Free Republic

After refusing to honour a male student’s request to be separated from his female classmates for religious reasons, a York University professor has found himself at odds with administrators who assert he broke their “obligation to accommodate.” “It represents a great leap backwards,” said sociology professor J. Paul Grayson. “When I was a student, you couldn’t have gotten away with that — it wouldn’t even have been considered.” The issue arose last September in the opening days of SOCI 2030, an online course taught by Mr. Grayson. A student, who remains nameless due to privacy reasons, asked to be counted...

The French city of Marseillaise has an estimated 30 to 40 percent Muslim population and has been ranked as the most dangerous city in Europe. The gritty Mediterranean port, France’s second-largest city, was appointed the “cultural capital of Europe,” a rotating European Union honor. City fathers launched beautification projects, created new tourism attractions and invited people from around the world to visit. A splendid stone esplanade was laid around the Old Port, peppered with novel sculpture, and a high-tech historical museum went up next to City Hall. How did that work out? The eruption has refocused attention on Marseille’s...

Just over two years since American troops entirely withdrew from Iraq, the black flag of Al Qaeda flies over the city of Fallujah’s government buildings in Iraq’s western Anbar Province. It was there that several American contractors were killed and strung up over a bridge in 2004 and American Marines fought the biggest battle of the Iraq War. “The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, the Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three-way war,” reads...

Four U.S. military personnel are being held in Libyan government custody, the State Department said Friday night. The circumstances and location of their detention were not immediately clear.

A province of the academic Lilliput called the American Studies Association has voted to boycott Israeli academics because of “the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and “the systematic discrimination against Palestinians.” The well-earned criticism of this vote is probably the most attention this organization has ever received outside the parochial precincts of the American university, where “conferences” of like-mindedness pedants regularly gather together to read papers to each other and ritualistically affirm their fossilized political and intellectual orthodoxy. Indeed, what this vote tells us about the corruption of American higher education is more worthy of comment than its impact on Israel’s...

The Washington Post has produced six massively detailed maps showing the religious make-up of America. The main map is above – if you want to enlarge it you'll have to click through to the Post's report here. The author/analyst, Niraj Chokshi, has uncovered some fascinating material – most of it lurking in the 2010 US Religion Census (data submitted by congregations, not the official US Census) but so much more surprising set out in map form. And here's an example. Did you know there are – possibly – now more religious Muslims than religious Jews in Florida? I know, it...

Dozens of Muslim protestors gathered to demand that businesses stop selling alcohol in a popular East London area yesterday. The group, led by former Al-Muhajiroun leader Anjem Choudary, warned restaurants and shops in the Brick Lane area that they face 40 lashes if they continue to sell the product, which is banned under Sharia Law. Around 60 men and women in burkhas handed over warning letters to Muslim-owned businesses in the area after the protest was initially delayed by a small number of English Defence League members staging a counter-protest. Controversial cleric Choudary was at the forefront of the protest....

Detroit, Michigan (May 6, 2013) — After more than two years of intense motion practice and discovery, the City of Dearborn has agreed to enter into a settlement that includes a public apology for arresting several Christian missionaries who were peacefully preaching to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in 2010. The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), a national nonprofit Judeo-Christian law firm, is representing Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, and Paul Rezkalla, who were thrown in jail on June 18, 2010, and charged with “breach of the peace” for their free speech activity. In September 2010, Robert Muise,...

A new arrangement with the management of Google/YouTube has brightened the chance of YouTube being unblocked in Pakistan. If certain conditions of the Google management are met, YouTube will be accessible as YouTube.com.pk, a local search engine. . . . . . . She explained to the committee that the government had succeeded in convincing the Google management about religious sensitivities of Pakistanis.The local search engine will also make it easier to block any blasphemous or objectionable content, she said. . . . . . . “Instead of installing costly filtration mechanisms, Google will easily be able to block blasphemous...

FORT WORTH – The chaplain at a Christian university in Texas on Tuesday defended the university’s decision to set aside a room on campus for Muslim students to pray, saying it was the Biblical thing do to. The Rev. Dr. Robert Kenji Flowers, chaplain at Texas Wesleyan University and also an adjunct world religion professor there, said in an interview with The College Fix that recent controversy over the room – which is a little over 1-years-old - came as a surprise to him. Debate over the room flared after a campus news report about the room was published last...

