Free Republic

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Saturday hanged three men in public accused of involvement in the bombing of a Shiite mosque that killed 25 people, an official said, branding them "terrorists" and "enemies of God." The early morning executions took place near the mosque in southeastern Iran devastated by the bombing, official IRNA news agency quoted Hojatoeslam Ebrahim Hamidi, justice chief of Sistan-Baluchestan province, as saying. At least 125 people were also wounded in the powerful blast, which rocked the Amir al-Momenin mosque in the Sistan-Baluchestan provincial capital Zahedan during evening prayers on Thursday. "The terrorists Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam...

EXCLUSIVE: Four New York City men were arrested Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up New York City synagogues and other city locations, WNBC's Jonathan Dienst has learned. Raids by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force in the Bronx captured the suspected ringleader and three followers in what law enforcement sources are calling a homegrown terrorist plot. Investigators stress the suspects' meetings had been infiltrated early on and there was "no chance" the alleged plot could succeed. Investigators said several of the suspects are Muslims who allegedly talked about destroying two Jewish temples, including at least one...

Tampa police arrested an imam and accused the Muslim prayer leader of sexually battering a 13-year-old boy who was at a Tampa mosque for early prayer. Shahade Police said the boy was staying at the mosque overnight on Saturday for early morning prayer. At about 6 a.m., police said he was assaulted by an imam who was living at the Masjid Omar Al Mokhtar mosque, which is located at 1307 W North B Street.

Scuffles have broken out after about 1,600 people demonstrated against a rally held by a group opposing the building of a mosque in the German city of Cologne. The rally, held by Pro Koeln, a right-wing group, led to violence after left-wing demonstrators demanded entry to it on Saturday, saying it had been described as a public event. Wolfgang Baldes, a police spokesman, said: "There were minor scuffles. "We've not allowed some of the protesters to get into the square ... police intervened and secured a distance. "We have more than 5,000 policemen here for the weekend, we are well...

AHORE: The grand mufti of Egypt has invited US President Barack Obama to address Muslims around the globe from Egypt’s Al Azhar mosque – one of the most important mosques in the Muslim world. Al Masri Al Yawm, an Egyptian state-run newspaper, said Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and other clerics from Al Azhar University invited Obama to use the mosque as the venue for the president’s upcoming visit, “explaining it would promote a culture of dialogue between Islam and the West”. It is highly unusual for a non-Muslim to speak at the mosque, according to World Net Daily news website,...

Note: 3 photos included. # A radical Muslim who dressed his baby daughter in a hat with “I love al-Qaeda” on it tried to firebomb the home of the publisher of a controversial novel about the Prophet Mohammed. Ali Beheshti, 40, along with Abrar Mirza, 22, have admitted conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life after they poured diesel through the letterbox of a publishing house in Islington, North London. Abbas Taj, 30, a mini-cab driver, was found guilty at Croydon Crown court of conspiracy to firebomb the home of Martin Rynja, the publisher of The Jewel Of Medina....

A missile fired from inside Pakistan has hit a mosque near a US military base in Afghanistan, killing at least three civilians and injuring four others, police said. Abdul Qayum Batizoi, the Khost province police chief, said that four or five rockets had been fired over the border on Friday. One struck the mosque, while others landed in uninhabited areas, he said. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in a province that has seen an upsurge in violence in recent months. "It seems to have been an attempt to target Camp Salerno, which is the third largest...

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A rocket fired from across the Pakistan border into Afghanistan hit a mosque near a NATO base Friday, killing three civilians and wounding four, an Afghan provincial police chief said. Abdul Qayum Batizoi, police chief in Khost province, said four to five rockets had been fired over the border and one had struck the mosque near a NATO base occupied by American troops. The other rockets landed in uninhabited areas.

(AINA) -- As a result of a rumor that a young Christian Copt hurled a stone towards a mosque, thousands of Muslims congregated and attacked Copts and their properties, leaving several injured and arrested. The incident, which took place on Wednesday, May 13, 2009,in the area of Saft El-Labn, Giza, resulted in the injury of 14 people from both sides. The police arrested 20 Copts, including 6 women, and 7 Muslims, and security imposed a curfew on the region. Among the Copts randomly rounded up by the police is 29-year-old Sabry Shaker, a physically handicapped man suffering from infantile paralysis....

