Free Republic

The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said Thursday that Iran continued to abide by the nuclear deal reached in 2015 with major world powers that aimed at preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons in exchange for economic incentives. Speaking at a board meeting Thursday in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Yukiya Amano reiterated the agency’s findings in a report distributed to member states earlier this month that “Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.” The issue has grown more complicated since the US withdrew unilaterally in May from the...

Australian nationals convicted of terror offenses would be stripped of their citizenship if the government believes they are entitled to apply for residency from another country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison proposed on Thursday. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally that sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has seen a spate of attacks by home-grown militants in recent months, including a stabbing attack in the country’s second largest city less than two weeks ago. Morrison proposed allowing the government to weaken current constraints that permit terror convicts to be stripped of their Australian citizenship only if they are already dual nations and...

A federal judge dismissed charges Tuesday against two doctors and six others involved in the genital mutilation of nine girls at a Detroit clinic, and also declared a US law banning the practice unconstitutional. US District Judge Bernard Friedman dismissed mutilation and conspiracy charges against Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who performed the surgery, and Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, who allowed his clinic in Livonia, Michigan, to be used for the procedure. The same charges were dismissed against Attar's wife, Farida, and Tahera Shafiq, who assisted in the procedure, as well as four women who tricked their daughters into going to the suburban...

Six Bangladeshi nationals were apprehended at the Texas border with Mexico in two separate incidents within a 12-hour period over the weekend. Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents during the month of October apprehended at least 75 Bangladeshi nationals, an increase of more than 10 percent over October 2017, Breitbart News reported During the fiscal 2018 year, which ended Sept. 30, Laredo Sector agents apprehended 668 Bangladeshi migrants, a rise of nearly 270 percent over the previous year’s total. Breitbart, noting the hundreds of miles of open river border in South and Central Texas, said the migrants paid up to $27,000...

The Knesset Education Committee on Tuesday approved a second and third reading of the “Cultural Loyalty Law”, which was promoted by Culture Minister Miri Regev. The bill will be brought for a vote in the Knesset plenum next Monday. It would allow government budgets to be revoked from cultural institutions that deny Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to racism, violence and terrorism. MK Ofer Shelah, chairman of the Yesh Atid faction, was furious at the Education Committee’s approval of the bill and claimed that “behind the Cultural Loyalty Law there is nothing but a personal whim...

As they prepare to welcome two newly-elected Muslim women into the 116th Congress, Democrats have proposed a clarification to a 181-year-old rule banning representatives from wearing hats on the House floor. If approved, the new rules would allow lawmakers to wear religious headwear, like hijabs and kippahs, once Democrats take control of the chamber in January. Representative-elect Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, wears a headscarf. She was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a refugee.

Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, is a new kind of politician. She's telegenic, ideologically progressive, widely celebrated by a media that's obsessed with identity politics. She's the kind of politician who can openly side with Hamas against Israel or spread "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"-style conspiracies on Twitter, claiming that Jews possess the supernatural ability to hypnotize the world as they unfurl their "evil." It's not surprising, then, that Omar also supports the "boycott, divestment and sanctions" movement. In a statement to the website Muslim Girl, someone on Omar's staff...

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran is abiding by the deal reached in 2015 with major powers that aimed at preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons in exchange for economic incentives. In a confidential quarterly report distributed to member states and reviewed by The Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has been abiding with key limitations set in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The issue has grown more complicated since the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in May from the deal and then re-imposed sanctions. Iran’s economy has been struggling ever since and...

Asia BibiBritain has rejected an appeal for asylum from Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian acquitted of blasphemy last week who is under the threat of death from Islamic leaders who struck a deal with her government to block her exit. The British government said allowing Bibi to enter the U.K. would cause unrest among Muslims, according to an advocate, the Huffington Post reported. Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said he’s been led to believe that the British government “had concerns that her moving to the UK would cause security concerns and unrest among certain sections...

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who won a seat in the US House of Representatives, wrapped herself in a “Palestinian” flag at her victory party. She is one of the two first Muslim women ever to be elected to the deliberative body, along with Somali Ilhan Omar from Minnesota. Daughter of Arabs who left Samaria for Nicaragua and later Detroit, Tlaib became the first Muslim female member of Michigan’s state legislature a decade ago. Tlaib is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and was arrested two years ago for disrupting a Trump speech in Detroit, reported Yeshiva World. Asked during...

