Free Republic

Early and volatile, the Republican Presidential nomination race—at least for now—appears to be settling into a contest between consistent front runner Mitt Romney and the latest surging “non-Romney alternative,” former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately, the CNN/Heritage Foundation/American Enterprise televised debate of 11/22/11 did not highlight the yawning gap between these frontrunning contenders’ views on the existential threat doctrine of our Islamic enemies: jihad and its motivational, sacralized religio-political “law,” Sharia.During an interview with US News reporter Dan Gligoff published June 3, 2009, Mitt Romney offered the following bizarre observation about the living Islamic institution of jihad, ostensibly to “clarify”...

Similarities between Joseph Smith and Muhammad: The followers of Muhammad and Joseph Smith both killed innocent "infidel" on the same date of 9/11. On September 11, 1857, Mormon militia massacred about 140 men, women and children under the authority of Brigham Young. However 17 very young children were spared and adopted into Mormon families. They were in fact sold to the highest Mormon family bidder and resold and traded many times afterwords. This event is called "The Mountain Meadows" massacre. Mormon leaders engaged in a deliberate rewriting of history to deny they were behind the murders. On September 11, 2001...

The Muslim Brotherhood held a rally at Cairo’s most important mosque. Demonstrators chanted, “One day we shall kill all Jews." Question 1: How can you tell they are “moderate Islamists?” Answer: They said “one day,” in other words, they aren’t going to do it this week. Question 2: At the rally someone said: "In order to build Egypt, we must be one. Politics is insufficient. Faith in Allah is the basis for everything. The al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews." Who was it? Answer: Ahmed al-Tayeb, the “moderate” president of al-Azhar University and arguably the most...

Revolutions are known to devour their children, and popular uprisings driven by the promise of change for the better have been notorious for turning into nightmares. The so-called Arab Spring is another dark night unfolding across the Middle East. This was predictable, and inevitable. The Tunisian fruit-seller who sparked this Arab Spring by self-immolating was a man driven to despair by the very culture into which he was born, and from which he knew there was no escape. The act of self-immolation was a terrible display of despair of a desperate man. And so is the political drama in Arab...

Once upon a time there used to be billboards for Virginia Slims cigarettes with the slogans, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The billboards are gone now, but in their place are billboards for All-American Muslim which substitute the hijab for the cigarette. The same left which was outraged at a company marketing cigarettes as a form of female empowerment is completely supportive of marketing 7th century Islamic misogyny as female empowerment. “The Fast and the Furious,” the second episode of TLC’s All-American Muslim, plays out like a hijab commercial, along with a pitch for the Ramadan fast. But what...

A parliamentary group to tackle Islamophobia has been re-launched at Westminster, with the support of MPs from across the political divide. The group originally sparked controversy after it was revealed that an anti-Zionist organisation was to act as its secretariat. The newly reformed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia was set up last week and will begin work immediately on an inquiry into the extent of anti-Muslim prejudice in Britain today. The APPG will be co-chaired by Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes; Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr, Birmingham; and Stuart Andrew, Conservative MP for Pudsey, Leeds. MPs voted...

A male registered nurse and Vietnam war Army medic has sued the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, saying he was fired for disobeying a Muslim supervisor's order not to treat women wearing conservative Islamic dress. John Benitez Jr. ... was fired... 'not because of any performance problem, but was instead carried out because the clinic's conservative male Muslim clientele did not want a male treating female patients.'

A leader of the jihad that has kept Afghanistan in turmoil for years says the violent "Occupy" protests across the United States are an outgrowth of his movement. The claim comes from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chief of Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan, in a recent article in the Pashtu-language Pakistani daily Wrazpanra Wahdat. "We can say with full confidence that the latest spring in Africa and the Arab world and the uprising in Europe and the United States is the effect of Afghan jihad on [an] international level and all these revolutions have gotten inspiration from our [faithful] mujahideen and their resistance," he wrote.

The slow collapse of Dubai, a desert mirage built on oil money, human misery and the greed of Western businesses, reminds us once again of the fate of all slave economies in the end. But for all the skyscrapers in Dubai, the glittering avenues built by slave labor and the abundance of luxury American and European automobiles-- the story of Dubai and Saudi Arabia is very much an old story in a Muslim Middle East, of fat prosperous sheiks clutching their ill gotten gains to themselves and ruling over harems and companies of slaves, until the end comes. Like Muslim...

SNIPPET: "The latest generation of jihadists has never been to an al-Qaeda training camp. These recruits learn everything they need to know online." SNIPPET: "This change, however, is not restricted to the younger generation. Many of the older elements have replaced the Afghan-style dress and long beard with an appearance that avoids attention from security officers." SNIPPET: "Herein lies the danger from sympathisers and supporters of al-Qaeda. That community is now deemed more active and effective than actual elements of al-Qaeda, especially after the crackdown by security agencies around the world. Therefore, we believe that al-Qaeda is now paying special...

