Free Republic

Move over Orlando, here comes Abbottabad. Pakistan's tourism officials have announced plans to build a $30 million amusement park on the outskirts of the Himalayan foothills town that gained worldwide attention as the place where U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden. The 50-acre site will include a zoo, restaurants, water sports, miniature golf as well as rock climbing and paragliding, officials said. Officials in north Kyber Pakhtunkwa province denied to Sky News that the project was a way to improve the town’s image after the bin Laden raid, saying the goal is simply to boost tourism. "This project has...

Imam Khalid Latif, a chaplain for New York University and the New York Police Department, recently appeared on CNN. He suggested that the New York public schools should close for at least two important Muslim holidays each year. I could not agree more. Latif suggests that American Muslims are trying to develop their own contemporary identity as the religion of peace and tolerance. In his view, closing schools for major Muslim holidays would help that process since an Americanized modern and moderate Islam would benefit all Americans. However, I would alter Latif's suggestion slightly. We should treat the various Muslim...

Here is a video report out of New York on a meeting of citizens where tempers flared as they discussed a former convent on Staten Island being bought by the Muslim American Society in order to build a mosque there. At issue particularly is that one of the Muslim American Society members involved in the Staten Island project has been seen in a video from 10 years ago raising his arms in support of Hamas at a rally. Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer was at the meeting and asked the man – Madi Bray – if he would denounce Hamas, which...

Islamic Shrek "shrine" [EuroNews, what Islamization has gotten over you?] Dear EuroNews, Hello! Regarding your report on 23 February 2007: http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=405686&lng=1 Police and Palestinians clash at Islamic shrine in Jerusalem What an outrageous approach & language? What on earth has anti-israel fascism & gross lies gotten in to you? Even if you would like to appear as a radical Arabist, at least don't change historic facts. At first I thought it was a satire, "Islamic shrine" is What? the Jewish temple? Even in usual anti-Israel standards, this is pretty pathetic. Really scary, in fact. So you want to buy Islamic-Jihad...

Muslim prayer room found near holy site By Associated Press Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Updated: 07:52 AM EST JERUSALEM - The site of an Israeli archaeological dig that has sparked angry Muslim reaction worldwide contains what could be a Muslim prayer room, an Israeli archaeologist said Sunday. Muslim leaders and critics of the work said the announcement of the find, three years after it was discovered, confirmed their fears that Israel’s Antiquities Authority is intent on hiding Muslim attachment to the site. Israeli archaeologists began nearly two weeks ago a preparatory dig, prior to renovation work, on a ramp...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police fired rubber bullets and hurled stun grenades Friday near a disputed Jerusalem holy site to disperse dozens of Palestinian stone-throwers among crowds of Muslim worshippers. Police clashed with crowds at the end of Friday prayers on the Old City's elevated mosque compound, which overlooks the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. It took police about an hour to clear the compound, police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. Two rocks were thrown over the compound's edge, landing in the Western Wall plaza, and worshippers were briefly evacuated, he said. No injuries were reported. Control over the holy site,...

The Temple Mount crisis Posted: February 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.comAccording to the Bible, in the last days, several events regarding Israel would occur in a particular order in a short time frame. The first, of course, would be the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland of Israel. "Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land ..." (Ezekiel 37:21, New American Standard) The second,...

Oct. 16, 2003 Palestinians set fire to Joseph's Tomb By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH Joseph's Tomb set on fire Photo: AP Advertisement The IDF permitted hundreds of Jewish worshippers access to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to pray at the shrine early Thursday. Later the worshippers left in buses accompanied by IDF forces who guarded them throughout the visit. Shortly after their departure a group of Palestinian youths arrived at the site and set fire to the shrine throwing burning tires inside the compound. The local Palestinian fire brigade arrived and extinguished the flames. It was the fourth time authorization was given to...

<p>My friends and family back in the states are frustrated because every time Najaf - the city in southern Iraq where my unit has been stationed - is in the news, the reports are of conflict between the U.S. forces and armed militias. To hear the media tell it, America has done nothing to improve the infrastructure or security, and the Iraqi public is volatile and seeking revenge.</p>