Free Republic

The association that runs the An’Nour mosque in Winterthur has lodged a complaint with police against two members of the congregation thought to have reported their imam for inciting murder — a day after ten people were arrested for allegedly beating up the duo in revenge. On Tuesday morning, police in the canton of Zürich arrested ten suspects in a raid on a dozen houses in Winterthur. One was later released, but eight adults and one juvenile remain in custody, accused of having beaten up and threatened two individuals at the mosque last November. The pair are thought to have...

The German government admitted Friday it deported fewer than half the Afghans who were due to be repatriated on a charter plane earlier this week, after some went into hiding.Fifty Afghans whose asylum requests had been rejected were to have boarded the aircraft for their home country late Wednesday, but “in fact, only 18 got on the flight,” said interior ministry spokesman Tobias Plate. But he sought to play down the issue, saying that “if one looks at other flights, the numbers are always below that of the planning figure”. …

Donald Trump’s new national security adviser has told staff at the White House he does not wish to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe the terrorist threat the US faces, according to multiple sources.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stressing the need to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after President Donald Trump signaled that he could accept a different outcome. […] Merkel said: “I think we must continue on the way to a two-state solution. I see no other possibility becoming reality to achieve a peace process.” …

Palestinian protesters have thrown shoes at a banner depicting U.S. President Donald Trump in protest of his Mideast policies. Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist, said “we disrespect this president who doesn’t see us as equal human beings with everyone.” Trump is unpopular among Palestinians because the new president has broken from his predecessor and adopted friendlier positions to the Israeli government, including a vague stance on Palestinian statehood and a more lenient approach to settlements. …

The very liberal Catholic bishop of San Diego, Robert McElroy, who supports giving Communion to the divorced and remarried, contrary to Church teaching, and embracing “LGBT families,” said that social justice activists must become “disruptors” to counter the efforts of the federal government to apprehend illegal aliens. “Well now, we must all become disruptors,” said Bishop McElroy in a Feb. 18 speech at the U.S. Regional World Meeting of Popular Movements in Modesto, Calif. “We must disrupt those who would seek to send troops into our streets to deport the undocumented, to rip mothers and fathers from their families,” he...

Who would have thought that just a month into the Trump presidency and the progressive left would be demanding our society ask itself what Jesus would do about foreign refugees? Apparently on some issues, that wall between church and state they’re always harping about is almost as porous as our southern border. But before we get caught up in appropriating Jesus to our side of a political issue, I think it is important to be wary of those who prefer selective application of Biblical principle when it comes to the great moral issues of our day. If God’s word should...

Sweden’s justice and migration minister has accused anti-immigration party leaders of lying about Sweden after they wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Donald Trump was right in his comments about immigration. He spoke hours after Sweden Democrat bosses Jimmie Åkesson and Mattias Karlsson wrote in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “Mr. Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems” when he falsely suggested that immigration had sparked a rising crime wave in the country. […] Sweden’s justice and migration minister Morgan Johansson told The Local on Thursday that the government would submit its...

A man who set fire to the Quran has become the first Danish national charged with blasphemy in 46 years.The 42-year-old man, who remains unidentified, filming himself burning the Muslim holy book in his garden in north Jutland in December 2015, and then posted the footage on an anti-Islam Facebook group called “Yes to freedom - no to Islam.”He posted the video with the message: “Think of your neighbor: it stinks when it burns,” according to prosecutors, The Copenhagen Post reported.

The domestic intelligence service has announced an uptick of hundreds in a matter of months. At least one cause of the worrying trend is the ease with which young people can become radicalized online, authorities said. Germany's domestic security and intelligance agency (the BfV) said on Wednesday that the radical Islamist scene in the country had grown considerably, from only about 100 people in 2013 to some 1,600 today. Indeed, according to BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen, the number had jumped by several hundred in a matter of months."We receive between two and four credible tips on planned terrorist activity in Germany...

Days after the November election, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party was ascendant. There was no greater sign of its rising stature than the momentum Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota was enjoying in his race to chair the Democratic National Committee. Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the 2016 presidential primary, was racking up endorsements not only from Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), but establishment figures as well, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers — both of...

