Free Republic

Recent studies have shown that I.Q. scores have been declining in Western nations for decades. Evan Horowitz, director of research and communication at FCLT Global, wrote a post for nbcnews.com in which he stated: “A range of studies using a variety of well-established IQ tests and metrics have found declining scores across Scandinavia, Britain, Germany, France and Australia.” Horowitz added that this plunge in cognitive ability could well lead to “fewer scientific breakthroughs, stagnant economies and a general dimming of our collective future.” Duh.And there are others.These findings have led some to issue dire predictions of a general dumbing down...

Is Indonesia the missing link in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (between India, Australia, Japan and America) created as a response to the rise of China? Do Free Republic readers believe reaching out in friendship to Indonesia is in the interests of The West?

Throat slashed to her spine... Wife and mother Randjida Khairi wanted her children to be essentially raised like all the other children in her adopted nation of Canada. But for taking a stand contrary to her staunchly Islamic and Afghanistan-born husband, Peer Khairi, Randjida was found by Canadian police with her throat slashed wide-open, as well as her neck muscles, esophagus and voice box slashed open to the spine. Unable to raise her head or scream for help, the victim slowly suffocate in her own blood. According to testimony, "a process a pathologist would later determine took between five and...

Senior Jihadi Writer Suggests Killing Westerners, Putting Their Decapitated Heads On Display To Silence Attempts To Mock Prophet Muhammad MEMRI 92212image004.jpg On September 18, 2012, Muhib Ru'yat Al-Rahman, a senior writer on leading jihadi forum Shumoukh Al-Islam, suggested that Muslims living in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S. kill Westerners and display their decapitated heads along roads with a statement reading: "This is the punishment of those who insult our prophet." While expressing respect for those calling to boycott European and American products over the release of the film "Innocence of Muslims," which negatively depicts Muhammad, Muhib insists that...

An Illinois-based animal-rights organization is claiming that horses at this year’s Fiesta de Los Vaqueros were treated with unnecessary cruelty. An agency called SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, has filed a complaint Monday morning with the animal services division in Arizona’s Department of Agriculture because horses were shocked during the rodeo, said Janet Enoch, a SHARK investigator. Steve Hindi, SHARK’s president and founder, said he took video footage of horses being shocked with a prod that can deliver what he described as much 6,000 volts of painful electricity. In a video posted on the video sharing Web site...

Nutritional "Boost" Making Westerners Taller, Healthier, Expert Says Erica Lloyd for National Geographic News October 2, 2006 It's no secret that in the past few centuries people in Western nations have been getting taller and living longer. But now experts say that today's Westerners are the product of an accelerated spate of growth that is unique in human history. People in the developed world are taller and more robust than their great, great, great grandparents probably ever imagined. Robert Fogel, director of the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago, notes that Westerners are about 50 percent larger...

Bin Laden justifies attacks on westerners in new tape By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 24/04/2006) Osama Bin Laden accused the West yesterday of waging a war against Islam and justified attacks on western civilians because they had elected governments that are fighting in Muslim countries. Bin Laden's threats came as John Reid, the Defence Secretary, confirmed that the 3,500 British troops in Afghanistan would launch pre-emptive strikes against Taliban and al-Qa'eda forces if it was necessary to safeguard soldiers' lives. Bin Laden: new threats In a latest tape recording attributed to the al-Qa'eda leader, who is believed to...

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more...

EVRY, France (AP) - Prostrating himself and touching his forehead to the ground, Mathieu Pawlak put his demons to rest. Once a practicing Catholic tormented by a spiritual void and the searching questions of youth, Pawlak embraced Islam and, he says, found peace. "I'm the same on the outside, but inside everything has changed," said the 25-year-old restaurant cook who converted 4 1/2 years ago. He took a Muslim name, Abderrahman, and last year married a Muslim woman who cloaks herself in a dark veil. "I found the way that Muslims pray to be truly profound. It links the body...

