Free Republic

Good enough for me. He can be Commander in Chief. From CNN. Sen. Barack Obama — locked in a tight presidential race against Sen. John McCain, widely considered a war hero — said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he once considered joining the military himself. Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Obama said, "You know, I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii, and I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there. And I actually always thought...

First Vice President Parviz Davoudi and Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday called for adoption of a defined strategy to fight terrorist groups and terrorism. The two sides discussed the issue over phone on Thursday. There are ample untapped potentials for expansion of mutual, regional and international cooperation between the two countries, Davoudi said and called for promotion of such cooperation. Wishing for success and prosperity of the Pakistani government and its nation, he underlined that Iran regards Pakistan's security as its own and to this end it will spare no efforts. The Pakistani premier, for his part, thanked...

Barack Hussein Obama finally consented to appear on Bill O'Reilly's, "The No Spin Zone," the most popular talk show on Fox News. Bill O'Reilly has mellowed quite a bit from his early days of confrontational and controversial banter with his guests. Such was the case with his interview with Obama. As questions about his Muslim roots still linger, Obama made something very clear about his take on the threat of Islamic terrorists Obama said, "Al Qaeda, the Taliban, a whole host of networks that are bent on attacking America who have a distorted ideology, who have perverted the faith of...

Pope Benedict told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday that minority Christians in Iraq needed more protection but the Iraqi leader assured him that Christians were not being persecuted. Maliki, who met the pope for 20 minutes at the pontiff's summer residence south of Rome, invited the pontiff to visit Iraq, saying a trip there would help the process of peace and reconciliation. "We renewed our invitation for His Holiness to visit Iraq. He welcomed the invitation. And we hope that he will be making the visit as soon as he can," he told reporters in the palace after...

Here is Barack Obama's reaction today to the Supreme Court decision which struck down the D.C. Gun Ban and upheld 2nd Amendment Rights. Obama's statement is clearly politically calculated to minimize his being on the wrong side of this issue. Obama claims to have "consistently" supported the 2nd Amendment as an individual right . . . (see video) But listen to what Obama was saying just this past February about the D.C. Gun Ban . . . (see video)

Understanding Taqiyya - the Islamic Principle of Lying for the Sake of Allah by Warner MacKenzie 30 April, 2007 Lying and cheating in the Arab world is not really a moral matter but a method of safeguarding honor and status, avoiding shame, and at all times exploiting possibilities, for those with the wits for it, deftly and expeditiously to convert shame into honor on their own account and vice versa for their opponents. If honor so demands, lies and cheating may become absolute imperatives.” [David Pryce-Jones, “The Closed Circle” An interpretation of the Arabs, p4] “No dishonor attaches to such...

-- snip --As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant. Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him. His conversion, however, was a...

For over a year, we have been waging a relentless, nearly solitary battle in apprising the Congress and the American public about a billion dollar boondoggle and scandal: the lack of credible Arabic translators for our national security and intelligence agencies. As a result hundreds have been killed in Iraq from infiltration of our military and civilian intelligence agencies by agents of Islamist terrorists. Our FBI and CIA have been infiltrated by Muslim linguists who have successfully evaded polygraph tests and been able to pass on vital information to terror groups in the Middle East such as Hezbollah. Tens of...

WASHINGTON — Some Illinois gun control advocates recall Senator Obama as a "friend" who represented a "solid vote" in favor of increased restrictions on firearm sales, but they said he was never forced to vote on an all-out ban on handguns as a member of the state Senate. Mr. Obama's position on guns is drawing renewed scrutiny following Wednesday night's Democratic debate, when the Illinois senator said he never favored a handgun ban, even though a 1996 questionnaire in his name indicated he did. The candidate questionnaire was filed with a nonprofit group, Independent Voters of Illinois–Independent Precinct Organization, during...

The Issue: Years of mishandling the gun issue have cost progressives the support of many Americans who would otherwise be on their side. The Message: I take a back seat to no one in support of Second Amendment rights, but those rights do not extend to terrorists and criminals. The Policy: Supporting Second Amendment rights, closing gun law loopholes that terrorists and criminals can exploit, fixing the broken background check system, and reversing the Bush gun crime policy by vigorously enforcing the major federal gun laws on the books. Overview: The Gun Gap Gun owners believe that progressives are anti-gun,...