Special Dispatch - No. 2355 May 13, 2009 No. 2355 "First Black Saudi Appointed Imam of Haram Mosque in Mecca Accuses Shi'ites of Apostasy and Discusses Driving Jews and Christians Out of Arabian Peninsula; Claims His Appointment 'More Significant' than Obama's Election" SNIPPET: "Following are excerpts from interviews with Sheikhh Adel Al-Kalbani, imam of the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, which aired on BBC Arabic on May 5, 2009 and Al-Arabiya TV on February 27, 2009. BBC Arabic, May 5, 3009: To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2102.htm "

A counter-terrorism expert researching extremism at U.S. mosques claims authorities in Nashville, Tenn., ignored his report of child abuse by teachers at a local mosque due to fear of retribution from Muslim organizations such at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Dave Gaubatz, a former Air Force special agent, told WND he informed the local prosecutor, the FBI and Sgt. Brooks Harris of the Metropolitan Police Department in Nashville of a 7-year-old girl who says teachers at the Al-Farooq mosque "hit the children" during Shariah, or Islamic law, lessons. Harris insists he was not initially given enough information to pursue the...

LAHORE: The grand mufti of Egypt has invited US President Barack Obama to address Muslims around the globe from Egypt’s Al Azhar mosque – one of the most important mosques in the Muslim world. Al Masri Al Yawm, an Egyptian state-run newspaper, said Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and other clerics from Al Azhar University invited Obama to use the mosque as the venue for the president’s upcoming visit, “explaining it would promote a culture of dialogue between Islam and the West”. It is highly unusual for a non-Muslim to speak at the mosque, according to World Net Daily news website,...

Egyptian Mufti Dr. 'Ali Gum'a and other Al-Azhar scholars have condoned Obama's decision to visit Cairo next month and to address the Arab and Muslim world from that city, and have invited him to give his address from the Al-Azhar mosque. Dr. Gum'a stated that this would promote a culture of dialogue between Islam and the West.

THE mountain is to move for Muhammad. Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid are involved in plans to transform the landscape around Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, to make way for a high-rise metropolis complete with high-speed rail link for pilgrims. Architectural designs being considered by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia could see the mosque at the heart of the city expanded fivefold to hold 5m worshippers in one go. However, much of the land around the historic site, including ancient mountains, is likely to be flattened to accommodate seven-star hotels and towering blocks of luxury flats. Critics believe the 20-year redevelopment...

Munich - Plans for a new mosque to be built in Munich got the official go-ahead Wednesday, after years of political wrangling. The city council approved building plans for the 10-million-euro (13 million dollar) mosque to be built in the city centre, despite opposition from Bavaria's Christian Socialist Union (CSU) and another regional party. A broad political majority voted in favour of the project, including Social Democrats (SPD), Federal Democrats (FDP), Greens and the Left Party, according to a city spokesman. The Turkish-Islamic mosque organisation Ditim now has to obtain the funds to buy the land for the mosque by...

AMMAN, Jordan, May 9 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI prayed Saturday at the King Hussein Mosque in the Jordanian capital Amman, Vatican officials said. The trip to the mosque, the largest in Jordan, marked the second day of the pope's visit to the Middle East, the BBC reported. Afterwards, Benedict addressed local Muslim leaders, observers said. Earlier in the day he visited Mount Nebo, which, according to the Bible, is where Moses saw the Promised Land before he died. Vatican analysts said the pope is anxious to mend relations with Muslims and Jews on his eight-day sojourn to Israel and...

A man wearing an Iraqi army uniform has shot dead two US soldiers and injured three others in a military base south of the northern city of Mosul. The US army said the man was also killed in the incident but gave little information about the attack. But Iraqi military reports said he was a soldier also working as an Imam for at a mosque on the base. No motive was given for the attack but Mosul is seen as the last remaining urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US army said it had received reports of "small arms...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-s9wsNZq1gPosted by a Muslim it seems Islam triumphing over Christianity in the UK the land of St George The Muslim uploader must be very happy

Of course we all know that there is no jihad activity in Bosnia, and that anyone who suggests otherwise is secretly an advocate of genocide, don't we? Don't we? Unfortunately for this prevailing dogma, reality keeps interfering. "Al-Qaeda man says terrorists safe in Bosnia," a translation of a German news article by Serbianna, April 20 (thanks to Maxwell): A Bosnian Muslim national under an alias Nihad C. gave an interview to a Vienna based weekly, The News, where he said that al-Qaeda terrorists are living safe in Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo but that he is in contact with the Western spy...

