Free Republic

Health officials offer health tips to general publicAbu Dhabi Health Services’ (Seha) experts warn people who are fasting to refrain from overeating as it could lead to severe health problems. Overeating, following a 15-hour-long fast, is common and doctors always advise people to eat nutritious and easy to digest food in proper quantities. “Although Ramadan is a month of exercising self-restraint, some habits such as excessive eating after iftar, which is against the very principle of the holy month, may lead to severe health problems,” said Dr Mouza Al Kuwaiti, Health Education Committee Chair of Seha’s Ambulatory Healthcare Services (AHS)....

Shoe thief sends SR500, asks victim for forgivenessA thief with a guilty conscience has asked for forgiveness from a Saudi man whose shoes he had stolen eight years ago. The guilt-ridden thief sent SR500 in an envelope alongside the apology note. The victim, Abu Abdul Rahman,said that his shoes were stolen as he was having dinner at a wedding reception hosted by a relative, local news site Sabq reported on Thursday. In keeping with the local tradition, food is served on in a majlis and guests and hosts leave their shoes at the door. Abu Abdul Rahman said that he...

Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner and war hero who survived 47 days at sea and three years in a Japanese POW camp after his plane crashed in the Pacific during World War II, died of pneumonia late Wednesday. He was 97. "After a 40-day long battle for his life, he peacefully passed away in the presence of his entire family, leaving behind a legacy that has touched so many lives," Zamperini's family said in a statement, according to Deadline. "His indomitable courage and fighting spirit were never more apparent than in these last days." The Olean, N.Y., native's astonishing...

Hobby Lobby doesn’t have to provide objectionable forms of birth control (abortifacients) to its employees, because paying for that would violate sincere religious beliefs held by its owners. That’s what most moderately-informed Americans are likely to take away from the most recent Supreme Court decision in favor of the family-owned company. Some conservatives have expressed disappointment that the decision, as written by Justice Samuel Alito, wasn’t broader, and the precedent it set was indeed deliberately narrow. But it’s still a win for religious liberty, and after the debacle last winter concerning Arizona’s Senate Bill 1062, it’s good to have another...

From efforts to install a monument at the Oklahoma Capitol to a controversial “Black Mass” at Harvard University, Satanists are all over the news. But are they, along with Wiccans and pagans, all together in one non-Abrahamic lump? Not at all, say experts on paganism and the major Satanist groups’ websites. “Paganism is an umbrella term for a wide variety of traditions outside the Abrahamic faiths. Wicca is the largest but there are countless others, from Druid to Heathen to people who are creating their own faiths even as we speak,” said Laura Wildman-Hanlon, a Wiccan priestess and editor of...

Roberto Cavalli ad featuring British model Georgia May Jagger with an H-like symbol on her neck has caused uproar among Sufi Muslims who say the ad “degrades” one of its religious symbols, The Independent reported on Monday. The ad, which promotes the designer's fragrance, showed the model posing in her underwear with the H-like emblem, similar to the one used by Sufi Muslims to refer to God, on her wrist and neck. Many protesters gathered in front of London’s department store Harrods in response to the ad, according to the report. Other protests took place in Chicago as part of...

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Wife denies report, saying she was divorced because of family riftsA Saudi man divorced his wife just after he saw her driving a car on social networks, but the woman denied the report, saying she was divorced because of persistent rifts. The unnamed woman said she would file a lawsuit against her husband for his cruelty and beating her up during their marriage and that she would demand alimony. “The report that he divorced me for driving a car is not true… if this is the reason, then I would not only drive a car but perform stunt driving,” she...

More prayer needed for my family. My son was having troubles with the side of his big toe, at the edge of the toenail...I took him to urgent care/walk-in clinic and they said he had an infection and we should soak it in epsom salts, keep it clean and keep the toenails cut even. They gave him some antibiotics. He went to camp the first week of June and when he came home, the other foot had sores on both sides of the big toe! ...and the first toe was worse. We cleaned them the same as the other foot,...

