Free Republic

BOSTON — A Massachusetts man and two friends tried and failed to get into terrorist training camps and then plotted to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and randomly shoot people at American shopping malls, authorities said Wednesday. Tarek Mehanna, who recently taught at a Muslim school in Worcester, was arrested early Wednesday at his parents' suburban Boston home. Mehanna was charged with conspiring with two other men — an American now in Syria and another man who is cooperating with authorities — to provide support to terrorists. Ultimately, the trio never came close to pulling off an attack. Authorities say...

A best-selling author and critic of Islam is pleased that a judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the founding principal of an Islamic-oriented Arabic language school in New York City who claimed her free-speech rights were violated. Debbie Almontaser, the former principal of Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy, had claimed her First Amendment rights were violated when she was fired in 2007. Almontaser had commented in a New York Post story about a T-shirt with the word "intifada" on it. She said the word had nonviolent origins and literally meant "shaking off," although some contend it means "uprising."...

An Orlando, Florida, attorney has filed court documents to support his contention that a Columbus, Ohio-area mosque has ties to terrorist groups and would present a clear and present danger to a 17-year-old Christian convert from Islam who fled to Florida in fear of her life. OneNewsNow reported on Monday, Rifqa Bary fled from her parents after she claims her father threatened to kill her when he learned from members of his mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus, Ohio, that Rifqa converted from Islam to Christianity. Rifqa is staying with a Christian foster family in Orlando pending a...

South Florida must do more to battle hate Two young men not old enough to vote have been charged with vandalizing the Islamic School of Miami in West Kendall. The charges include criminal mischief and evidencing prejudice while committing a crime. But this type of misbehavior goes much deeper than slashing tires and smashing windows at the mosque, which has been defaced, shot at and vandalized at least six times since 2005. It's a sign of how much more this community needs to do to respect religious freedom and to not stereotype an entire group of people based on religious...

9 women, 4 children injured by rampage Muslims apparently angered because a Christian man driving a tractor reportedly tried to pass a Muslim on a motorcycle have rampaged in one village in Pakistan, destroying Christians' homes and throwing acid on women and children as they fled, according to a new report from Barnabas Aid. The ministry reported that the violence this week happened in the village of Bahmani Walla in Punjab state in Pakistan, which is dominated by Islamic influences.

“Last week, four Southern Baptists were arrested for plotting to blow up St Patrick’s Cathedral. The men, who became born-again Christians in prison, wanted to kill and terrorize Catholics.” If that was the opening paragraph in a newspaper story you were reading, your gut reaction would be – huh? Baptists don’t do things like that in the name of their faith. Neither do Catholics, Presbyterians, Seventh Day Adventists or Mormons. But when we read the headline in a May 21st New York Times’ story -- “4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues” -- it was ho-hum stuff. It wasn’t...