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release on bail Monday of a hard-line cleric who had been detained since shortly before soldiers stormed his mosque in 2007, killing scores of people and energizing the country's Islamist insurgency. Maulana Abdul Aziz was granted bail while the court considers the charges against him in relation to the siege of the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, his lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui told reporters outside the court. Prosecutors were not available for comment. Aziz was arrested as he tried to sneak out of the mosque dressed in an all-covering burqa worn by some Muslim women....

The Chebucto Road area in Halifax is getting a new landmark. Construction is underway for a new community centre and mosque next to the Maritime Muslim Academy. "It’s unique in its architecture," said Hadi Salah, the academy’s principal and chairman of the centre’s building committee. The new centre’s brick facade will blend in with neighbouring buildings, which include the academy and the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. However, the structure will also feature windows and domed roofs that will make it instantly identifiable as a mosque. The $6-million project should be done in 12 to 14 months, Mr. Salah said....

A Middle East expert and former Air Force special agent is set to launch a "counter-terrorism tour" across America in which he plans to visit a mosque in each state in 50 days to assess their threat to the nation's security. Dave Gaubatz told WND the ultimate aim of his project, which begins April 16, is to shut down Islamic centers "that advocate violence against America" and to prosecute the Islamic leaders "for sedition or treason if they are encouraging their worshippers to attack America from the 'inside.'" "This objective will only be met if American citizens become involved in...

Ramallah - Palestinian security officials said on Sunday that they had found a Hamas bomb-making factory underneath a mosque in the occupied West Bank. "Security forces found a bomb-making factory inside a mosque in Qalqiliya," an Interior Ministry statement said. "Many of the bombs were ready to use and many of them were of industrial grade."

New Delhi (PTI): Jihadi groups have attacked or destroyed at least 40 mosques in Pakistan in recent years killing hundreds of worshippers, a move that is being dubbed by a former Indian envoy as "random terrorism". The strategy of targeting mosques at prayer time is now increasingly being used by terrorist groups across Pakistan as this has become a lethal way to create terror. According to the available data, about 40 mosques have been targeted either by Taliban or other terror groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) since 2002 across Pakistan with four being attacked this year...

Hamas terrorists in Kalkilya built a large supply of bombs and stored them in a local mosque without raising suspicion from local Palestinian Authority armed forces who represent the rival Fatah faction. However, the terrorists were out of luck on Wednesday, Passover eve, when a simple electric shortage gave away their plans. The shortage caused a small fire in the mosque, bringing PA forces to the building, where they found bombs ready for use and large cannisters of bomb-making materials. The mosque was closed down, and PA sappers removed the explosives.

US President Barack Obama visited a landmark mosque in Istanbul on Tuesday, following strong messages of US reconciliation with the Islamic world on his maiden trip to a mainly Muslim country. Taking off his shoes as tradition requires, Obama stepped into the 17th-century Sultanahmet Mosque in the ancient heart of Istanbul, accompanied by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid tight security in the area. Two Muslim preachers guided Obama inside the grandiose edifice -- better known as the Blue Mosque for its blue tileworks -- and the president smiled when they showed him a dome scripture mentioning the Prophet...

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say. All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque. But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba. Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.

April 2, 2009 Italian authorities carry out raids against "Islamist radicals" across country SNIPPET: "Rome, 2 April (AKI) - Twenty-six foreigners suspected of links to international terrorism as well as aiding and abetting illegal immigration are being investigated by Italian police, after raids carried out on Thursday in various Italian cities. The raids were carried out in properties around the northern cities of Vicenza, Venice, Padova, Brescia, Como, Cuneo and Trento, the central city of Florence and the southern city of Caserta. The anti-terrorism and organised crime investigators in March 2007 began probing alleged Islamic fundamentalists attending the Via Dei...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year. The bomber struck at the climax of the service, as the mosque leader was starting the communal prayer, witnesses said. "As the prayer leader said 'God is Great', the bomb went off with a big bang," said Nadir Shah, a local paramilitary solider attending the mosque. "I felt it was the end of everything. Sometime later when I opened my eyes, I...

