Free Republic

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh fired back at Iran on Tuesday in a growing war of words over the Hajj pilgrimage, saying Iranians were “not Muslims," as the country's armed forces put on a show of force with a military parade. In comments made to Saudi media, Sheikh said that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian government were “enemies of Islam and doctrine, and descendants of the majoos,” using the pejorative term for pre-Islamic Iranians who believed in fire worship.

The Palestinian parliament is continuing to reject any Jewish right to the “land of Palestine”, meaning the entire land of Israel, including the sovereign territory of the State of Israel. At a special meeting in Gaza on Thursday held on the occasion of Nakba Day, the Palestinian parliament stated that the entire “land of Palestine” is an Islamic endowment, and the Jews have no right to even a single inch of it. Nakba Day is the day on which Arabs mourn what they view as the “disaster” of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. It is marked...

VAN SUSTEREN, FOX News: People think of him as hawkish on the budget, on expenses, but he voted for TARP. He voted for the auto bailout, voted for two stimulus in '08, voted against the '09 -- February '09 President Obama stimulus. How does -- I mean, how does he explain those, or I mean, how does -- politically, how does he sell that? BOEHNER: I mean, I think that he's a practical conservative. He's got a very conservative voting record, but he's not a knuckle-dragger, all right? He understood that TARP, while none of us wanted to do it,...

Here is video of Vice-President Joe Biden telling Larry King that "the idea of there being a massive attack on the United States like 9-11 is unlikely in my view." King had asked Biden about reports that intelligence officials believe the U.S. will face another terrorist attack for certain in the next few months. Biden said Al-Qaeda has turned its attention to smaller-scale attacks, and it is very possible we will see such attempts in the months ahead. (VIDEO)

The United States is too dumb to thrive: Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787* stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it's been wasted on them. That's what it says at the time of writing, by the way: a $787 stimulus package. Presumably Joe Klein's editors will get around to correcting that at some point, but just for the record let me say that I would have been all in favor of a $787 stimulus package. At any rate, Mr Klein concludes...

NEW YORK (AP) - Sting isn't a religious man, but he says President Barack Obama might be a divine answer to the world's problems. In an interview, he jokes that Obama was "sent from God," but in a serious tone, he also said that Obama was the best person to handle the world's "mess."

We are losing our children! Research indicates that 70% of teens who are involved in a church youth group will stop attending church … [1] Similar statements from Christian leaders aren’t new, but many still can’t seem to identify the root cause of the problem. However, most front-line evangelists in the Western world have reached a consensus. The following quote is from a person who shares his faith more times in a month than most Christians ever will in their lives...

The fossil record reveals a history of life characterized by the abrupt appearance of new species followed by no change and eventual extinction in most cases. Needless to say, abrupt appearances and no change is not exactly what evolution expected. Much of this was known in Darwin’s time and he figured that the fossil record was incomplete. Today such speculation doesn’t work anymore. The evidence reveals even more clearly this pattern of abrupt appearances followed by stasis. --Snip-- As in Darwin's day, the fossil record does not match evolutionary expectations and evolutionists have been trying to solve the riddle. How...

Next time someone tells you intelligent design is “based on religion,” you might point him to American Founder Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. As I explain in a special July 4th edition of ID the Future, Jefferson not only believed in intelligent design, he insisted it was based on the plain evidence of nature, not religion. Ironically, the critics of intelligent design often think they are defending the principles of Jefferson. The National Council for the Social Studies, for example, claims that intelligent design is religion and then cites Jefferson’s famous Letter to the Danbury Baptists calling...

Protestors burn the Israeli flag outside Leinster House during the Ireland Palestine demonstration in Dublin today. Photo: Matt Kavanagh A man attempted to set himself alight at a protest today in Dublin over the continued bombing of Gaza. The man, who appeared visibly distraught, set his arms and shoulders alight before onlookers managed to extinguish the flames. He was not seriously injured. The incident happened at around 1.45pm this afternoon at the Central Bank in Dublin where around 600 people had gathered to protest at Israeli attacks in Gaza. The protest continued without incident to Leinster House and finished this...

Men are smarter than women, according to a controversial new study that adds another cinder to the fiery debate over whether gender impacts general intelligence. "For 100 years there's been a consensus among psychologists that there is no sex difference in intelligence," said J. Philippe Rushton, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Recent studies, however, have raised questions about the validity of this claim, he said. One such study showed that men have larger brains than women, a 100 gram difference after correcting for body size. Rushton found similar results in a study of gender and brain...

OCALA, Fla. -- A Florida judge said a plea deal for a Tampa teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old would "erode public confidence in" schools. Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stencil has rejected the plea deal for Debra Lafave, 25. The judge said the deal would undermine the credibility of the criminal justice system. Prosecutors and the defense lawyer had urged the judge to accept the deal for the good of the boy. A psychiatrist told the judge the boy suffered extreme anxiety because of intense media coverage of the case and does not want to testify. Lafave...

The miracle of Purim owes much to a superficial, womanizing male who set about dating as many women as possible to find the one that was the most beautiful. Ahasuerus is like so many shallow men today who reduce women to nothing but a slim figure and a pretty face. But in the end, the story of Esther makes it clear that the secretly Jewish queen was chosen not for her looks, but because she "found grace and favor" in the eyes of all who beheld her. There was a womanly dignity, a sublime feminine majesty, to Esther that the...

hould men have the "choice" not to have any financial obligations for babies they do not want? Yes No Not sure

The latest entrants in the saga of Cindy Sheehan vs. President Bush are white supremacists, as they plan to rally against the Iraq War this weekend in Crawford, Texas. Members of Stormfront.org are tossing their figurative hoods into the mix, as they invite supporters to come to Camp Casey to "let the world know that white patriots were first and loudest to protest this war for Israel." Anti-war activists, including one from CodePink, suggest 'Bush stinks' near the president's property in Crawford, Texas (photo: Fausto Fernos) "We don't want leftist Johnny-come-latelys who are misleadingly protesting this war – as if...

Former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, whose capture and rescue in the early days of the Iraq war turned her into a US icon, said in an interview that the US government had used her as an upbeat symbol in the conflict. "I think I provided a way to boost everybody's confidence about the war," Lynch told Time magazine. "I was used as a symbol. They could show the war was going great because 'we rescued this person.' It doesn't bother me anymore. It used to," she said.

Scientists who moaned when they read this week that President Bush favors teaching "intelligent design" along with the Darwinian theory of evolution should be grateful for how far the president has come. In 1999, as Texas governor and GOP presidential front-runner, George W. Bush said much the same about creationism, which tried to force natural history to match the biblical creation story. At least creationism's successor, known as ID to its adherents, makes room for paleontology and human descent from apes. Beyond that, politicians' support for what they call "balance" still damages both science and faith. In a broad interview...