Free Republic

Ed Husain's autobiography The Islamist: why I joined radical Islam in Britain, what I saw inside and why I left (Penguin, 2007) is a remarkably candid account of the life of a British-born Muslim who was initially seduced by radicalism but gradually came to his senses to return to the more spiritual and devotional Islam that had defined his early years. It is also an important work, in that it both carefully grounds the issue of radicalisation that has so dominated recent intellectual and political discussion of Muslim communities in Britain, and points to potential solutions. Ed Husain grew up...

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 1:02 P.M. EST MR. DEERE: Good afternoon everyone. Thanks for being here. I’m going to just remind you that it is an off-camera briefing, but it is on the record from the Acting OMB Director. So, with that, I will turn it over to our Acting OMB Director Russ Vought. Q Can we use the audio? MR. DEERE: Yes, you can use the audio. ACTING OMB DIRECTOR VOUGHT: Thanks, Judd. Good afternoon. I’m here to release the President’s Fiscal Year 2021 Budget: A Budget for America’s Future. This is a budget that reflects and...

I love how events of the past few weeks have empowered the Obama policy team to proclaim to their mainstream media friends that Obama had his “Best Week Ever.” Sadly, our friends in Congress seem to be reading the White House press releases as well. As Congress engages for a few short weeks before the August “District Work Period,” it well behooves the Members and Senators to look beyond the ongoing media frenzy of last month’s Supreme Court rulings. Shift the discussion as they should point out to the President and his staff that the White House is idly standing...

I’m listening to President Barack Hussein Obama read more empty rhetoric and here is my assessment during his NATO press conference as he shoveled it on. 1. He stated that NATO’s “combat” mission in Afghanistan will end in three months — I hope they sent the memo to the Taliban and got their consent. Obama just doesn’t seem to understand the enemy has a vote, and they are not disrupted, defeated, and certainly not destroyed – we’re just quitting again. 2. He stated we’ll defend every NATO ally — he should have expressed how, because Obama’s decision to cancel the...

WASHINGTON — In a classic case of shutting the barn door after the horse has left, the Obama administration and the Department of Defense have ordered the hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors not to view the secret cables and other classified documents published by Wikileaks and news organizations around the world unless the workers have the required security clearance or authorization.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The FBI has launched an inquiry into the activities of a grocery store owner who is allegedly the U.S. leader of a radical Islamic group banned in parts of Europe and the Middle East, authorities said. Iyad Hilal, an Islamic author and philosopher who owns an Orange County market, hasn't drawn much attention to his writings or his role in the group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which means Party of Liberation. But since the July 7 bombings in London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested banning the group there. Hilal is apparently not suspected of any terrorist...

Zealots made to call off 9/11 ‘celebration’ Nick Fielding and Abul Taher The Sunday Times - Britain September 12, 2004 ISLAMIC extremists were forced to call off a London conference commemorating the third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America yesterday when the owners of the venue cancelled the booking after consulting police.

Extremist cleric staged al-Qaeda recruiting rally By Sean O’Neill and Richard Ford THE radical Islamist cleric whose internet sermons are being investigated by police has held a secret conference at which British Muslims were urged to join al-Qaeda. About 600 people, including women and children, punched the air and chanted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) as they were shown videos of hijacked airliners crashing into the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Syrian-born cleric, said that if the British Government did not relax its tough anti- terrorism laws, the response from...

Fifteen minutes after KLM Flight 685 took off from Amsterdam for Mexico City on April 8, Mexican authorities forwarded the names of all the passengers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The reason: the flight was scheduled to pass through U.S. airspace. by the time the Boeing 747 had finished its three-hour crossing of the Atlantic, Homeland Security screeners were on high alert. The names of two Saudi passengers aboard the KLM flight had begun producing "hits" on the screening center's lists of 70,000 suspect foreigners. The two Saudis, the database reported, were brothers and pilots who had attended...

Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad is the leader of one of the most controversial Islamist groups in the U.K., Al Muhajiroun (which means "the emigrants" in Arabic). He attracted global media scrutiny on the first anniversary of 9/11 by staging a meeting entitled "A Towering Day in History," and unveiled a poster that depicted the second airplane advancing toward the World Trade Center. This month in Britain, Scotland Yard officials said they were investigating Sheikh Omar on suspicion of his support for "global jihad," including inciting Muslim youth to join the insurgency in Iraq. Omar, a Syrian, resides in Britain, which...

<p>LONDON — Britons bracing for a terror attack like last month's Madrid train bombings are coming to terms with the idea the attackers may not be foreign militants but the sons of friendly Asian families living next door.</p> <p>Police yesterday were questioning eight young British-born Pakistanis arrested a day earlier in raids that officials said had foiled a major bomb plot. Half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer suitable for making bombs, was seized.</p>