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday that he "mangled" his words when he described small town Americans as "bitter" at a private San Francisco fundraiser. Obama spoke to the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board last night, after a long weekend spent clarifying his statement that many small town voters had grown "bitter" over their economic status and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, has hammered Obama for days over the remarks, saying that he is out of touch with voters. She began...

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, accused of being elitist for remarks he made about small-town American voters, said on Tuesday the slap at his background is amusing and signals a nation in the midst of "political silly season." The Democratic senator, campaigning in Pennsylvania, dismissed the charges of being elitist and out of touch by fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton and by Republican John McCain as unfounded, given his background. "I am amused about this notion of elitist, given that when you're raised by a single mom, when you were on food stamps for a while when you were growing up, you...

An Inver Grove Heights charter school has received harassing and threatening calls in the wake of accusations that it blurs the line between religion and state by promoting Islam, the school's director said Friday. The city's police are investigating and will put extra patrols in the area as a precaution, said Police Chief Chuck Kleckner. He said the school's director contacted the department Friday morning. Asad Zaman, the director and founder of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), said that he and the school received several derogatory phone messages and e-mails. The school came under fire last month after Star Tribune...

A Twin Cities charter school is making changes after accusations that it endorsed Islamic studies at taxpayer expense. Since 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigated TIZA Academy in Inver Grove Heights on Wednesday, the school's attorney has said several changes would be made. The most noticeable -- an American flag now flies over the school for the first time since the academy was founded in 2003. The attorney told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that it was a difficult day for staff and parents, as people from across the country inundated the school with threats and messages of hate after hearing what substitute Amanda...

CIA director Michael Hayden said today al-Qaeda was training operatives who "look western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks. General Hayden said the terror network over the past 18 months has established a safe haven in tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan where they are preparing militants for attacks against the West. "They are bringing operatives into that region for training - operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport near Washington DC) with you," Gen Hayden told NBC television. The new...

Is Barack Obama a Muslim wolf in Christian wool? By Reuven Koret March 27, 2008 The glib handling of criticism of his relationship with the anti-American ("God Damn America!") and anti-Israel ("a dirty word for Negroes") Reverend James Wright may have bought him a little time. But the legacy of dissimulation about his long-concealed identity is about to come crashing down around the ears of Barack Hussein Obama, courtesy of the assembled testimony of his family, friends, classmates and teachers. The accumulated research indicates that Obama was in his childhood a devout Muslim, the son of a devout Muslim, the...

Pennsylvania Democrats are divided increasingly along racial lines in their views of the presidential candidates, a new poll shows. White Pennsylvanians surveyed by Quinnipiac University for a poll released Tuesday back Hillary Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin (61 percent to 33 percent), while black Pennsylvanians favor Barack Obama 76 percent to 18 percent. Both margins represent a significant change from the university's last poll in late February, when Clinton held a 19-point lead among white state voters and Obama led among blacks by 46 points. ''Clearly the split among black and white voters is growing,'' said Clay F. Richards, assistant...

"The speech (Tuesday) by Senator Barack Obama was an important statement on the continuing realities of race and division in America and the quest to move beyond it towards a more fair and open society. We will not get there by being in denial; there still exist problems and division that I and others in Senator Obama's generation continue to seek to expose. Nor will we get there with statements and language that exacerbate the problems rather than expose them, and lead to "solutions" exhibited by those in past generations on all sides of the race question. Every generation has...

Mr. Obama: “White Racism Is Not To Blame For Your Pastor’s Hate Speech” Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, released the following statement today in response to Barack Obama’s speech on race and his close relationship with his divisive and racist minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr: “Barack Obama gave a speech which will placate his supporters, but failed to repudiate his racist spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. Obama attempted to address the issue of white racism, but failed to adequately address black racism. He also tried to put...

Sorry, Barack, it doesn't wash. Your elderly white grandmother being afraid of black men who pass her on the street is not the moral equivalent of your pastor saying that black people should pray that God will “damn America.” Your claim that you winced when your white grandmother bought into racial stereotypes does not excuse you for spending your entire adult life in the pews of a man who claims that white people in the United States government invented AIDS to “genocide” black people. And the fact that your genealogy is racially diverse doesn't change the fact that since you...

