Free Republic

The heritage of centuries has been wiped out in little more than a year. Eventually the need to wipe out all traces of unbelief becomes obsessive. At one time, for instance, Egyptian law demanded that any house found to contain a copy of The Apology of al-Kindi (a book containing a polemical dialogue between a Muslim and a Christian) would be demolished along with 40 houses around it. Ethics were defined by what Allah said was good or evil in Sharia law. The Islamic State's behaviour is solidly rooted in Islamic ideology, law and practice. It is only when this...

Sign in street announcing Public Execution The enlarged sign reads: (loose translation) ..... Carrying out of death sentence..........

When a tyrannical regime dies, you can see the symptoms in the little things. Late Friday afternoon, after millions (yes, millions–this according to Le Monde, France 2, and L’Express, with the BBC saying that the demonstrations were bigger than those at the time of the Revolution) of Greens mobbed the streets and squares of more than thirty towns and cities to call for the end of the regime, there was a soccer game in Azadi Stadium in Tehran. It holds about a hundred thousand fans, and it was full of men wearing green and carrying green balloons. When state-run tv...

Reformists to use last Friday of Ramadan, which marks annual Palestinian support rallies in Tehran, to protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, including transfer of financial aid to Palestinians in 'disregard for the Iranian people's money' according to the report, supporters of reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi used the social network Facebook and other online forums to urged people to attend the annual Palestinian support rallies, but this time, instead of calling out, "Death to America and Israel" to shout out, "Death to the dictator", in reference to Ahmadinejad. Protestors also plan to express their objection to the financial aid Iran grants...

Another Iran Video: Iranian Friday leader aligned with the hard-line regime directing crowd to chant "down with U.S.", Iranian people defiantly respond "Down with dictator", "Down with Russia". Iranian people have blamed Russia for its support of Ahmadinejad/Khamenei. Link here

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The United States may have been behind the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old Iranian woman whose fatal videotaped shooting Saturday made her a symbol of opposition to the June 12 presidential election results, the country's ambassador to Mexico said Thursday. "This death of Neda is very suspicious," Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri said. "My question is, how is it that this Miss Neda is shot from behind, got shot in front of several cameras, and is shot in an area where no significant demonstration was behind held?" He suggested that the CIA or another intelligence...

Iran's hardline president lashed out anew at the United States and President Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing him of interference and suggesting that Washington's stance on Iran's postelection turmoil could imperil Obama's aim of improving relations. "We are surprised at Mr. Obama," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in remarks to judiciary officials broadcast on state television. "Didn't he say that he was after change? Why did he interfere?"

The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments. Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, said he ran to Neda Agha-Soltan's aid after seeing she had been shot in the chest. Despite his attempts to stop the bleeding she died in less than a minute, he said. Dr Hejazi says he posted the video of Ms Soltan's death on the internet and images of her have become a rallying point for Iranian opposition supporters...

Akbar Ganji, a leading investigative journalist who is now one of Iran’s most renowned political prisoners, has been awarded the 2006 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers. Mr Ganji, who is serving the fourth year of a six-year prison sentence, is the author of the book "Dungeon of Ghosts," in which he implicates the former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and other leading conservative figures in the murders of five writers and intellectuals in 1998. The book is said to have been a major factor in the conservative defeat in parliamentary elections...

TEHRAN, July 28 (AFP) - Iran's main pro-reform party threatened Sunday to quit the Islamic regime unless the conservatives who still dominate the courts and security forces stop undermining the elected reformist administration. The Islamic Iran Participation Front insisted it would rather resolve the country's political crisis by dialogue, but warned it could no longer tolerate the conservatives' persistent undermining of the policies it was elected to implement. We want to work towards agreement and not disagreement, and to hold a dialogue without preconditions in mutual respect," the party chief Mohammad-Reza Khatami, younger brother of moderate President Mohammad Khatami, said...