Free Republic

A former member of Russia’s Duma who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind a car bomb which blew up the daughter of one of Vladimir Putin’s close political allies on the outskirts of Moscow (Darya Dugina, daughter of Alexander Dugin). Speaking in Kyiv, where he is based, Ilya Ponomarev alleged the explosion on Saturday evening was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime... Ponomarev said partisans inside Russia were ready to conduct further similar attacks against...

BBC News political editor Nick Robinson apologized last week for originally identifying the London stabbing as having a “Muslim appearance” based on quotes given to him by law enforcement. Appearing on the News at Six the day of the Woolwich attack, Robinson explained that his law enforcement sources told him the perpetrator was of “Muslim appearance” and had reportedly been shouting “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” The report apparently generated controversy, especially within the United Kingdom’s Muslim community, who felt the comment represented an unfair “racist generalization.” Several days later, Robinson took to the BBC website...

A controversial week of events, billed as Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, launches at the University of Washington and some 100 other colleges next week — drawing condemnations from Muslim groups here and across the country. The UW College Republicans...say the week is intended to foster awareness of the terrorist threat posed by a small number of extremists within Islam. But some local Muslims say the week fosters Islamophobia and racism and attempts to paint all Muslims as terrorists. Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, launched this year by a recent graduate of Duke University...is intended to "confront the two Big Lies of the political...

"Muslim silence" in the face of terrorism has become a predictable cliché in Western discourse. It is now widely believed by non-Muslims throughout the West that no representative of the faith of Muhammad will denounce violence against Jews, Christians, Hindus and others, even though non-fundamentalist Muslims are by far the most numerous victims of terrorism. The very existence of a moderate, pluralist Islam is so widely doubted in the West that it often appears there is no alternative to a war of extremes between those of ill-will on both sides of the cultural and religious divide. Muslims are not silent...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 15 suspected Taliban sympathizers Friday in the latest flare-up of violence near the Afghan border, the Pakistani army said. One soldier also was killed. The top army spokesman described the continuing bloodshed in the North Waziristan tribal region as "disturbing" and said efforts to control it were costing the Pakistani military "heavily." "Eighty percent of the people in the area are sitting on the fence and watching for which side buckles, either the government or the militants, and they will go with the winner," Maj. Gen....

In the wake of the 7/7 London bombings many politicians and pundits have raced to renounce the phrase “Islamic terrorism.” A London Anglican priest named Paul Hawkins said in a sermon: “We can name the people who did these things as criminals or terrorists. We must not name them as Muslims.” It may seem odd to deny to the likely perpetrators of the bombings the name that they themselves prize above all others, and it is certainly a disservice to any genuine Muslim reformers who might be trying to identify and root out the causes of violence from within Islam,...

Which Came First, Stupidity or Anti-Semitism? July 22, 2002 by Marc J. Rauch Does stupidity beget anti-Semitism or does anti-Semitism cause stupidity? Stupid people aren’t always or necessarily anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitic people are always stupid; at least that’s been my experience. Case in point: A reader of one of my recent essays about Yasser Arafat wrote to me because he (the reader) hates Jews. He didn’t write to press a counter argument on behalf of Arafat, or even to discuss the premise of my essay. He just wanted me to know why he and so many other people hate Jews....