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question...

If you missed it, here is the video.

Obama has a big problem. I found this video link on DU of all places. Today's speech in Philly ought to be a real hoot. I love the smell of popcorn in the morning.

Some questions: Why did Barack Obama take so long to "reject outright" the harshly critical statements about America made by his minister, Jeremiah Wright, not to mention the praise the same minister lavished on Louis Farrakhan just last November? How is it possible that Obama did not know about these remarks when he is a member of Wright's congregation and so close to the man that he likens him to "an old uncle"? How is it possible that a campaign apparatus that sniffed out Geraldine Ferraro's offensive statement to a local California newspaper (The Daily Breeze, 12th paragraph) did not...

It does not speak well of his campaign's crisis management skills that Barack Obama has taken five days to wheel out his heavy artillery and give a speech today on Jeremiah Wright, Jr. and "the larger issue of race in this campaign" at a venue called the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Given the opportunity to carefully write and rehearse the delivery of a speech, Obama's verbal presentation skills shine. But talking on his feet, in a press conference or television interview, he is less persuasive. Rather than get on top of the story, he has unconvincingly argued that he...

Barack Obama is preparing to deliver a major address Tuesday on race, politics and unifying the country after being hounded by questions about his relationship to a pastor whose sermons have been laced with anti-American invective. In a speech whose religious significance could compare to one given in December by former GOP presidential hopeful and Mormon Mitt Romney, Obama may be forced to explain the philosophy of the 8,000-strong Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the Democratic presidential candidate has been a congregant for 20 years. In announcing the morning address, to be delivered in Philadelphia, Obama would...

Was Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King on the mark last week when he asserted Islamic terrorists would rejoice if Sen. Barack Obama becomes the next U.S. president? As a journalist and author who has conducted dozens of on-the-record interviews with Muslim terrorists, including with some of the most notorious Palestinian terror leaders, and who has documented many of those interviews in a recently released, 210-page book, "Schmoozing with Terrorists," I can answer the above question with a resounding "yes." Terrorists worldwide would indeed be emboldened by an Obama election victory not so much because of the senator's middle name –...

The al-Aqsa mosque was never the site of a Jewish temple, Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, said Monday during a press conference he convened in Jerusalem to respond to voices calling for the expulsion of Israeli residents of the city who participate in terror activities against Israel. Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah. Photo: Associated Press "Those calling for the expulsion of Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem are hysterical and stupid and belong in the trash can," Salah said at the conference. He went on to deny any Israeli or Jewish historical claim to...

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas leaders spoke to the Arabic language Ash-Sharq il-Awsat newspaper recently and explained that as Muslims, they are allowed to lie. In an interview printed on Thursday, senior Hamas terrorists explained, “A Muslim is permitted to say things that oppose his beliefs in order to prevent damages or to be saved from death.” This approach, known in Arabic as “taqiyya,” was behind several Hamas leaders’ recent public expression of support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, they explained. Senior Hamas terrorists in Samaria, who were recently released from jail, publicly expressed disapproval with the Hamas takeover of Gaza and...

Contrary to what some believe, Barak Obama is very much hated by the islamic terrorists. Al-Ekhlaas which is the largest Al Qaeda forum on the internet had a thread yesterday that was full of hate, racism, and racial slurs against Obama . They believe that he will be “another Bush” in term of fighting the terrorists and one member even called him the “N” word. Here are some of the some of the posts: Beginning of the translation: “In allah name I know that he is worse than Bush. Bush does not need the blessing of the Jews because they...

When Muslims are told about scores of horrendous facts contained in the Quran, Sunnah and the Sharia, they will typically respond as follows: 1. Accuse the person of lying and ignorance. Tell him/her to read "authentic" Muslim websites and texts. Say that critics of Islam are "so-called" experts. Say that once a person "learns" about the "real" Islam, he/she will understand how beautiful and peaceful it is...

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - An Afghan who worked with the CIA two decades ago told a military court Tuesday that a Brooklyn Marine lied about why his special ops unit gunned down unarmed civilians in March 2007. The Marines claimed they fired in self-defense at attacking insurgents as their convoy sped 12 miles back to base after a harmless roadside bomb blast on March 4. < snip > "I swear to Allah and on the Koran not to lie to you," said Qumandan, who a source said worked with the CIA in the 1980s while fighting Soviet military occupiers. "We...

