Free Republic

Recently, Tom Scholl, who identified himself as a pastor of churches in Ohio and New York, as well as holding positions in several ecumenical organizations, wrote a 3-part article for my local newspaper, The Macon Telegraph, entitled -What the Koran says about Christianity.- I thought it would be an interesting series to read, but I was greatly disappointed and not a little irked. It could have been an apologia about the goodness of Islam, using selective passages from The Koran and being charitable to some elements of Christianity. But his apologia went further than the usual arguments and Koranic exhortations...

An official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily op-ed has accused the United States of being behind all the chaos and civil wars in the Muslim and Arab world, including the longest and oldest fight from right after Mohammed's times between the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the PA writer claims that this turmoil is the direct result of the September 11th attacks on the US, stating that the US utilized this attack to create "an imaginary enemy called 'terror,' and it supervised the cultivation of the idea until it ripened into what is known today as...

A Tunisian pro-democracy group accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today and called for the fight against terrorism and helping Palestinians to achieve self-determination as global priorities. The National Dialogue Quartet, which won the Peace Prize for helping build democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring, accepted the award at a ceremony in Oslo held under tight security following the armed attacks in Paris. ...

Philadelphia's mayor on Tuesday vowed to find the "coward" who left a pig's head at the door of a Philadelphia mosque. The head was found outside the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society early Monday morning. "We all know of the terrible, thoughtless, ignorant act that someone perpetrated in this city yesterday," said Mayor Michael Nutter. "We will, of course, at some point in time find the coward." Pork and pork byproducts are haram, or forbidden, in Islam.

It's "understandable" that Americans are worried about terrorism, and they may even discuss the threat at the holiday dinner table, President Obama said on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving."The bottom line is this: I want the American people to know, entering the holidays, that the combined resources of our military, our intelligence and our homeland security agencies are on the case."(video at link)"In the event of a specific credible threat, the public will be informed," the president promised."We do think it's useful for people as they're going about their business to be vigilant. If you see something suspicious, say something....

Among the benefits of Donald Trump's proposed immigration moratorium is that we won't have to keep importing hordes of Third World "refugees," such as the ones currently swarming across Europe. For decades, the United States has taken in far more refugees than the entire rest of the world combined. Nearly half of the refugees we take in are Muslim. And it's worked out great! Fazliddin Kurbanov, or "Idaho man," as he is dutifully described in the American media, was brought to the U.S. as a refugee in 2009, joining hundreds of other Uzbeks in Boise, Idaho. He came with his...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- The family of the man who killed four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga said in a statement that their son suffered from depression and was not the person they knew. "There are no words to describe our shock, horror, and grief," said the statement, provided Saturday to the Associated Press by a lawyer representing the family of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. "The person who committed this horrible crime was not the son we knew and loved. For many years, our son suffered from depression. It grieves us beyond belief to know that his pain found its...

Top Muslim authorities in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan spoke out over the weekend against extremism, the latest examples of religious figures doing what Western governments encourage as part of a broad campaign to reject and delegitimize any link between terrorism and Islam. In both cases, however, the authorities concerned have controversial records themselves, having drawn criticism in the past for justifying terror in the Pakistani instance and for inciting hatred of non-Muslims in the Saudi one. Addressing students at a Saudi-affiliated Islamic school in London at the weekend, the government-appointed imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, urged...

President Barack Obama said Monday that his administration has lifted the U.S. to become “the most respected country in the world.” Obama made the claim during a discussion with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows at the White House. PRESIDENT OBAMA: People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth, and part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say that we want...

We are learning more about one of the six Minnesota men accused of trying to join ISIS. The sister of 20-year-old Guled Omar spoke to WCCO Wednesday evening. “I believe that my brother is innocent and that he didn’t do anything wrong,” Shukri Omar said. Omar gathered with Somali community members at the Brian Coyle Center Wednesday to support the four men arrested in Minnesota. Two other Minnesotans were arrested on Sunday in San Diego. Guled Omar was active on social media. In his Twitter feed, we found Omar threatened to sue the U.S. government after federal agents kept him...

