Free Republic

There can never be a place for racism and hate in France, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday after the brutal stabbing to death of a Muslim in a mosque in the south of the country. […] The attacker, who is on the run, stabbed the worshipper dozens of times and then filmed him with a mobile phone while shouting insults at Islam in Friday’s attack in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region. French Prime Minister François Bayrou had already denounced what he described an “Islamophobic atrocity”. The alleged perpetrator sent the video he had filmed with...

But experts say the five that he identified in Bosnia-Herzegovina are natural hills.Despite his many critics, maverick archaeologist Sam Osmanagich stands by his claims that he has uncovered not one, but five structures which he says are pyramids in Visoko in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dr Osmanagich, who earned his doctorate on the history of civilisations at the University of Sarajevo in 2008, was in Singapore recently for a conference, where he spoke about his work on pyramids. The 55-year-old claims that he has discovered the "biggest complex of pyramidal structures in the world" comprising five pyramids, all connected by underground tunnels. The...

Amid the protests of thousands of workers, the Bosnian-Croat regional parliament on Thursday adopted a new labor law that aims to create a more business-friendly environment with the intention of creating jobs. […] The law makes laying off workers somewhat easier and regulates severance terms. It introduces Western-style working contracts that no longer guarantee employment until retirement. […] The former labor law was inherited from the communist regime and offered wide protection to workers but was not business-friendly. It was partly the reason for the 40 percent unemployment rate. …

The mayor of Srebrenica, the site of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, has accused Bosnian Serb authorities of harassing Muslims under the pretext of investigating Islamic extremists. Camil Durakovic, a Bosnian Muslim, said Thursday that Serb police from outside town stormed the homes of Muslims who returned after Bosnia’s 1990s ethnic war, and carried out arrests without explanation. He called it a “form of repression.” “Terrorism is a serious global problem and we must all fight against it, but you cannot use it as an excuse to send masked, armed men to search houses of Bosnian Muslims and...

AFTER 40 years of hesitation and seven hard years of reform and lobbying, Turkey is basking today in the most qualified of invitations to begin the process of joining Europe - a continent whose eastern half the Ottoman empire controlled for centuries. A European Commission report released yesterday, which paves the way for a deciding vote by the 25-member European Union at its December summit, was heavily qualified, and Turkish leaders were muted in their expressions of delight at their initial success. Presenting the decision to the European parliament last night, commission president Romano Prodi said it was a "qualified...

European banks would leave London “in very short order” if Britain voted to exit the European Union, a senior Goldman Sachs executive said in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Michael Sherwood, a vice-chairman at the bank, said the prospect of a British withdrawal was a real worry given Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to hold a referendum on the subject if re-elected in 2015. … Goldman’s Sherwood predicted European banks would quickly relocate if Britain did sever its EU ties. “Forget what we would do. Every European firm would be gone in very short order,” he was quoted as...

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print. While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.

Christians are massively leaving post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina amid mounting discrimination and Islamization, according to a new report. "Many believers leave the country since war raged 20 years ago," said Netherlands-based advocacy and aid group Kerk in Nood, or 'Church in Need', in the report obtained by Vatican Radio. There are just 440,000 Catholics left in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure, the group said. The report came on the heels of talks between the cardinal of Sarajevo, Vinko Puljic, and European Council President Herman van Rompuy about difficulties faced by Bosnia's Christians. MOSQUES BUILT Puljic reportedly complained that while dozens...

This is breaking news: Ayman al-Zawahiri has officially been named ‘emir’ of Al Qaeda. This makes him the successor of Obama bin Laden, who was taken out by a team of Navy Seals earlier this month. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reports that it has read classified documents from the Dutch secret intelligence organization (AIVD). According to the documents, Al-Zawahiri was appointed as Al Qaeda’s new leader during a meeting on May 9, a week after the death of OBL. “On May 9, the leadership of Al Qaeda elected Al-Zawahiri during a meeting in the tribal areas, between Afghanistan and Pakistan”,...

