of Zürich will no longer name the nationality of a suspected offender in press releases, arguing that to do so is discriminatory and inappropriate. City councilor Richard Wolff, head of the city’s security department, ordered the new measure, which is backed by center and left-wing parties. In a statement, the department said, “the regular mention of nationality in police reports is discriminatory because it suggests that the offense can be explained by the nationality of the perpetrator”. Some media say it is important in the name of transparency to state a suspect’s nationality and not to...

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has filed a complaint following new death threats received after its latest front page cartoon on Islam and a controversial Muslim scholar. […] The latest issue, including the cover, refers to rape allegations that recently surfaced against Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan has dismissed the rape allegations as a “campaign of slander.” …

Denmark’s minister for Immigration and Integration, Inger Støjberg, was hastily evacuated from the Sjælsmark deportation center for rejected asylum seekers after tensions escalated during a tense visit to the facility. Støjberg was escorted from the center by security guards after an incident while she was visiting the center, reports broadcaster DR. The minister was at the Sjælsmark deportation center as part of filming for the broadcaster’s 21 Søndag current affairs program, according to the report. Red-Green Alliance MP Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen was also at the center in connection with the program. The group had visited a family accommodated at the facility...

Pope Francis condemned on Wednesday recent terror attacks around the world, including in New York where eight people were killed, saying he was “saddened” by events. “I am saddened by the terrorist attacks in recent days in Somalia, Afghanistan and yesterday in New York,” the pope said during his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square. He asked people to pray that God “converts the hearts of terrorists and frees the world of hatred and murderous madness, which abuses the name of God to disseminate death,” adding that he was praying for the victims and their families. …

An Egyptian lawyer has sparked outrage after telling a national television audience it is his “patriotic and national duty” to harass and rape young girls who wear revealing clothes including ripped jeans. Nabih al-Wahsh said women wearing clothing should be punished. He warned: “Are you happy when you see a girl walking down the street with half of her behind showing? I say that when a girl walks about like that, it is a patriotic duty to sexually harass her and a national duty to rape her.” The shock remarks came in a panel show broadcast on Al-Assema during a debate...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said the Islamic phrase "Allahu akbar" is "beautiful" just minutes after a terrorist attack in New York City. Suspect Sayfullo Saipov allegedly slammed a truck into bikers and pedestrians Tuesday afternoon near lower Manhattan's West Side Highway, killing 8 and injuring at least 11. Saipov reportedly yelled "Allahu akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - after crashing the truck before an NYPD officer was able to shoot him. “The Arabic chant 'Allahu Akbar,' God is great, sometimes is said under the most beautiful of circumstances. And too often, we hear it being said in moments...

Pope Francis has warned Europeans against creating new divisions and building trenches, the former a reference to growing nationalism across the continent and the latter a reference to the carnage wrought by World War I. He pointed to the two world wars that ravaged the Continent during the last century, and described peace as a “fragile good,” when he spoke near the end of the two-day Catholic Church in the European Union (COMECE) conference on Europe’s future that was held at the New Synod Hall in the Vatican City. […] He called on Europe to be a continent of peacemakers,...

The BBC filed a complaint Wednesday to the United Nations over Iran freezing the assets of more than 150 people associated with its Persian service, calling the Islamic Republic’s actions “a deprivation of human rights.” The British broadcaster described Iran’s actions as part of a “criminal investigation” into its staff, former employees and contributors over allegations of them fomenting a “conspiracy against national security” in Iran and abroad. Those swept up in the investigation include Iranian dual nationals from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Britain and the United States. Iran’s mission at the U.N. did not respond to a request...

Germany has made no secret of its desire to see its new law copied by the rest of the EU. When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point? Perhaps fighting "Islamophobia" is now a higher priority than fighting terrorism? A new German law introducing state censorship...

Sweden’s Migration Agency expects to hand over around 50,000 deportation orders to the police in the coming years, but authorities are already struggling to deport those who have been told to leave. When a person receives a negative reply to their asylum application, they are in the first instance asked to leave the country voluntarily. In the next instance, the case gets handed over to the police. Police have so far this year deported more than 3,000 unsuccessful asylum seekers in this way, but they are currently working with around 17,000 cases; and of those, 12,000 have gone underground.The remaining...

Pope Francis marked UN World Food Day on Monday with a call for world governments to act together to fight the hunger, conflicts and climate change driving mass migration from the developing to the industrialized world. In a speech to the global body’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Francis said love rather than pity should be placed at the heart of international development efforts, and threw his weight behind efforts in the UN to negotiate a global accord on managed, safe migration. “Is it too much to ask to think of inserting the concept of love into the...

The German government has warned the US against withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement. US President Donald Trump is expected to decertify Tehran’s compliance with the 2015 deal in a White House speech at 12:45 p.m. (16:45 UTC) on Friday. “We believe this agreement is an important instrument to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday. “If … an important country like the United States comes to a different conclusion as appears to be the case, we will work even harder with other partners to maintain this cohesion,” he said. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel...

Thomas de Maizière, the federal interior minister, suggested on Monday that parts of Germany with large Muslim populations could get public holidays during Muslim festivals. “I’m prepared to talk about whether we would also introduce Muslim public holidays,” de Maizière said. He pointed out that there are several Catholic holidays, such as All Saints day, which are only celebrated in Catholic-dominated parts of the country. “Why shouldn’t we think about a Muslim public holiday in parts of the country where many Muslim live?” he asked. The Christian Democratic (CDU) politician added though, that public holidays in Germany are influenced by...

Bosnia’s war crimes court on Monday acquitted the wartime commander of Srebrenica, who was accused of committing atrocities against Serbs during the 1992-95 Balkan conflict. The acquittal of Naser Oric immediately prompted anger from Serbian leaders, with Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin saying the court ruling “threatens security, trust and reconciliation in the whole of the Balkans.” Oric was accused of war crimes against three Serb prisoners of war who were slain in villages around the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in the early days of the conflict. A panel of judges presiding over the trial ruled Monday the prosecution did...