Free Republic

What do these episodes have in common? Item: A few years ago an Egyptian college professor wrote that subatomic particles must be the "jinns" or Arabian desert spirits that Mohammed wrote about in the Koran. As a devout Muslim this scientifically educated man was convinced that fundamental physics must have been completely known to Allah when he dictated the infallible Koran to the Prophet, fourteen centuries ago. Item: When Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948, the President of Syria said to a Palestinian Arab leader that "I am happy to tell you that our Army and its equipment are of...

In the run-up to Pope Benedict's current visit to Turkey, TIME Magazine opened its pages to Tariq Ramadan, Europe's favorite Islamist and perhaps the most influential Muslim figure in the West today. Ramadan chided the Pope and Europe for ignoring the positive contributions of Islam to the development of rational thought in the West. Writing in response to Benedict's now-famous Regensburg speech (which prompted outrage in the Muslim world) and the Pope's first visit to a predominantly Muslim country, Ramadan's article, "And He's Still in the Dark", offers a back-handed compliment to Benedict's attempt at dialogue with Muslims, warning that...

We know that we are being lied to. Sometimes we just don't realize how much we are being lied to. The more sordid the Islamic present seems, the more we are told of the glories of the Islamic past. And the most glorious of the glories of Islam, the most enlightened of its enlightenments, are the "Islamic science" and "Islamic philosophy" of the Golden Age. So what does Islamic law say about this science and this philosophy? According to Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 1368), they are unlawful,...

Pierre Rehov's new movie, Suicide Killers: Paradise is Hell features in-depth interviews with young would-be suicide bombers. Rehov is a French Jew who grew up in Algeria and knows Muslim culture in depth. His film sums up the "terrifying serenity" of the teenage suiciders, who have found their personal solution to "sexual frustration plus a constant sense of shame and humiliation." That is certainly consistent with what we know about Mohammed Atta, the leader of the Twin Towers suicide bombers, who spent the night before his mass murder at a girlie show. In his will Atta insisted that no woman...

(Compiled by BangkokPost.com) Manila Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has threatened to feed to the sharks both local and foreign activists who even think of disrupting next month’s Southeast Asian summit. The Summit of Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is to be held in the central city of Cebu on Dec 11-13. Allies such as Australia will also be at the meeting. The summit is likely to advance to 2015 the target date for integrating the region into a European Union-style market. The Philippines media quoted Mr Gonzalez over the weekend as saying he had received intelligence reports...

(dpa) Bangkok and its surrounding provinces will be underwater within the next 15 to 20 years unless barriers are constructed along the capital's Chao Phrya River, the National Disaster Warning Centre warned in a report on Monday. Smith Thammasaroj, chairman of the centre, said that Thailand's capital faces a watery future thanks to global warming that will lead to higher sea tides and heavier rainfall. Bangkok, Thailand's capital since 1782, is connected to the Gulf of Thailand by the Chao Phrya River, which flows down from the country's northern region. "The way to prevent the situation is to start building...

While others might be concerned about a favorite candidate who took a tumble Tuesday, I'm concerned about my old friend and political analyst, Tom Hamburger. A fellow alumnus of the Pine Bluff Commercial, Tom has made good and is now covering national politics for the Los Angeles Times. Not long ago he was back in Arkansas for an appearance at the Clinton School of Public Service, where he was hawking a book he and a colleague had just written. It sounded like a mighty fine one, too: "One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century." Nice...

ISLAMABAD: The Dutch government on Monday passed a law aimed at heavily restricting the number of would-be Pakistani immigrants to the Netherlands, by linking applications to Dutch language proficiency, officials said. Under the new law, any Dutch national of Pakistani origin will only be permitted to send for family members (with a view to settling in Holland) provided that they learn Dutch prior to immigration application. Similarly, any Pakistani wishing to immigrate to the Netherlands will be required to take a language proficiency test at the Dutch Embassy in Islamabad. Anyone failing the test will automatically be denied the right...

