Free Republic

Pope Leo visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, removing his shoes in a sign of respect but not appearing to pray in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship during his four-day visit to Turkey. The first U.S. pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul. Leo, walking in white socks, smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque's lead muezzin - the official...

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday that the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) would be banned for propagating extremism and that its famous "Blue Mosque" was being searched by police. "It is very important to me to make a clear distinction here: we are not acting against a religion," Faeser said, but just against a group accused of undermining the German state as well as women's rights. The Imam Ali Mosque, known locally as the Blue Mosque, is one of Germany's oldest mosques and is operated by the IZH. Germany bans Hezbollah group, backed by Iran, in 2020 The...

Folks, this morning, as I watched NBC’s The Today Show journalist Richard Engel, while gushing about President Obama’s visit to Turkey’s Blue Mosque and then to Hagia Sophia, called the latter “a symbol of reconciliation” after remarking that it was first a “church, then a mosque, and now a museum.”I don’t know why Mr. Engel said such a thing. To call Hagia Sophia “a symbol or reconciliation” it’s grating to those of us who know the history behind this “museum.” It is as if the Basilica of St. Peter were confiscated by a Muslim army, added 4 minarets to...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 9/5/022 BREAKING: Kabul >110 Pakistani Taliban prisoners released, BREAKING: Khost, night visioned SF, Incoming 107mm, AT-4 anti-tank weapons, Afghan dervish, market, Afghan girls and women freed by the USA but reburq'd by the UN and local opinion, Kandahar, weapons cache, Blue Mosque, discrimination at the clinic Mazar-e-Sharif, Perp Mullah Omar REMEMBRANCE: Pentagon, World Trade Center =========== Khost =========== Near Khost, 80 miles southeast of Kabul, through night vision optics, US Army Special Forces and Afghan Military Forces (AMF) take a home of an Al Qaeda cell in Ayul-Khei. In Khost, US Army...