France is replacing its plan to teach children the “ABCD of equality” between boys and girls after protests by some parents who feared it was a stealth effort to erase gender differences. […] The initial plan was essentially an experiment with 275 schools, and it came under protest from Roman Catholic leaders, the French far right, and some parents groups. …

Pope Francis, whose criticisms of unbridled capitalism have prompted some to label him a Marxist, said in an interview published on Sunday that communists had stolen the flag of Christianity. The pontiff gave an interview to Il Messaggero, Rome's local newspaper, to mark the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, a Roman holiday. He was asked about a blog post in the Economist magazine that said he sounded like a Leninist when he criticized capitalism and called for radical economic reform. "I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty...

Two weeks before Christmas of 2004, Kandy Hildebrandt opened a letter addressed to her husband Russ, at his request. The letter revealed that her husband had a personal loan of $17,500. They sat down to talk about it: Russ also had 11 credit cards totaling $89,000 in debt. “He handled the personal finances,” she says. “I knew we had several credit cards, but I was unaware of the extent of our debt.” The finance charges on the credit cards alone were $1,593 a month – double their $750 monthly rent in New Richmond, Wis. The Hildebrandts knew they needed to...

UAE Moon Sighting Committee declares June 29, 2014 as the first day of RamadanThe first of Ramadan will be on Sunday, June 29, 2014, according to the UAE Moon Sighting Committee. Dr Hadef Jua’an Al Daheri, Minister of Justice, said after the committee’s meeting at the Judiciary Department in Abu Dhabi, that after contacting neighbouring countries and following all Sharia procedures to site the new crescent of Ramadan, the crescent was not seen on Friday night, hence, Saturday will be the completion of the month of Sha’aban and Sunday, June 29, 2014, will be the first day of Ramadan. Dr....

A Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for renouncing Islam has been freed from detention for a second time. Meriam Ibrahim has now sought sanctuary at the American embassy in the capital Khartoum. Speaking exclusively to the BBC she thanked the Sudanese people for standing by her.

TROUTDALE, Ore.–Jared Michael Padgett was a straight-arrow kid who had a fascination with guns, planned a career in the military and was deeply devoted to his Mormon faith, those who knew him say. And they're all wondering why the 15-year-old took an assault rifle, a handgun and nine ammunition magazines to his high school and killed a fellow freshman, injured a teacher and took his own life. Police said Wednesday that they have not been able to establish a link between Padgett and Emilio Hoffman, the 14-year-old who was shot dead in a locker room. Police have not said whether...

In a reversal, an apostate Pennsylvania pastor who was defrocked last year for violating United Methodist law after he officiated at his son’s so-called same-sex wedding has been reinstated. Frank Schaefer learned Tuesday (June 24) his ministerial credentials will be restored after the United Methodist’s Northeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals voted 8-1 in his favor. The committee, which held a hearing June 20 near Baltimore, found that “errors of Church law” had been used in imposing the penalty against Schaefer. “I was wrongfully punished for standing with those who are discriminated against,” Schaefer said in a statement. “Today’s decision is...

A 13-year-old boy was considering having his tail removed despite being worshipped as a god because of it. Arshid Ali Khan, from Punjab, India, is seen as the incarnation of Hanuman, a Hindu monkey god, because of the mysterious growth emanating from his lower back. But he now has the chance of being able to move without the use of the wheelchair if he has it surgically removed. ‘This tail has been given to me by God. I am worshipped because I pray to god and the wishes of people come true,’ he said. Arshid was not worried people may...

Madonna, no stranger to shock, is at it again, this time posting a picture of herself in a niqab on Instagram Tuesday. In the photo, only the 55-year-old’s piercing blue eyes can be seen through a gold-adorned headscarf. Frequently confused with a burqa, the former only covers the face, while the latter covers the whole body.

The Emir of Qatar has reportedly agreed to roll out €2.2 billion ($2.99 bn) to convert Barcelona's Monumental bullring into a 40,000-capacity mosque, the biggest in Europe, by 2020, if the city council approves the project. The building would include a 300m high minaret which may become the third largest in the world after those in Mecca and Medina, reports 20 Minutos, Spain's most-read general newspaper, citing its sources close to the project. The mosque for Barcelona’s Muslims will also have a conference hall, a Koran study center, housing up to 300 people, and a museum of Islamic art and...

My next youngest among five brothers died, like our grandfather and father, from combinations of strokes and cancer. Will be traveling from Texas with wife, son, and grandchildren to place ashes into the New River from the banks of the Virginia family farm. Like we did for our father. I want grandkids to know from whence they came. If given due respect, would like to post narrative of the journey here.