Controversial Irish singer Sinead O'Connor faced a huge backlash on social media after publically declaring that she sees white people as "disgusting."

MINYA, Egypt (AP) -- Hundreds of Egyptian Christians attended a funeral service Saturday after seven people were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants of buses carrying pilgrims to a remote desert monastery. 【Related】IS attack on Christian pilgrims in Egypt kills 7 【Related】Japan, Egypt to work to bring stability to Middle East 【Related】Egypt governor: Remove Disney figures from kindergartens The service at Prince Tadros church in the central city of Minya was held amid tight security. Minya's top cleric, Anba Makarios, led prayers over a row of six white coffins, all victims from the same family. A separate funeral...

In Minya, Egypt, Coptic Christians were terrorized in another attack targeting the minority group on Friday. Islamic militants opened gunfire on two buses carrying Coptic Christians en route to an ancient monastery in Upper Egypt, killing seven and injuring more than eleven. Friday’s attack is one in a series of attacks on Egypt’s ancient Christian community, which currently makes up between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s population. Minya has the largest population of Christians in the country — 35 percent of residents are Christians — and experiences a lion’s share of the sectarian attacks. According to Open Doors USA’s...

The European Union, France, Germany and Britain said in a joint statement on Friday that they regret Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran. […] “Our aim is to protect European economic actors who have legitimate commercial exchanges with Iran, in line with European legislation and the United Nations’ Security Council resolution 2231,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers and finance ministers of the three countries said. …

A former Australian prime minister has warned the government to expect a negative reaction from Indonesia if Australia follows the United States by shifting its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to reporters after meeting Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on the tourist island of Bali on Monday to discuss a bilateral free trade deal. “The president expressed to me ... the very serious concern held in Indonesia about the prospect of the Australian Embassy in Israel being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Turnbull told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview...

Faced with the upsurge in xenophobia in Europe, MEPs want to take firm action against neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups, which currently benefit from a certain level of discretion in several countries. EurActiv France reports.Xenophobia is fueled by neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups in Europe, which should be banned as a matter of urgency, the European Parliament demanded on Thursday (25 October). MEPs have adopted a resolution condemning the surge in the number of incidents related to hatred and intolerance in Europe. The resolution also calls for action to be taken against small far-right groups which fuel the rise in xenophobia. According...

Italy’s far-right League party intervened on Sunday to block efforts by a Muslim association to turn a former hospital chapel into a mosque. The Muslim group last week made the highest offer for the chapel in the northern city of Bergamo at an auction organized by a local hospital, outbidding the Romanian Orthodox Church which had been using the building for its religious services. But the project proved short-lived, with League leaders in the wealthy Lombardy region, which includes Bergamo, announcing they would halt the sale by using a 2004 law that enables them to intervene and safeguard cultural sites....

Ireland has likely voted to remove a reference to blasphemy as a punishable offense from the country’s constitution, paving the way for repeal of a law that criminalizes public utterances judged offensive to religious sensibilities. The decision in a referendum on Friday is the latest signal reflecting the country’s weakening adherence to the Catholic Church, which had itself described the constitutional reference as “obsolete.” According to an exit poll conducted on behalf of state-owned broadcaster RTE, 71.1% of voters backed the removal of the blasphemy reference, a larger proportion than backed a May proposal to remove a ban on abortion...

As Hugh Fitzgerald has often noted, Islam attracts the psychically marginal, for it provides a total explanation of the universe, taking away the difficult necessity of making moral decisions on one’s own. Islamic apologists often criticize Christianity for offering only “vague moral precepts,” comparing it unfavorably to Islam, which has a rule for everything that human beings can imagine doing. It is understandable that this total regulation of life would appeal to someone who has suffered from mental problems, as Sinead O’Connor has so publicly. That makes this a sad story. It is not, as O’Connor, aka Shuhada’ Davitt, “the...

(CNSNews.com) – Europe’s top human rights court has ruled that comments about Mohammed having pedophilic tendencies are not covered by the right to freedom of expression, agreeing with the assessment of courts in Austria that the remarks constituted “an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace.” A seven-judge European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) panel in Strasbourg concluded that the Austrian courts had “carefully balanced the applicant’s right to freedom of expression with the rights of others to have their religious feelings protected, and to have religious peace preserved in Austrian...