A NEW mosque is set to transform the skyline in a corner of inner city Leeds. Planning chiefs have approved a blueprint for the new Hassan Quba Masjid in Harehills. It will replace the existing Islamic Educational Centre in Shepherds Lane, doubling the size of the prayer hall and general floorspace. It will have two 45ft-high minarets and a large traditional dome...

A leader of a Minneapolis mosque today criticized testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing that indirectly linked it to a terrorist group's recruitment of young Somali men from the city. Farhan Hurre, director of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in south Minneapolis rebuffed what he called "finger-pointing and false allegations" at the hearing held Wednesday by the Senate's homeland security committee. Mosque leaders have repeatedly pushed back against rumors and news reports that have drawn a connection between it and the disappearance of as many as 20 Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities. During the hearing, a representative of the local...

Egyptian cleric: The Jews "are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing." [March 6, 2009 ] They keep telling us that it isn't about "stolen land," and that land concessions and even the creation of a Palestinian state will not end the conflict. And we keep refusing to believe it."Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub: The Jews Are the Enemies of Muslims Regardless of the Occupation of Palestine," from MEMRI TV, January 17 (just posted), with thanks to Sr. Soph:Following are excerpts from a speech delivered by Egyptian...

Use of an informant in Orange County leads some to avoid mosques and cut charitable giving. By Teresa Watanabe and Paloma Esquivel March 1, 2009 The Islamic Center of Irvine is a beige stucco building that blends into the rows of office buildings surrounding it. But last week, it became the most publicized mosque in California with disclosures that the FBI sent an informant there to spy and collect evidence of jihadist rhetoric and other allegedly extremist acts by a Tustin man who attended prayers there. The revelations dismayed mosque members like Omar Turbi, 50, and his 27-year-old son who...

The revelation that the FBI planted a spy in a Southern California mosque was explosive news in a Muslim community that has long suspected the government of even broader surveillance. Muslim-American organizations have demanded an inquiry. Some say the news has rattled their faith in American democracy. Despite the reaction, former FBI agents and federal prosecutors say spying on mosques is still one of the government's best weapons to thwart terrorists and that the benefit to national security is likely to far outweigh any embarrassment to the agency. "What matters to the FBI is preventing a massive attack that might...

Leaders of one the largest mosques in the Twin Cities swung the doors of their mosque wide-open Wednesday in an effort to embrace neighbors, educate the curious and dispel rumors that the mosque is linked to recruiting Somali men to fight in their country's civil war. "If people don't know one another, they may think something is not good," said Abdirahman Sheikh Omar, president of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. "We are part of the Minnesota community. We are good citizens. We are taxpayers working for the good of Minnesota society. We are not...

Last November it was reported that a resident of Minneapolis had returned to his native Somalia to conduct a suicide bombing attack. It is now known that he was not radicalized upon his return to Somalia, but that his indoctrination into jihadism happened right here in the United States. The New York Times now reports that "the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said Monday that a Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States. The man,...

The UK's mosques are out of touch with British Muslims and failing to root out extremism, a think tank has claimed. The Quilliam Foundation, a group which opposes radical Islam, quotes a study saying 97% of imams were born abroad. It says the lecture before Friday prayers in 44% of mosques is not in English, while nearly half have no women's facilities.

A former FBI special agent told law enforcement and Homeland Security personnel that a network of Islamic organizations are working to incrementally implement Islamic law in the United States. During a presentation at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, former FBI agent John Guandolo briefed members about groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims is working with other Islamic groups to slowly implement Shariah, also known as Islamic law, which encompasses all areas of life. Guandolo worked in the FBI since 1996, including nine years as a member of its SWAT team. After 9/11, he worked in the...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A suburban Buffalo man who founded a cable TV station to promote better understanding of Muslims in the U.S. has been arrested on charges he beheaded his wife. Orchard Park police arrested Muzzammil Hassan, 44, on Thursday for investigation of second-degree murder, The Buffalo News reported. Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Her body was found at his business, Bridges TV.

The website of a New York TV network whose aim is to improve American perceptions of Islam was shut down this morning, two days after its founder admitted to the beheading of his wife. And while that irony might bring a momentary smile, another attempt to conceal the facts behind an honor killing right here in America should stir nothing short of outrage. Muzzammil Hassan, CEO of Bridges TV, whose motto is "connecting people through understanding," apparently didn't think Thursday's honor killing -- and make no mistake about what this was -- at the station might somehow blur that message....

