Free Republic

WHISKY is back on the tables in Mosul, one of Iraq’s biggest cities. Until last year, boozing was punishable with 80 lashes...Families queue at restaurants on the banks of the Tigris. There is not a niqab, or face-veil, in sight....Now Iraq, home to nearly 40m people, is righting itself... About 45,000 Sunnis mustered alongside the Shia-led Hashd al-Shaabi, or “popular mobilisation units”. And millions of Sunnis fled the would-be caliphate to seek refuge in Kurdish and Shia cities. Religious minorities feel safer, too. Over 70% of the 100,000 Christians who fled to Kurdistan have returned to their homes on the...

A tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump declaring his support for a U.S. pastor on trial in Turkey has “trample(d) on Turkey’s independent judiciary,” the pro-Turkish government Daily Sabah newspaper said on Wednesday. Evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson, a long-term resident of the western Turkish city of Izmir, was arrested in October 2016 and charged with aiding and abetting the Fethullah Gülen movement, an Islamist movement that Turkey blames for masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016 and labels a terrorist organization. "Pastor Andrew Brunson, a fine gentleman and Christian leader in the United States, is on trial and being persecuted...

If Christians had opened fire on Muslims leaving a mosque, which they would, of course, never do, there would be insistent and ongoing international coverage. But no one will take any particular note of this. It’s just another day in Pakistan. “At least 2 dead, 5 injured in attack on Christian community near church in Quetta,” by Syed Ali Shah, Dawn, April 15, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): At least two members of the Christian community were killed and five others injured in a firing incident near a church in Quetta, DawnNewsTV reported. DIG Quetta Abdur Razzaq Cheema...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan welcomed U.S., British and French forces’ airstrikes on Syria, saying that the operation sent a message to Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad. “With the joint operation by U.S., U.K. and France on Saturday, the Syrian regime received the message that its massacres wouldn’t be left unanswered,” Erdogan told his ruling AK Party supporters in an Istanbul meeting. “The innocent Syrian people should have been defended long ago,” Erdogan added.

US President Donald Trump briefly joined Saudi King Salman in a traditional male-only sword dance.....

On Saturday I took my family to have a closer look at Syria. This was on the Golan Heights, from a roadside promontory overlooking the abandoned Syrian town of Quneitra. The border is very green at this time of year, a serene patchwork of orchards and grassland, and it was hard to impress on our kids that hell on earth was visible in the quiet distance. But I wanted them to see it — to know that Syria is a place, not an abstraction; that the agonies of its people are near, not far; that we should not look away....

If one were to pick an emblem of America’s global military might, the B-52 properly might top the list. The strategic bomber’s expansive 185-foot wingspan and 159-foot fuselage, make the “Stratofortress” a universally recognizable symbol of unrivaled aerial firepower. This is especially the case if you are unfortunate enough to be the target of its devastating payload – which can be munitions ranging from unguided or guided bombs, to cruise missiles or nuclear weapons. Reportedly, up to 500 Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria found this out the hard way in February, illustrating that when America wants to send a message, it...

OVERVIEW This article uses publicly available evidence from 2003-2010 to explore the accusation that Bashar al Assad and the Syrian government deliberately supported Al-Qaeda jihadis in Syria so they could carry out attacks in Iraq. As these years were the formative ones for ISIS, then known by a series of different names, the evidence strongly, but not conclusively, points to Syria having helped ISIS form. There is no evidence that Syria intended for the jihadi group to grow into what it has become, but rather that Syria seems to have supported it for short-term, strategic ends. Late last fall, a...

President Donald Trump Monday condemned the alleged chemical attack in Syria saying, “It was atrocious, it was horrible.” During a meeting with his Cabinet on Monday, the president said intelligence assessments are underway and his administration will be making "some major decisions" on Syria over the next 24-48 hours. He later said a decision could be made "later today." When asked about possible U.S. military action, Trump said: "Nothing's off the table." “This is about humanity and it can’t be allowed to happen,” he said. “If it’s the Russians, if it’s Syria, if it's Iran, if it’s all of them...