The scene is almost bucolic. A sunset, smiling children sitting on grass, families gathering together for a day out. They come to Dijla City, a mall and amusement park just north of the city of Mosul, to spend a peaceful afternoon. As they enter the gates, a man with a small microphone meets them with a standard Muslim greeting before asking: “How do you find the spring here in the Islamic State?” The answer, from all, is the same: “Very good, thank God.” Several men are interviewed in the video. (Women are barely glimpsed in the background.) They say everything...

President Barack Obama told world leaders on Thursday that promoting democracy and acceptance of people of all faiths are essential to stopping the spread of violent extremism. "Groups like al Qaeda and [ISIS] peddle the lie that some of our countries are hostile to Muslims. Meanwhile we've also seen, most recently in Europe, arise inexcusable acts of anti-Semitism, or in some cases anti-Muslim sentiment, or anti-immigrant sentiment," Obama said at the closing session of a White House summit on combating extremism. "When people spew hatred towards others because of their faith or because of their faith or because they are...

Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay. Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents’ world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can pray shoulder-to-shoulder; that females can preach and that Muslim women can marry outside the faith—and they point to Quran passages to back them up. The shift comes as young American Muslims work to reshape the faith they grew up with so it fits better with their complex, dual...

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his “cabinet” in Gaza have resigned, Hamas spokeswoman Israa al-Mudallal said, “paving the way for the new ministers of the consensus government.” Haniyeh welcomed the new cabinet as “a government of one people and one political system.” […] Hamas and Fatah swore in a “unity” government earlier Monday, despite last-minute tensions which almost prevented the Palestinian Arab reconciliation. The joint government elected Palestinian Authority (PA) official Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister. …

Netanyahu: Rather than soothing international public opinion, Abbas should choose between Hamas and peace with Israel.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas released a special message on Sunday in Arabic and in English on the occasion of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which he decried the murder of Jews in the Holocaust as "the most heinous crime against humanity in modern history. This is the first time a Palestinian president has ever made such a public declaration.

A Florida Islamic group is accusing some Republican Party lawmakers and local party organizations of fostering anti-Muslim sentiment. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, sent letters to almost every Republican Club or party extension in the state, asking the groups to stop bringing speakers who espouse anti-Islamic views. The letter said it represented the interests of more than 150,000 registered Florida Muslim voters. Hassan Shibly, executive director for CAIR, based in Tampa, said such speakers not only inflame anti-Islam tensions but have also led to discriminatory legislation: namely Senate Bill 386, which would ban foreign laws from being enacted...

Reverend Deborah Lindsay, Minister of Spiritual Care at First Community Church in Ohio, is a YouTube viral video star because of her call on Christians to avoid anti-Muslim sentiment. Unfortunately, her chief outreach partner is a Muslim Brotherhood-tied mosque named the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. A video of her sermon, uploaded in September 2010, has been viewed over one million times. Her outreach to Muslims was also the subject of an article in the Columbus Dispatch. In it, she is quoted as comparing jihad to Lent. […] The audience, especially non-Muslims like Rev. Lindsay, is led to believe that this...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, has been exerting intense political pressure to cancel scheduled screenings of “Honor Diaries,” depicting practices in Muslim countries, described in the film as “systematic, institutionalized misogyny.” Agnieszka Karoluk, representing CAIR-Chicago, was unable to dispute the film’s claims after being challenged by Fox News Megyn Kelly, but instead found fault with its producers, the Clarion Project. “[It’s] a well-known, Islamophobic organization,” she claimed. “What I’m personally disgusted by as a Muslim woman, as a feminist is that someone like the Clarion Project would take this film and use it to promote their own...

Reports of the death of the peace process with Israel have been greatly exaggerated, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday. In an interview with German television network Deutsche Welle, Abbas said that peace negotiations with Israel have not reached a deadlock, as reported by the Maariv newspaper recently. Abbas would not give details about the negotiations, but said that each side had discussed proposals offered by the other. "The fact is that we're still at the beginning. We still have time to negotiate the issues," Abbas told the German network. .....

Syria’s civil war has become so dire that some Islamic clerics are telling starving Syrians to eat cats and dogs. A bad humanitarian situation has turned worse as Syrian President Bashar Assad has escalated a war against rebels, including some with ties to al Qaeda, even as progress has been made on the destruction of the regime’s stockpiles of chemical weapons. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/16/clerics-permit-hungry-syrians-eat-dogs-and-cats/#ixzz2i6IaE1Rg