When Sofia Allam left the Muslim faith for Christianity, the response from her family was one of persecution and threats. Alasdair Palmer explores the dangers facing Islam's apostates Sofia Allam simply could not believe it. Her kind, loving father was sitting in front of her threatening to kill her. He said she had brought shame and humiliation on him, that she was now "worse than the muck on their shoes" and she deserved to die. Religious persecution of the kind Sofia suffers is increasingly common in Britain today And what had brought on his transformation? He had discovered that she...

Western civilization’s delinquent knowledge of the Islamic faith leaves us naïve to many of its tenets. Many would be hard pressed to explain the differences between the Sunni and the Shi’ite, let alone the reasons why they have remained in conflict for almost the entire existence of the Islamic faith. This delinquency in understanding Islamic culture and doctrine makes those they consider non-believers – or kafirs – vulnerable both individually and collectively. This is especially true when we examine the Islamic concept of taqiyya. Taqiyya is defined literally as: “Concealing or disguising one's beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies...

-snip- "My goal is that you leave happy," Khaled began softly, once he finally got to the lectern. "My goal is to fulfill the hadith of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that says, 'Whoever puts joy in the hearts of the believers, his reward is not less than Paradise.' " The crowd ate it up. For the next 90 minutes, they laughed at his witticisms, smiled at his stories, nodded at his exhortations and clapped again -- spontaneously and often. But most of all, they listened intently. The rock-star preacher in the designer suit, often called "the anti-bin...

For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill. Is she triangulating—or living her faith? It was an elegant example of the Clinton style, a rhetorical maneuver subtle, bold, and banal all at once. During a Democratic candidate forum in June, hosted by the liberal evangelical group Sojourners, Hillary Clinton fielded a softball query about Bill's infidelity: How had her faith gotten her through the Lewinsky scandal? After a glancing shot at Republican "pharisees," Clinton explained that, of course, her "very serious" grounding in faith had helped...

It is time for the United States to stop treating every American Muslim as somehow suspect, leaders of the faith said at their largest annual convention, which ended here on Monday. Six years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans should distinguish between mainstream Muslims and the radical fringe, the leaders said. “Muslim Americans feel an increasing level of tension and scrutiny in contemporary society,” said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim organization in the United States and the convention organizer. The image problems were among the topics most discussed by many of the...

This article by Dr. Walid, a top scholar at the Islamic University, exposes our so-called secular Indian Muslims. By the doctrine of Al-Taqiyah, Muslims dominate crime syndicates, increase population by massive Bangladeshi infiltration and make temporary alliances with Dalits, Christians, etc. In the early years of the Islamic conquest of the Arabian peninsula and in the Fatah (Arab-Islamic invasion and conquest of the upper Middle East and the outside world), a Muslim concept was devised to achieve success against the enemy (non Muslims), Al-Taqiyah. Al-Taqiyah, from the verb Ittaqu, means linguistically dodge the threat. Politically it means simulate whatever status...

If anyone wants to know why Muslims the world over tell pollsters the United States is at war with Islam, just read President Bush's speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, especially the part about American-style religious freedom -- in the president's words, "what we wish for the world."----snip----As one who has attended a bar mitzvah at that synagogue down the road, I have news for the president: Freedom, American-style, has changed. To enter, I passed an armed guard holding an automatic weapon manning the door.

Democrat: Christians want a party to stand for social responsibility RENO -- Democrats are poised to recapture the White House because they are the most fiscally responsible party and will end the war in Iraq, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Monday night. But the 2008 presidential election might hinge on evangelical Christians who are undergoing a "generational change" that emphasizes social responsibility over social conservatism, he said. "I haven't seen gay marriage in the Bible once," Dean said in the keynote address at a Democratic fundraiser at a Reno hotel-casino. "But I've seen a lot about helping people...

Like most religions, Islam in general, forbids lying. The Quran says, "Truly Allah guides not one who transgresses and lies." Surah 40:28. In the Hadith, Mohammed was also quoted as saying, "Be honest because honesty leads to goodness, and goodness leads to Paradise. Beware of falsehood because it leads to immorality, and immorality leads to Hell." However, unlike most religions, within Islam there are certain provisions under which lying is not simply tolerated, but actually encouraged. The book "The spirit of Islam," by the Muslim scholar, Afif A. Tabbarah was written to promote Islam. On page 247, Tabbarah stated: "Lying...