A mosque recently moved into a former church building on the northeast side of Wheaton, becoming what is believed to be the city's first Islamic institution. In late August, the Islamic Center of Wheaton bought and moved into the 26,193-square-foot former First Assembly of God Church at 900 E. Geneva Road, at the southwest corner of Geneva Road and President Street. Records show that, through a bank trust, the Islamic Center of Wheaton paid $3.15 million for the church and its 7.08-acre property. Mosque spokesman Abraham Antar said he and his fellow congregants are excited about their new home, which...

Istanbul - The ancient monastery of San Giovanni in Studion, currently classified as the museum complex, will be transformed into a mosque in 2014, once the restoration work in progress are completed. The news was given by Turkish sources. This building, built as a place of Christian worship, seems destined to follow the fate of the ancient churches of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon and in Iznik. The Christian Greek - Orthodox entrepreneur Lakis Vingas, a member of the General Directory of Foundations, commented on the news by pointing out that "cultural heritage is universal", and turning it into the soil...

The UN General Assembly yesterday condemned Israel in six resolutions, the most significant of which declares 2014 a “Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.” The new year is now liable to bring escalated politicization within UN agencies worldwide, doing nothing to help Palestinians or Israelis on the ground, while inflicting yet further damage to the world body’s effectiveness and credibility. … In his message to yesterday’s UN ceremony for Palestinians, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel only. He failed to condemn the recent spate of Palestinian terror attacks, including those that took the lives of 19-year-old Eden Atias and 20-year-old...

A number of news outlets have reported that Angola has "banned" Islam and started to dismantle mosques in a bold effort to stem the spread of Muslim extremism. Weekly French-language Moroccan newspaper La Nouvelle Tribune published an article on Friday sourcing "several" Angolan officials, including the Southwest African nation's minister of culture, Rosa Cruz, who reportedly offered the following remarks, which have been translated from French: "The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Their mosques would be closed until further notice." The media reports have not described why Islam...

The first preliminary nuclear deal the six world powers (US, Russia, China, UK, France and German) signed with Iran before dawn Sunday, Nov. 24, at the end of a four-day marathon, failed to address the most questionable aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, i.e. its clandestine military dimensions. The accord confined itself to aspects of uranium enrichment and stockpiles. UN inspections were expanded – but not applied, for instance, to Iran’s concealed nuclear sites - or even the Parchin military base where Iran is suspected of having tested nuclear-related explosions. Israel, the Gulf States and others are therefore highly dubious of...

Iran has reached an agreement with world powers over its nuclear activities. In a televised address, the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, welcomed the deal, saying the country had the right to continue its uranium enrichment programme.

Moscow, November 20, Interfax - Moscow has a sufficient number of mosques, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. "I think that Moscow has enough mosques. Especially as we can see that most people participating in the celebration of Islamic holidays come from other regions and the suburbs of Moscow. Visitors constitute from 60% to 70% of the total number. But we cannot accommodate everyone. I think this is unnecessary," Sobyanin said in an interview published on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website on Wednesday. The city administration has not issued permits to build new mosques but the construction of a new building of...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - When Opposing Jihad Is ‘Racist’Posted By Robert Spencer On November 12, 2013 @ 12:39 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 17 Comments “Islamophobia” has broken out at Washington University of St. Louis, sparking outrage, grief, an “open solidarity forum,” and an avalanche of groveling apologies from university administrators.It all started, according to the university’s independent student paper Student Life, with a “controversial Halloween photograph” that went “viral” and became an “emotional trigger” for Muslim students, “bringing back memories of personal experiences with racism.”The offending photo featured a group of students apparently dressed as soldiers pointing...

Saudi Arabia has a secret deal with Pakistan offering funding for Islamabad’s nuclear weapons programme in return for access to warheads, according to the BBC’s Newsnight show. Rumours of a deal have long circulated in the Middle East, amid Saudi anxiety at its principal regional rival Iran developing a “Shia bomb”. Fresh details emerged on the eve of talks in Geneva to find a deal on Iran's nuclear capabilities. Citing American intelligence reports and a former Pakistani security officer, the BBC said nuclear weapons made in Pakistan for Saudi Arabia were ready for delivery. However, the Pakistan government dismissed the...

Islam.net is the largest growing muslim organisation in Norway. Here is a vid from their latest peace conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6PcFYXMo4