The conflict that raged throughout the former Yugoslavia was met by a wall of silence when it came to important issues. These important issues apply to America and the United Kingdom supporting Islamists in a brutal civil war in Bosnia and then installing a new nation by ignoring international law in Kosovo. Also, is it credible to believe that the vast majority of major news agencies and national governments did not know about thousands of Islamists in Europe who were sent to slit the throats and behead Orthodox Christians? Shoeless Holbrooke sits with Muslim Albanian gunmen that ran the organ...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2008 – The number of daily attacks in Iraq has dropped nearly 95 percent since last year, a U.S. military official said yesterday. Iraq suffered an average of 180 attacks per day this time last year. But over the past week, the average number was 10, Army Brig. Gen. David G. Perkins, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said. “This is a dramatic improvement of safety throughout the country,” Perkins told reporters during a wide-ranging news conference in Baghdad yesterday. He added that the country’s murder rates have dropped below levels that existed before the start of American...

The militant is known as Abu Ubaida al Masri, and charting his path reveals his vulnerabilities and those of the terrorist group. COPENHAGEN -- If Al Qaeda strikes the West in the coming months, it's likely the mastermind will be a stocky Egyptian explosives expert with two missing fingers. His alias is Abu Ubaida al Masri. Hardly anyone has heard of him outside a select circle of anti-terrorism officials and Islamic militants. He has overseen the major plots that the network needs to stay viable, investigators say: the London transportation bombings in 2005, a foiled transatlantic "spectacular" aimed at U.S.-bound...

Sep 2, 2007, 13:56 GMT Munich - A German-based Islamist who was detained for several weeks in Pakistan on suspicion of links with terrorism has been denied residency back home in Germany and sent to his country of citizenship, Bosnia-Herzegovina, a news magazine said Sunday. Focus quoted German authorities as confirming that the 29-year-old man from the south-western city of Pforzheim was taken in the middle of last week to Bosnia and placed in custody there. Asked Sunday by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa for confirmation, a federal interior ministry spokesman declined to comment. No other details were available. German officials had...

Did Clinton nod to Mubarak overthrow? Book suggests foreign policy goof led to Luxor terror massacre © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com A secret deal between the Clinton administration and terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden led directly to the senseless slaughter of some 70 West European tourists and the wounding of hundreds, according to a book written by a former congressional terrorism expert. According to Yossef Bodansky, author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America," a Central Intelligence Agency operative dealing with Islamic terrorists on matters of security for the U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina led them to believe President Clinton ...

VATICAN CITY, SEP 25, 2006 (VIS) - This morning in the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, Benedict XVI received Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and representatives from Muslim-majority countries that maintain diplomatic links with the Holy See. Participating in the meeting were heads of mission from Kuwait, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, Albania, the Arab League, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Iran and Azerbaijan. Also present were 14 members of the Islamic Council of Italy and representatives from the Italian Islamic Cultural Center and the Office of...

Russia says it will pump more gas to Europe after various countries said their supplies had fallen by up to 40% after Moscow cut Ukraine's provision. France, Italy, Germany and Poland were among those reporting falling volumes. Russia said it was sending an extra 95m cubic metres a day to make up for gas "stolen" by Ukraine. Ukraine denies it has siphoned off $25m (£15m) worth of gas from a pipeline crossing its territory after Russia cut off its supply in a price dispute. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom raised the price of 1,000 cubic metres of gas from $50 to...

Researcher Says Balkan Hill Is Pyramid Visocica Hill Is 2,300 Feet High SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- A Sarajevo-born researcher said he has discovered an ancient pyramid in the hills of central Bosnia.

Islam is no laughing matter. The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is being protected by security guards and several cartoonists have gone into hiding after the newspaper published a series of twelve cartoons (view them here) about the prophet Muhammad. According to the Islam it is blasphemous to make images of the prophet. Muslim fundamentalists have threatened to bomb the paper’s offices and kill the cartoonists. The newspaper published the cartoons when a Danish author complained that he could find no-one to illustrate his book about Muhammad. Jyllands-Posten wondered whether there were more cases of self-censorship regarding Islam in Denmark and asked...