Free Republic

Last week, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako issued an impassioned plea to the international community to speak out and take action on behalf of persecuted Arab Christians and other minorities. This latest statement came a month after 120,000 Iraqi Christians were forcibly displaced from their homes. Sako, Iraq’s senior Christian cleric, called the systematic persecution “a real genocide” and called for “decisive steps” to put pressure on decision-makers at home and abroad to ensure a free, safe life for all in Iraq.In Washington, DC, a bipartisan and ecumenical conference starts Tuesday evening, focusing on the deteriorating situation facing millions of...

Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) was assured by officials in Washington on Tuesday that the United States will not compromise on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. Herzog met at the White House with President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, and deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken, and told them that the fight against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) is just as important as trying to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Israeli media reported that the two officials assured Herzog that alongside the common global struggle against the IS, the United States does not intend to change...

A Malaysian man on Tuesday was sentenced to one year in prison for uploading an offensive comment about the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan on his Facebook page three months ago, the DPA news agency reports. Chow Mun Fai, 36, a construction-site supervisor, posted a comment linking Ramadan, the Devil and a bak kut teh, a local pork dish, in June. He pleaded guilty to posting an offensive comment with the intention to hurt others’ feelings, under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, according to lawyer Ahmad Ridza Noh. …

Is it ISIL, ISIS or Islamic State? Whatever you call the jihadist group known for killing dozens of people at a time, carrying out public executions, beheadings, crucifixions and other brutal acts, there is no denying they have captured the world's attention. On the eve of President Barack Obama's speech outlining Washington's strategy against the group, in which he will likely refer to it as ISIL, we ask: What's in a name?

Monday on “The Alan Colmes Show,” Alan spoke with former Congressman and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich about what President Obama should do about ISIS, and had some harsh criticism for President Barack Obama and the Bush Administration regarding policy in Iraq. Rep. Kucinich, who is also a Fox News contributor, said the US should not be a policeman for the world and let Syria handle ISIS, and said that President Barack Obama was not as anti-war as he is portrayed. He also said President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should “absolutely” be in jail for their role...

People from immigrant backgrounds are massively under-represented in Germany’s police forces and security agencies, which are not making enough effort to track the problem, a study published on Monday found. Migration information service Mediendienst Integration asked all 16 state police agencies, the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), the Federal Police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution about their workers’ origins. Most states do not collect figures on the backgrounds of their entire police forces, and neither do the federal agencies. In the states which do record such figures, numbers were low. […] Rainer Wendt, head of the German...

Some time in the coming days, a governmental committee is to convene to decide whether a new Qatari-funded Arab city in the heart of Samaria will be populated. It is currently expected that Israel will remove the last barrier blocking the city—which is already nearly completely built—and allow the city to be connected to Israel’s water supply. […] However, as the grassroots “Cities of Israel” (Mattot Arim) organization has pointed out, the security implications of a Qatar-funded city in Israel have not been sufficiently taken into account—especially now that the extent of Qatari support for Hamas during the recent war...

Murdered journalist Steven Sotloff was kidnapped and sold to the radical Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, by one of the “moderate” rebel groups to whom the US government has considered offering support, according to his family’s spokesman. Barak Barfi told CNN that Sotloff—who was Jewish and a joint US-Israeli citizen—was sold for a sum of money in the tens of thousands of dollars at the Syrian border. He said credible “sources on the ground” had provided the dramatic and tragic details of the abduction. “For the first time, we can say Steven was sold at the border,” Barfi said....

The efficacy and threat level of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has heightened after Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Dr. Michael Oren stated Monday—and allegedly justifies a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Israel’s economic, political, and cultural status has already been damaged existentially across the globe, Oren warned, due to the constant campaigns for “Israel Apartheid Week” on college campuses and European divestment from the Jewish state. […] Hamas consciously declared victory in its PR campaign against Israel several weeks ago, after it encouraged ordinary Gazans to become human shields,...

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday denied reports that he had offered to establish a Palestinian state in the Sinai Peninsula, the website of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper reported. […] Earlier Monday, Army Radio reported that Sisi has offered Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to cede 160 square kilometers of the Sinai Peninsula adjoining Gaza to the PA, thus creating a Palestinian state five times the present size of Gaza. In return, the PA would stop demanding that Israel return to the indefensible pre-1967 borders. […] According to the report, Abbas had rejected the offer. Later Monday, Abbas’s office wasted...

As the 13th anniversary of the deadliest attack on American soil approaches, many experts warn of the potential threat posed by terrorist networks including Islamic State, or ISIS. ... Unarmed & helpless Americans and Europeans will be viciously ambushed when they least expect it,” he wrote, “and the death toll will be more brutal and widespread than all the peace & love dreamers could ever imagine.” He declared that the somber date of Sept. 11 will be “the day of infamy again.” According to Nugent’s projection, those who already own firearms should “ammo up no matter where you go,” always...

Flag bearing IS symbol auctioned at Sydney mosque •Boy, 15, posts pictures online and says he’ll fight Assad •Fred Nile calls for ban on flag throughout Australia ... PREMIER Mike Baird said the Islamic State flag could be banned across NSW. His stance follows footage of one of the flags, which is linked to the barbaric terrorist organisation, being auctioned in front of families and young children in Sydney. “That is something we will consider and work with community groups about but we can’t have the position where you are seeing any activity that is promoting terrorism, supporting terrorism,” Mr...

The virulent anti-Semitism that has reared its head with particular animosity in Turkey during Operation Protective Edge shows no sign of abating, as a centrally located store in the country's capital of Istanbul recently refused to do business with "Jew dogs." A picture of the cell phone store in Istanbul's Fatih district was sent to the Turkish Jewish news site Åžalom last week, and shows a sign hung in front of the store forbidding entrance for "Jew dogs," reports Walla!. The sign included a picture of religious Jews in white kippot, evidently "settlers" from Judea and Samaria, dancing in front...

Conservative members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition put forward a united front at the weekend against recent developments in the city of Wuppertal. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said civilians wearing uniforms bearing the logo “Shariah police” could not simply start patrolling German streets. The groups reportedly hovered around sites like discotheques and gambling houses, telling passers-by to refrain from gambling and alcohol. Wuppertal’s police have begun pressing charges. “Sharia law is not tolerated on German soil,” de Maizière told mass-circulation daily Bild on Saturday. “Nobody can take it upon themselves to abuse the good name of the German police.”...

Ramallah: The Palestinian Higher Specialised Forensic Centre has announced that 14 of the 15 women murdered in so-called ‘honour’ crimes were proven to be virgins. They were admitted to the centre to undergo autopsy tests because their deaths were termed family honour crimes. The results dismissed the pretext for the murder on grounds of honour. Dr Saber Al Aloul, who heads the centre, said that the women have undoubtedly proved to be virgins except one woman whose case is still being investigated by the Palestinian public prosecution. In that case, sources have revealed that the victim had married in secret...

<p>Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.</p> <p>The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.</p>

Islamic State fighters attacked a riverside town north of Baghdad on Monday with gunboats and a car bomb, killing 17 people and wounding 54, a security source said. The source said the attack on Dhuluiya, around 70 km (45 miles) from the capital, was carried out before dawn and continued for two hours before the militants were pushed back. Among the dead in the attack, the largest of its kind in the area, were civilians and Iraqi forces. Most of the casualties were caused by the car bomb, which struck a market, the source said.

Jewish Home party chairwoman MK Ayelet Shaked responded Monday morning to reports that the Egyptian government had offered the Palestinian Authority a state extending from Gaza through the Sinai Peninsula, and called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to take it seriously. Aiming a barb at the Israeli Left, she said the initiative proved how out of touch they were. "If the report is indeed correct, the president of Egypt has managed to understand what the Left in Israel has refused to understand for decades." She asserted that the solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian "needs to be regional,...

Iran’s supreme leader underwent prostate surgery on Monday and was recovering at a government hospital in Tehran, state media said in a rare report on the state of health of the country’s top cleric. The 75-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters and has been Iran’s top leader since 1989, was reported to be in “good condition” and his doctors said he was resting after the surgery. According to a Twitter account that routinely posts on Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani visited the supreme leader in hospital after the procedure. …

Egyptian president General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi has offered Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to cede 160 square kilometers of the Sinai Peninsula adjoining Gaza to the PA, thus creating a Palestinian state five times the present size of Gaza. In return, the PA would stop demanding that Israel return to the 1967 borders. The offer was revealed on IDF Radio. Al-Sisi reportedly suggested that Palestinian “refugees” be allowed to settle in the new, much enlarged Gaza, which would be demilitarized. …