Paul L. Williams is author of "The Day of Islam" The Islamic practice of taqiyya, meaning “deception” or “concealment,” has been refined into an art-form at a jihad training compound for African American converts near the small town of Red House in Charlotte County, Virginia. The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road leading to it has been named Sheikh Gilani Lane in honor of the guru and founder of a terrorist organization with close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Board of Supervisors of Charlotte Country are either oblivious to the threat of radical Islam on...

For a long time, I let my hopes for a decent outcome in Iraq triumph over what I had learned reporting from Lebanon during its civil war. Those hopes vanished last summer. So, I'd like to offer President Bush my updated rules of Middle East reporting, which also apply to diplomacy, in hopes they'll help him figure out what to do next in Iraq. Rule 1: What people tell you in private in the Middle East is irrelevant. All that matters is what they will defend in public in their own language. Anything said to you in English, in private,...

If we believe the spin of Associated Press headline writers, there's little cause for concern about a new Pew poll of American Muslims. "Most U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings," the AP headline writer blithely reports. But the details of the poll show the always-downplayed tiny minority of jihadi sympathizers in America is cause for big concern. The poll found that while 80 percent of U.S. Muslims believe suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam cannot be justified, fully 13 percent said they can be justified, at least rarely. One in four younger American Muslims find suicide bombings in defense of...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states began working on feasibility studies for a joint nuclear program on Monday and a leading Gulf official said they were set on pursuing atomic energy for peaceful purposes only. "The promising future of nuclear energy in electricity generation and desalination can make it a source for meeting increasing needs," Gulf Cooperation Council head Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya told the first meeting of Gulf nuclear experts. The GCC, a major energy producing group that includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, agreed with the U.N. atomic watchdog in February to cooperate in...

One of the Catholic Church's leading experts on Islam says the Swiss authorities need to keep a closer eye on the country's mosques. Pierre Bürcher, assistant bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, tells swissinfo it is what goes on inside mosques rather than the construction of minarets that poses a greater threat to peace. His comments come just weeks after a group of rightwing politicians launched a nationwide campaign to ban the construction of minarets. Bürcher is president of the Swiss Bishops Conference's working group on Islam, which was set up in 2001. He says meetings with Muslims both at...

PALMYRA, N.J., May 18 — The man sat in the back row of the mosque, his arms folded, unsure whether his hard opinions would change.“I’m concerned about the Muslims,” the man, Richard Smekal, 68, said just before an open house at the mosque, the Islamic Center of South Jersey, where four of six men accused of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix had worshiped. “Personally, I believe that Islam is a religion of the sword,” he said. But he admitted that he had never asked a Muslim.The meeting at the mosque — for community members, local officials and law...

ISLAMABAD: The menace of terrorism faced by the Muslim world is not only challenging the state writ but also brining a bad name to Islam, said Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani on Saturday. “Terrorism is taking human lives and hurting the ongoing development process, and the situation in Pakistan is being further aggravated further by a low literacy rate and rampant poverty,” said Durrani. He was addressing the concluding ceremony of a seven-day training course organised for journalists from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) here at the Information Service Academy...

Authorities say the men planned to kill in the name of God. But the Palmyra mosque where they worshiped maintains it taught them only about peace. Now the Islamic Center of South Jersey, and many other Muslim institutions in the state, are trying to convince people that their religious teachings didn't play a role in an alleged plot to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix. Last night, the mosque held a special meeting at which more than 100 people heard a message of peace and tolerance from the Islamic Center's leaders, as well as U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.),...

As a girl in Catholic school, Khadijah Rivera told religion writer Anthony Chiorazzi, she dreamed of becoming a nun despite the fact she feared Jesus. She was frightened by her church’s bloodied statue of Christ. Years later, as an adult, she says she has now gotten over those fears and learned to love Jesus more. The reason for her change of heart? Rivera converted to Islam. According to Chiorazzi, who writes for Busted Halo, "an online magazine for spiritual seekers," Latino Muslims in the U.S. may number close to 100,000, more than doubling their numbers in less than a decade....