A statement entitled "al-Qaeda's Future Soldier: Rakan Bin Williams," published by a group calling itself "al-Qaeda's Voice on the Internet," indicates that al-Qaeda plans to recruite white European converts to Islam rather than depend on Arabs and Muslims from Middle Eastern or Asian origin (posted on the jihadist forums al-Saha (http://alsaha.fares.net/sahat/.ee6b2ff, and www.la7odood.com; see also the Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat on November 8, 2005). According to the statement, recruiting Westerners is part of al-Qaeda's strategy to respond to the "war on terrorism" and the resulting restrictions placed on its members. The statement indicates that following September 11, there was a...

Westerners are frank with their faith By Cara Eastwood rep4@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Christians in western states share their faith more than those in any other region of the United States, a recent study shows. The study, conducted by the California-based Christian research organization The Barna Group, found that 65 percent of born-again Christians in the West actively shared their faith with non-Christians in the past year. This compares with 58 percent of born-again Christians in the Northeast and 59 percent of southern Christians. The group defines born-again Christians as those who said they had made...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

With regard to the recent attacks on westerners in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah made the following remarks: “Zionism is behind it. It has become clear now. It has become clear to us. I don’t say, I mean... It is not 100 percent, but 95 percent that the Zionist hands are behind what happened.” Saudi Prince Nayef, the Saudi Interior Minister said, “Al-Qaida is backed by Israel and Zionism.” Some call this dangerous Saudi doubletalk. “The crown prince’s statements are inflammatory and irresponsible,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “On the one hand they say reassuring words to American leaders,...

AN assassination squad of Jemaah Islamiah terrorists is believed to have slipped into Indonesia to target Australian diplomats, businesspeople and other Westerners. The move by JI, the group responsible for the Bali bombings, may signal a dramatic shift from general bombings to assassinations. A group of operatives, trained to carry out assassinations, has arrived in Indonesian in recent weeks through East Kalimantan province from Mindanao in the southern Philippines, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. At the top of their target list are the Australian, American and British ambassadors, as well as other senior officials from those...

U.S. troops in Iraq are not currently holding any American or British citizens in custody, the commander of coalition forces said Thursday. An official said earlier this week that six people held on suspicion of guerrilla activity had claimed to be Americans and two others claimed to be British. The coalition has been investigating the claims. Asked on Thursday about the claims, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said, "We currently have no Americans under arrest in our detention facilities." Asked if any Britons were being held, he replied: "None." At least one American was arrested around the end of major combat...

Paul Martin, after long bouts of calculated silence, has spoken of his desire to bring the West into the Liberal fold. This would make the prospective one-party state a pan-Canadian operation. The big Liberal tent would welcome not only all ambitious politicos, but every region. Other Liberal heavyweights, such as Anne McLellan and Sheila Copps, have recently pitched ideas for bringing the West onside. Ms. McLellan repeated the concept of a "regional PMO" located in Edmonton -- as if the proximity of bad decisions make them more palatable. Ms. Copps proposes a more paleo-Liberal plan, opening "her" pocketbook to fight...

Seven Western men were among 50 Indonesians who attended training camps organized and financed by al-Qaida in 2001 on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, an intelligence official said Friday. Muchyar Yara, a senior intelligence official, said al-Qaida provided an undisclosed amount of money, along with weapons and explosives expertise, for at least 10 camps in the jungles near Poso in Central Sulawesi province. The camps operated between March and November 2001, he said. He said each camp had two or three trainers, one of whom was the son-in-law of the late Indonesian Abdullah Sungkar, the alleged founder of Jamaah...

Blindly believing themselves the first to discover the tallest mountain straddling the border of China's Tibet and Nepal, Britsh people named the peak in honor of George Everest, a British surveyor general of India who led a team in surveying the Himalayan ranges in the early 1840's.In a paper published in 1958, Lin Chao, a late prestigious expert on geographic history and topography with Beijing University, noted that the British man did not deserve the honor, as it was Tibetans themselves who first discovered the peak.According to Lin's reasearch, the Manchurian and Han (or Chinese) language name of 'Qomolangma' first...