Cambridge Students Observe Muslim Religious Holy DayCAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Public school students in Cambridge have the day off Monday as the schools are closed in observance of a Muslim religious holiday. Cambridge is the first district in the state to observe an Islamic holy day. The Cambridge School Committee voted last year to close on one Muslim holiday every school year. Students are getting the day off for Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice. The decision came after a group of Muslim students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School reached out to school staff, administrators and their...

IRAN: Act by 9 November to call for Pastor Nadarkhani's pardon during Eid Pastor Nadarkhani was arrested in Rasht in 2009 while attempting to register his church. In 2010 he was tried and found guilty of apostasy (abandoning Islam), and was sentenced to death. He now awaits a decision on his case from the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and a formal written verdict. His life is still in the balance.

So who is the man who got the “hug treatment”? Erdoğan has shown a commitment to Islamist politics, has demonstrated hostility toward Israel, recently downgrading relations and expelling its ambassador, and says he doesn’t believe Hamas is a terrorist organization. These views have increased his stature across the Middle East.

Mohammad Dehghan, a member of the Iranian parliament’s leadership board, announced that it is possible there will be no presidential election in 2013, which would significantly alter Iran’s political structure. He made these comments in response to the Supreme Leader’s recent statement about a potential shift from an executive presidency to a parliamentary system of government. In mid-October, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei spoke about the government’s decision in 1989 to abolish the position of the Prime Minister and how the possibility of altering the current structure of the executive branch still exists. During his visit to Kermanshah, a western...

Pastor Nadarkhani Is One of Many Christian Leaders Suffering Persecution in Iran Iranian officials are attempting to convert Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani while he awaits his verdict under the jurisdiction of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported. CSW has been informed that during Nadarkhani’s stay in prison, guards and officials have provided him with religious Islamic literature “allegedly as part of an official campaign to convert Christian prisoners.” “CSW is deeply concerned at news of a further increase in the harassment of Iranian Christians,” CSW Special Ambassador Stuart Windsor said in a statement. Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor,...

The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights is investigating the Catholic University of America. The Tower, a student newspaper at the university, says the charges allege the school does not provide Muslim students with places to hold frequent prayer services free of crosses or other Catholic symbols. John F. Banzhaf III, a George Washington University Professor of Public Interest Law, ade the complaint to the human rights agency. In a news release Banzhaf alleges: "It is alleged that CUA does not provide space -- as other universities do -- for the many daily prayers Muslim students must make, forcing them...

Saudi Arabia's controversial Islamist and preacher, Sheikh Awad al Qarni, offered a bounty of $100,000 for the kidnapping of any IDF in 'Palestine' who can be used as leverage to force Israel to release more terrorists from its prisons. Qarni said on his Facebook page, "This award is in response to the allocation of funds to settlers who kill Palestinians prisoners released." Qarni claimed his initiative, highly praised by many in Saudi Arabia, was a response to reports in Israel's media that funds had been allocated by 'settlers' to kill terrorist Mustafa Muslimani, who was released under the deal for...

Why Islam is in as much trouble as the WestDenyse O’LearyMonday, 24 October 2011 David P. Goldman, who blogs at the Asia Times as “Spengler,” has written an insightful book challenging the truisms of the commentariat on both the rise of Islam and the decline of the West: How Civilizations Die: (and why Islam is dying too)History buffs will recognize that the pen name Spengler honours Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), author of Decline of the West. Goldman’s initial observations about the decline are most helpful but not unprecedented. From a much less religion-friendly perspective, American demographer Phillip Longman has been saying...

Libya’s transitional government, established as a result of President Obama’s intervention, announced its first rulings Sunday following the death of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. They include reestablishing polygamy for men and banning Western-style interest on bank loans. Both provisions are features of Sharia, or Islamic law; Mohammed, Islam’s founder, introduced both some 1,400 years ago. On Sunday, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil abruptly announced that Islamic law, or Sharia, would provide the “basic source” of Libyan law. “This revolution was looked after by Allah to achieve victory,” Abdul-Jalil, the leader of the Transitional National Council, said to a celebratory crowd in Benghazi. Libyans...

CAIRO — An Egyptian court sentenced a man to three years in jail with hard labour on Saturday for insulting Islam in postings on Facebook, the official MENA news agency reported. The Cairo court found that Ayman Yusef Mansur "intentionally insulted the dignity of the Islamic religion and attacked it with insults and ridicule on Facebook," the agency reported. The court said his insults were "aimed at the Noble Koran, the true Islamic religion, the Prophet of Islam and his family and Muslims, in a scurrilous manner," the agency reported. It did not provide details on what he had written...