February 10, 2009 Part Two: Islam in American Prisons By Kathy Shaidle RightSideNews Copyright © 2009 "One in 10 inmates behind bars turns to Islam." It was small story in a local newspaper called the Daily Herald out of Everett, Washington, but it spread quickly around the internet, thanks to that startling claim. The paper's February 2009 investigation declared that so-called "prison Islam" was the fastest-growing religious group in U.S. correctional facilities. Some of those worshippers claim affiliation with the Nation of Islam (NOR), a black separatist movement that was launched and promoted by two convicts, Elijah Mohammed and his...

NEVER-BEFORE-REVEALED TERRORIST TRAINING VIDEO EXPOSES 35 COMPOUNDS ON AMERICAN SOILBy Steve Foley - Posted on February 9th, 2009 Press Release from the Christian Action Network “Act like you are his friend. Then kill him.” – Sheik Muburak Gilani explaining how to kill American infidels Washington, DC—Christian Action Network will show Homegrown Jihad at the Landmark Theater in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2009, at 7:30 pm. There is no charge to attend the viewing. Copies can also be obtained at www.christianaction.org. The American public was never supposed to know. The 2006 Justice Department document that exposes 35 terrorist training compounds...

The official explanation for the Crescent of Embrace design is that the path of Flight 93 breaks the circle, turning it into the giant crescent. They call it the Circle of Embrace now, but the Memorial Project’s own website acknowledges that the circle is still broken: In summary, the memorial is shaped in a circular fashion, and the circle is symbolically "broken" or missing trees in two places, depicting the flight path of the plane, and the crash site... The fact that the Circle of Embrace is really a broken circle means two things. First, it means that the giant...

jihadist group responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil is operating 35 training camps across the nation, but its name cannot be found on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Exposing Jamaat ul-Fuqra's threat to the U.S., putting it on the terror list and shutting it down is the aim of a documentary film premiering tomorrow night at the Landmark Theater in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m. The film's producer, the Christian Action Network, or CAN, says there's no charge to attend the showing of "Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.," and DVDs are available...

White House: First Couple Still Looking for ChurchBy The Associated Press Thu, Feb. 05 2009 05:30 PM EST WASHINGTON – The White House says Michelle and Barack Obama have visited several churches and will see a few more, but haven't decided on a place to worship. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the first couple visited a couple of churches around the time of his inauguration. Gibbs said they would like to visit some more and "figure out a congregation in the area that they can worship at." Gibbs said the president likely misses not having a regular place...

(I'reading a fascinating book calledThe Siege of Mecca by Yaroslav Trofimov. I came across of section I thought Freepers might find interesting. It has to do with the Muslim concept of the "End of Days" and part played in it by Jesus Christ. It is from Chapter 5, pp. 47-48. (P.S. I having to type this in, so please forgive by hunt-and-peck fingers. Hopefully there's not too many typos.) ================================================= "The idea of a Mahdi has fuel Muslim imagination for centuries. There is no mention of it in the Quran itself . But the Phophet Mohammed, according to some nattators,...

Some 250 teenage boys will pile onto the carpet of the Islamic Center of Passaic County on Sunday to catch the Super Bowl on a big screen. But when the much-buzzed-about commercials come on, they won't be watching. A youth leader manning the projector slaps a piece of paper over the lens, blocking out images the center considers inappropriate, such as beers and bikinis. "The purpose is to keep them away from bad influences," said Emad Hamdeh, the youth committee director. "The beer commercials show people happy while drinking; that's not reality." During the self-imposed blackouts, the boy fans don't...

This is great news, but I still wonder what took the FBI so long. "FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Questions," by Mary Jacoby for IPT News, January 29 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm): The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned. The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF),...

From Il Corriere della Sera: Call for directive to prevent episodes like Duomo demonstration in Milan from happening again ROME – Places of worship, supermarkets and shopping malls will join public institutions, political party headquarters and diplomatic premises as being off-limits for demonstrators. Organisers will also have to pay a deposit as a guarantee against damage.NEW RULES – Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed new rules for public demonstrations, revealing that he is working on a directive to be sent to prefects and chiefs of police. A week ago, the minister explained to a hearing of the Senate’s constitutional affairs...

The President in his Inaugural Address: For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity...