Free Republic

A group of over 50 European Parliament members has nominated a controversial Egyptian activist for the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, despite his having advocated the assassination of Israelis and political leaders in Egypt and called for an end to the State of Israel. Alaa Abdel Fattah, 32, an Egyptian blogger and political activist, has been arrested numerous times by Egyptian authorities since the eruption of a popular revolution in the country in early 2011. Abdel Fattah, who boasts 626,000 followers on Twitter and 156,000 on Facebook, was released on bail September 15 after being charged with organizing...

A retired top-ranking German general said Monday a string of recent embarrassing military equipment failures shows the country needs to spend more on defense, as another aircraft breakdown came to light. […] Former chief of staff Harald Kujat told rbb-radio the problem comes because the German military has been increasingly involved in large operations like in Afghanistan, but has neglected equipment maintenance and replacement. Germany this year reduced defense spending by about €800 million to €32.44 billion ($41.30 billion)—far below NATO’s recommended level of 2 percent of GDP. …

[video at link] The mother and sister of Jah'Keem Yisrael, as he refers to himself, suspect in the grisly beheading of a woman in Moore, Oklahoma last week, have released a video via Facebook Sunday responding to the charges against him. "I know what they're saying that he done. But I'm going tell you this. That's not my son." In the video, the women express their regret and sympathy for the victims, their belief that Nolen was raised properly and with respect for God and man, and suggest that "there's two sides to every story" and that, so far only...

Attorney General Eric Holder was just months into the job when he announced plans to prosecute the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and other alleged co-conspirators in a New York courtroom, rather than through the Guantánamo Bay military commission process. It was an audacious idea, but immediately beset by political opposition and public safety concerns. The Obama administration’s eventual decision to walk away from the proposal was a stinging defeat for Holder and a reminder of the complexities of the legal fight against terrorism. […] … (U)nder his watch, the department authorized targeted drone strikes against Americans abroad,...

President Barack Obama acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants and overestimated the ability and will of Iraq’s army to fight. Questioning Obama’s strategy to destroy the group, House Speaker John Boehner said the U.S. may have “no choice” but to send in American troops if the mix of U.S.-led airstrikes and a ground campaign reliant on Iraqi forces, Kurdish fighters and soon-to-be trained Syrian rebels fails to achieve that goal. …

A Haaretz reporter was ejected from a pro-Palestinian conference at Birzeit University on Saturday, reporter Amira Hass said—simply for being an Israeli Jew. Hass attempted to attend the “Alternatives to Neo-Liberal Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories—Critical Perspectives” conference at the university, which is located near Ramallah where she lives. But she was ejected from the hall by the organizers, Hass claimed, after students at the admission desk noted she worked for the Israeli publication and alerted security authorities to intervene. Birzeit University has had a policy of barring Israeli Jews from the campus for over 20 years, administrators said,...

One of the Islamist “activists” who attacked IDF soldiers aboard the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010 has reportedly been killed in a US airstrike in Syria, as he was fighting alongside Islamist terrorists. 40-year-old Bulent Alniak was killed in a US airstrike in Idlib, northwestern Syria, on a target identified as belonging to the “Islamic State” terrorist group (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL), according to the Turkish World Bulletin website. According to that report, Alniak was carrying out “aid work” ahead of the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. But other sources have suggested a somewhat less peaceful...

Kidnapped ‘Chibok girl’ returns after five months in captivity. Spends initial night of freedom screaming ‘They will kill me!’ ... Some 276 female students were abducted by Nigeria's Islamic militant Boko Haram fighters from the Government Secondary School where they had gathered to write final examinations in the early hours of April 15. Fifty-seven escaped by themselves that night or the following day - some by jumping from the open-backed trucks that transported them and clinging to branches of low-hanging trees.

Young jihadists fighting in Syria attended the same Brighton mosque where Abu Hamza became radicalized in the 1980s, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. Teenager Ibrahim Kamara, who died in Syria this week, is believed to have been drawn in to extremism by three brothers whose father is a trustee at the Brighton Al-Quds mosque in the seaside city. It came as Amer Deghayes, one of the brothers who is also in Syria, warned American and British airstrikes against ISIL could lead to other terror groups there joining forces against them. …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s attempt to blame western states for the rise of radical Islam in his speech to the UN General Assembly nearly backfired awkwardly when he used a racist Farsi expression—but was saved by a quick-thinking translator. During the speech on Friday, Rouhani claimed that “certain Intelligence agencies have put the blade in the hand of the drunken Zangi”—a phrase referring to irresponsible and dangerous jihadi groups, which was translated simply as “madmen” by the translator. But according to Iranian opposition blog azarmehr, the word “Zangi” is actually a derogatory term for black slaves from Zanzibar in Farsi....

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached a “comprehensive” agreement Thursday for the return of their “unity government” in Gaza after two days of talks in Cairo, negotiators from both sides said. “Fatah and Hamas have reached a comprehensive agreement for the unity government to return to the Gaza Strip,” Jibril Rajoub of Fatah told AFP. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk and Fatah’s head of delegation, Azam al-Ahmad, confirmed that an agreement had been reached. “The unity government will supervise the crossings (into Gaza)… to facilitate the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” Abu Marzuk said. He said the two...

US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS or ISIS) in Syria continue Saturday night, but are failing to slow the jihadis’ advance on the Kurdish border town of Kobane. […] But though US airstrikes—which President Barack Obama pledged would “degrade and destroy” ISIS—have extended from Iraq to Syria to aid the defense of Kobane, local sources say the strikes have been largely ineffective. “They struck empty buildings,” YPG’s chief of defense for Kobane, Ismat Sheikh Hassan, told The Independent. “ISIS fighters used to be there, but they left; so they haven’t helped us. If anything, they are now...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of a “genocidal crime” in Gaza, telling the United Nations negotiations had failed and the time for Palestinian independence had come, and drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington, AFP reports. Abbas vowed to seek war crimes prosecutions against Israel over what he called the 50-day “war of genocide” in Gaza that allegedly killed 2,140 Palestinian Arabs—at least half of whom were projected to be terrorists, according to expert analysis. […] The US State Department reacted with a tersely-worded statement, calling the speech provocative and saying it would undermine peace efforts....

A bias incident is under investigation in Baltimore County. Police say three men walking in the 6800 block of Old Pimlico Road were first approached by a vehicle. The driver yelled “Jews, Jews, Jews” at the victims. Investigators say the suspect then fired some type of BB or air gun in their direction and fled the area. The victims were not struck and did not suffer any apparent injuries. The suspect is described as a white male with brown hair and a dark complexion–possibly of Middle Eastern descent.

FBI officials are investigating a beheading at an Oklahoma food distribution center after co-workers said the suspect tried to convert them to Islam after his own recent conversion. The suspect, Alton Nolen, 30, was recently fired from Vaughan Foods in Moore prior to Thursday’s attack. Moore Police Department Sgt. Jeremy Lewis told KFOR that Nolen drove to the front of the business and struck a vehicle before walking inside. He then attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, stabbing her several times before severing her head. He also stabbed another woman, 43-year-old Traci Johnson, at the plant. […] The police department issued a...

Oklahoma got a dose of peace yesterday, when Alton Nolen, apparently a Muslim convert, beheaded a co-worker at the food company where he worked. He attacked a second woman and would have killed her too, except that the company’s COO has a gun and knows how to use it. This could actually be a case of workplace violence, as the attack occurred immediately after Alton had been fired. (For what, has not been reported.) Nolen had a colorful criminal record, which makes one wonder how he got a job at all when millions are unemployed. Paul has written about the...

Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of a town on Syria's border with Turkey on Friday despite U.S.-led air strikes aimed at defeating the militants in both Syria and Iraq, in a coalition which has now drawn widespread European support. Britain, Washington's closest ally in the wars of the last decade, joined an alliance after weeks of weighing its options. Britain's parliament voted 542 to 43 to back Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to take part in air strikes in Iraq. Belgium's parliament also voted 114 to 2 to take part and Denmark said it would send planes. Six Belgian...

A private investigation commissioned by the Maldives Democracy Network has implicated gangs -- possibly motivated by religious extremism -- in the disappearance of Minivan News journalist Ahmed Rilwan 45 days ago. Discounting theories of voluntary disappearance and suicide, the investigation -- conducted by Glasgow-based Athena Intelligence and Security – concluded that Rilwan was likely abducted. The report confirmed evidence of possible “hostile surveillance” at the terminal conducted by two known affiliates of the Malé-based Kuda Henveiru gang. One of the suspects is identified as Ahmed Shiran Saeed. Rilwan was previously an openly conservative Islamist and a well-regarded member of a...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded Friday an end to Israeli occupation, telling the United Nations that the time for Palestinian independence had come. Abbas also vowed to seek war crimes prosecutions against Israel over what he called the 50-day “war of genocide” in Gaza that killed 2,140 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and left the enclave in ruins. “There is an occupation that must end now. There is a people that must be freed immediately,” Abbas said in an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. “The hour of independence of the state of Palestine has arrived.” Abbas, however, did...

In Islam, Muslims are required to offer their would-be convert an opportunity to convert first before severing their heads. When the non-Muslim refuses to convert, the mercy killing is allowed to commence.That is what happened at a Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma when a non-Muslim woman was decapitated by a former employee who was Muslim and had tried to convert his co-workers prior to being fired.My own Muslim father, an elderly man held an elderly care center hostage when the African American nurse who was caring for him refused to convert to Islam. He beat her with his cane calling...