It will take place in Pembrokeshire on St David's DayWales is set to host its first alcohol-free beer festival in a bid to encourage the public to adopt a healthier relationship with booze. The free event, which will be held in Pembrokeshire on St David’s Day, promises to offer a wide range of alcohol-free and low-alcohol beers to sample. It will also be serving up free meat and vegetable curries to the sober visitors, as well as traditional Welsh cawl. Andrew Misell, from the charity Alcohol Concern , laid down a challenge to the drinks business in Wales to do...

The other day we looked at a somewhat amusing story of people illegally crossing the border from the United States into Canada. The numbers remain only a tiny trickle compared to the flow of illegal aliens coming into the United States across our southern border, but the trend should still be worrying for Canadians. Or at least so you would think. This is not a view shared by the country’s prime minister it seems. When pressed by reporters, Justin Trudeau said that he has no intention of stopping people coming into his nation illegally. (Newsweek) Canada will continue to...

More than 350 migrants stormed the border between Morocco and Spain at Ceuta on Monday, officials said, days after one of the largest rush of arrivals over the frontier in more than a decade. The young migrants forced their way through the high border fence into the Spanish North African territory, ecstatic to have finally crossed into a European Union state. […] Ceuta and Melilla, also a Spanish territory in North Africa, have the EU’s only land borders with Africa, so are entry points for migrants who either climb the border fence, swim along the coast or hide in vehicles....

As Democrats head to Atlanta this weekend to vote on their party’s next chair, the race to lead the Democratic National Committee chair is coming down to its two leading candidates. Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.) has the edge over former Labor secretary Tom Perez in The Hill’s new survey of DNC members. But while both men claim they are close to securing commitments from the majority of the 447 voting members, neither candidate is assured victory.

Christian organizations in Norway plan to join a campaign to employ undocumented migrants, despite the threat of fines and imprisonment. Tor Berger Jørgensen, the former bishop of Sør-Hålogaland in northern Norway, launched the campaign last week, arguing that breaking the law in this way was not about saving money, but about providing a livelihood to people “in a hopeless situation”. The 71-year-old priest sent letters out to Christian organizations across Norway, asking them to give jobs to those who could neither return to their home countries nor get residency in Norway. He told the newspaper he was “optimistic” that his...

Two men arrested in Göttingen earlier this month over suspicions that they were plotting an “imminent” terror attack are no longer under investigation due to insufficient evidence, but they will still be deported. State prosecutors said on Tuesday that though the two men had discussed attack plans, there was not enough evidence to support authorities’ initial suspicion that the men were “preparing a serious crime against the state”. The Nigerian and Algerian citizens — both in their 20s and born in Germany — were arrested on February 9th in a police raid in the Lower Saxon university town, as well...

A British Islamic State fighter who carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq this week is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was paid £1 million compensation by the government. Jamal al-Harith, a Muslim convert born Ronald Fiddler who detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi army base near Mosul, was released from the US detention camp in 2004 and successfully claimed compensation after saying British agents knew or were complicit in his mistreatment. He was freed following intense lobbying by Tony Blair’s Labour government.Al-Harith, who used the nom de guerre Abu-Zakariya al-Britani, entered Syria via Turkey in 2014 to...

Tourism in the greater Paris region Île-de-France has been hit hard by terror fears, the latest figures show. But it’s turning around. “In total, in 2016, hotel owners in Île-de-France welcomed 1.5 million fewer French and international tourists compared to 2015,” the Regional Tourism Committee reported on Tuesday. While the average number of tourists visiting the region has only decreased by 0.8 percent, the drop was particularly sharp among some countries more than others. There were 21.5 percent fewer Chinese tourists setting down their suitcases in the Paris region, and 41.2 percent fewer tourists from Japan checking in to hotels...

Russia will continue to see the development of its nuclear forces as a top priority, but the military will rely increasingly on conventional weapons to deter any aggression, the Russian Defense Minister said Tuesday. Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that weapons such as the long-range Kalibr cruise missiles carried by navy ships, long-range cruise missiles carried by Russian strategic bombers and the land-based short-range Iskander missiles will play an increasingly important role as a non-nuclear deterrent. Those missiles can carry nuclear or conventional warheads. Shoigu pointed to the new missiles’ debut in the Syrian conflict, saying they have proven themselves well....