Free Republic

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy. The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood." The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers. The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland...

Hundreds of protestors have returned to the streets of Istanbul and Ankara after two days of unrest that have seen more than 1,700 arrests. Largely peaceful protesters waved flags in Istanbul's Taksim Square but there were reports that police had fired tear gas in Kizilay Square. PM Tayyip Erdogan said protestors were trying to undermine democracy. The protests began over redeveloping a park near Taksim Square but broadened into anti-government unrest...... Correspondents say many people are fed up with the government which they believe is becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to take away some of their personal freedoms.

The collapse of Middle Eastern states from Libya to Afghanistan vastly increases the terrorist recruitment pool, while severely restricting the ability of American intelligence services to monitor and interdict the terrorists. In addition, it intensifies the despair that motivates Muslims like the Tsarnaev brothers or Michael Adebolajo to perpetrate acts of terrorism. That makes President Obama’s declaration that America is winding down the “war on terror”–a misnomer to begin with–the worst decision by an American commander-in-chief since the Buchanan administration, perhaps ever. Last week I took part in a Tablet magazine roundtable on the crack-up of Middle Eastern states and...

ASSIUT, Egypt — An Egyptian court has convicted a Coptic Christian lawyer in the southern province of Assiut on charges of blasphemy and sentenced him to one year in prison with hard labor. The verdict against Roman Murad Saad was handed down on Saturday. It’s the latest in a surge of blasphemy cases following Egypt’s 2011 uprising. ... Court officials say Saad was found guilty of ridiculing Islam’s holy book, the Quran, at a lawyers’ union library. No further details were immediately available in the case.

ARONOFF: And then, three weeks later, The Washington Post went in and found other things that no one had even touched or picked up. I mean, it’s incredible. ADMIRAL LYONS: What was it they wanted to keep our people from seeing there?

The Islamist government of Turkey is building a 15-acre, $100 million mega-mosque in Lanham, Maryland. Prime Minister Erdogan visited the site on May 15 in a ceremony that was attended by the leaders of two groups linked to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Also present was the Maryland Secretary of State, representing Maryland Governor and likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, Martin O’Malley. The mega-mosque is called the Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center and, according to the Muslim Link, it “will likely become the largest and most striking examples of Islamic architecture in the western hemisphere” when it is finished...

Syria has been at civil war for the past two years, raging between Sunni rebels and hardline President Bashar al-Assad's Shiite-controlled government. More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed since March 2011, with millions more displaced. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered legislation earlier this month to allow the U.S. to provide arms to the Syrian opposition. Menendez's legislation includes $250 million for transitioning the government. The U.S. is already supplying the Syrian rebels with food and medicine. In April, the U.S. started providing the rebels with defensive equipment like body armor, night...

The first air-defense missiles from Russia have begun rolling into Syria, according to the the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Speaking on a TV station owned by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad said that Russia will honor its promises to Syria, and had in fact already started to do so (via Rovin): The Syrian president has told Lebanon’s Hizbollah-owned TV station that Damascus received the first shipment of S300 Russian air defence missiles. Al-Manar said in a statement that when asked about the promised delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missiles, Assad replied: “All the agreements with Russia will be honoured and some...

Turkey has entered a second day of violent protests, with fresh clashes between police and demonstrators in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara. The unrest began as a sit-in over plans to redevelop Gezi Park in Istanbul's Taksim Square, but escalated after police used tear gas. Tear gas was again fired Saturday at protestors in Istanbul and Ankara. In a defiant speech, PM Tayyip Erdogan insisted that the park project would go ahead. He also said that police would remain in Taksim Square to preserve order. Correspondents say that what began as a local issue has spiralled into more widespead anger...

Thousands of demonstrators massed on streets surrounding Istanbul's central Taksim Square, long a venue for political unrest, while protests erupted in the capital Ankara and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir. Broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street near Taksim. Primary school children ran crying from the clouds of tear gas while tourists caught by surprise scurried to get back to luxury hotels lining the square. The unrest reflects growing disquiet at the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). Riot police clashed with tens of thousands of May...

ISTANBUL — Police officers attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators on Friday in Istanbul’s Taksim Square with water cannons and tear gas, sending scores of people, protesters and tourists alike, scurrying into shops and luxury hotels and turning the center of this city into a battle zone at the height of tourist season.

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul have pulled out of Taksim square, where the largest anti-government protests in years are taking place. Thousands of people are gathered in the square after days of violence sparked by plans to redevelop a nearby park. Police have fired tear gas and water cannon several times to break up the riots, and rioters have thrown rocks at police. Turkey's President Abdullah Gul has called for “common sense” to prevail, admitting that the Taksim square protests had reached a “worrisome level”. He called on all sides to be "mature", urging police to "act in...

Chechen lawyer Dagir Khasavov fled Russia after receiving death threats following his calls for Sharia law to be introduced in the country. The Russian Political Immigrants society announced on Friday that he swiftly left the country, BBC reported. The lawyer left for “a European country” after receiving threats. His son, Arlsan Khasavov, wrote in his blog that his father was provoked, possibly by Chechen authorities, to make him a “ritual sacrifice” before the inauguration. Khasanov gave an interview to Ren TV on April 24, where he said that Muslims in Russia do not want to go to secular courts and...

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon. These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law. According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. snip... Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to...

A few days ago I got up determined to keep Islam and politics out of my mind - I tend to think about such subjects a lot these days - at least until I would turn my computer on and start working. I went to the front door to check my mail and among the letters there was a leaflet with the menu of a local takeaway. I inspected it and found the dreaded word: "Halal". There is no way you can keep Islam out of your life, even out of your thoughts for long, in today's Britain, even...

Muslim men in Germany take advantage of the social welfare system by bringing two, three, four women from across the Muslim world and then marrying them in front of an imam. Although polygamous marriages are not officially recognized -- and are technically illegal and punishable by fines and imprisonment -- government agencies are reluctant to take action. Once in Germany, the women request social welfare benefits, including the cost of a separate home for themselves and their children, on the claim of being a "single parent with children." ... Rather than asking Muslims to take responsibility for their "image problem"...

Destroying America is big these days. Everyone wants to do it. Including retired UN bigwigs. Sure Obama is doing it pretty quickly, but what if we put the Destroy America bulldozer in gear and just rammed it forward while spouting absolutely insane ideas? To answer that question we have this proposal from the former director of the United Nations Population Division to make America the most populous country in the world. Sure you might be asking yourself, “Wait a minute. Is that a good thing. Why do we want to be the most populous country in the world?” But that’s...

This is an informative video of a speech by Publius Huldah on the topic of the threat of Islamization. As usual, she brings her in-depth knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and our founding principles to bear on multiculturalism in general and Islamization in particular. She makes the case that America has a right and an obligation to maintain its values and value system. This is not a matter of race, but a matter of values and the behaviors which always flow from values. Islam is diametrically opposed to the values upon which America was founded, and which we still cherish...

WASHINGTON – The American Freedom Law Center has filed a notice of appeal in the United States Court of Appeals on behalf of political activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who have been refused permission by the government to trademark their “Stop Islamization of America” campaign. Geller, a WND columnist, and Spencer head the human rights organization called Freedom of Defense Initiative, and they applied to register SIOA as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The French have become increasingly fed up with what they see as the growing Islamization of France. Watch video here: http://www.cbn.com/tv/1432527833001