Iranian leaders are threatening to restart the country's contested nuclear enrichment program in just a matter of days as the Trump administration and European allies scramble to address a range of flaws in the landmark nuclear accord ahead of a May deadline that could see the United States walk away from the accord, according to regional reports and administration insiders. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization disclosed on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has maintained the ability to restart the full-scale enrichment of uranium—the key component in a nuclear weapon that was supposed to be removed from Iran as...

The United States has transported the Armag weapons vault from Turkey’s Incirlik Air base to another facility, YeniSafak reported. According to the source, a 40-ton portable weapons vault was transported to another country via a C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft. There has been no official explanation over the transfer yet.

Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen Has Been a Disaster This month marks three years since the start of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, but that is unlikely to be an occasion for celebration in Riyadh. The war is estimated to have cost the Saudis upwards of $100 billion, eroded the international image of the kingdom and failed to achieve its objectives of “eliminating Iranian influence” from Yemen. At the same time, the people of Yemen have suffered immensely from the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign, which killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, destroyed the country’s infrastructure, and has led to widespread disease and...

RUSH: Trump just had a little meeting in the White House, the media was in for a while, with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman — MSB — is his name. He is a Millennial. He is radically changing the culture of Saudi Arabia, radically. It may not seem much to you if you’re told what he’s doing, but it’s radical. Even going so far as to publicly say so, anyway, pull back from the radical Wahhabi sect of militant Islam. Mohammad Bin Salman has made it clear that he doesn’t want the Saudi Arabia under his...

The Saudi crown prince is making his first visit to Washington to shore up investments and political support from Riyadh's closest Western ally. Ten months after the last face-to-face meeting between Trump and Prince Mohammed bin Salman as deputy Crown Prince in Riyadh, the 71-year-old president and the 32-year-old strongman prince are expected to deepen an already warm and congenial relationship. Several dozen Saudi chief executives have joined to tout investment opportunities in the kingdom, particularly in the areas of technology, entertainment and tourism, a Washington source said. Talks will also include a U.S. bid to build two nuclear reactors...

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms expenditure around the world. The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

Aceh province in Indonesia is considering the introduction of beheading as a punishment for murder. The conservative Muslim province is known for publicly caning gays, adulterers and gamblers and applying Islamic Shariah law. The local government has asked the Acehnese Shariah Law and Human Rights Office to research beheading as a method of execution to punish certain crimes.

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud passed away on Monday, March 12, the Royal Court announced in a statement. His funeral prayers will be performed at the Grand Mosque in Makkah following Asr (afternoon) regular prayer on Tuesday, March 13, the official Saudi News Agency (SPA) reported.UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sent a cable of condolences to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Prince Bandar bin Khalid’s death, official news agency WAM reported. Similar cables were also dispatched by the UAE’s Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed...

Iraqi Archbishop Bashar Warda made the following observation during a recent speech: “Having faced for 1,400 years the slow-motion genocide that began long before the ongoing ISIS genocide today, the time for excusing this inhuman behavior and its causes is long since passed.” That Muslims have cleansed non-Muslim peoples by the sword since the seventh century to the present is of course factually well-documented. But what of the more subtle “slow-motion genocide”? How does that work? The answer is connected to another question: Why did so many non-Muslims become Muslim in the first place? Many modern day Muslims and Western...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Christian doctor, his wife, and mother were stabbed to death on Thursday evening in Baghdad’s eastern neighbourhood of al-Mashtal. Dr. Hisham Shafiq al-Maskuni, 61, a native of Baghdad, his wife Shaza Malik, and his mother Khairiya Dawood were killed, according to Rayan al-Kldani, head of the Christian militia group of Babylon, known as the Christian Hashd. The attack was carried out by an unknown group of armed people, Iraqi media reported. The attackers also stole some money and expensive items from the house, according to unverified media reports. This is not an isolated incident, Fr....

A "No dancing or swaying" instruction on tickets to Egyptian pop sensation Tamer Hosny's upcoming concert in Saudi Arabia has triggered an avalanche of mockery and ridicule on social media. Thousands of fans were taken by surprise when tickets for Hosny's first-ever Saudi concert in the western city of Jeddah on March 30 came with the edict that dancing was "strictly prohibited". "Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts," one Twitter user said. "The corridors and seats will be equipped with sway detectors. Anyone who thinks about swaying will be kicked out."