In all the publicity about their attack on Senator Joe Lieberman, it has gone almost unnoticed that the far left has also targeted some members of the Black Caucus for their support of highly selective Bush administration policies. This support often came about only after hard negotiations to win administration support for programs to help people in their districts. Having lived in Chicago for two decades I find it almost unimaginable that former Black Panther Bobby Rush could be challenged from his left, but he was. Cong. Rush’s vote for the energy bill upset the masters of the Internet’s political...

Hospital vet calls on public not to panic or abandon pets after Suphan Buri case A dog in Suphan Buri contracted bird flu after eating infected ducks, new findings show. Prof Dr Yong Pooworawan, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine, released the findings at a seminar at the university yesterday. According to Yong, a researcher at Kasetsart University's Kamp-haengsaen campus found that a dog had contracted bird flu. The findings will be published in a foreign journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, soon, Yong said. He declined to elaborate on the findings. Since 2004, Thai researchers have studied the genetic...

Yala - Muslim militants launched 23coordinated time bomb attacks at commercial banks in this southern province Thursday, killing at least one man and severely injuring at least four bank customers, police said. The bombs, mostly left on bank counters and some in ATM booths at the banks, were detonated mostly by clocks between 11:30 to 11:35 am. Twenty six people suffered minor injuries. Police said militants dressed in student uniformed carried bombs hidden in folders, books and plastic banks and left them on counters where customers wrote bank slips. The attacks prompted all banks in the province to close its...

Defence force volunteer shot and mutilated Villagers threatened, told to leave homes A defence volunteer's ears were chopped off, his throat slashed and his body riddled with bullets in Narathiwat's Sungai Padi district early yesterday during a spate of violence by southern insurgents. The body of Sama-ae Joeha, 50, was found on a road in tambon Riko in Sungai Padi district, police said. His head was almost cut off, police said. Witnesses told police Sama-ae was delivering sweets on a motorcycle when he was attacked by at least two men who hid in bushes at the roadside. In Yala, the...

is their no honor amongst theives? Democrats have turned on one of their own, cannibalizing Rep. Jefferson of Georgia as a way of giving the appearance of ethics and morality. Smoke and mirrors once again. House Democrats, determined to make an election-year point about ethics, voted 99-58 Thursday night to strip Rep. William Jefferson of his committee assignment while a federal bribery investigation runs its course.The rank and file acted despite a last-minute plea by the embattled Louisiana lawmaker and persistent complaints from the Congressional Black Caucus that there was neither rule nor precedent for the action. Does it surprise...

CP) - Having been told that he and the people of Miramichi, N.B., would be better off shovelling cow manure than registering long guns, John McKay has a clear idea of just how contentious the gun registry issue is in Canada. The main processing office for the Canadian Firearms Centre is located in Miramichi and McKay, the city's mayor, is more worried than ever about the centre's future following the latest revelations of mismanagement by Auditor General Sheila Fraser. McKay said Tuesday he has received dozens of letters in recent weeks from Western Canadians who feel he has no business...

OTTAWA (CP) - The former Liberal government cooked the books on the much-maligned gun registry program, ignoring legal advice and hiding the true cost of the registry from Parliament, says the auditor general. While the 10-year cost of the registry through the end of fiscal 2005 has been pegged at $946 million - just below an earlier $1 billion estimate - government officials went to great lengths to obscure the true annual tally, including spreading the accounting of past spending over the next 15 years. "It is more than simply a disagreement between accountants," Fraser told a news conference, in...

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | News story: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent an 18-page letter to President Bush. No word on whether it was handwritten in tiny type, margin to margin, and wrapped in tinfoil. Herewith are some excerpts: Dear Infidel Crusader Zionist sock-puppet Saudi-lackey despoiler of Mesopotamia woman-touching pigdog fiendish (293 words excised) shah-licking son of a toad's offal: I trust this finds you well. I have much on my mind, and have taken the pen to unburden my breast. I have enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope should you wish to reply. ... ... Our people glow with pride over our...

A man executed by Texas in 2004 was convicted on an erroneous interpretation of fire evidence, according to a report from four leading arson experts. The experts called the fire evidence presented at the trial of Cameron Willingham for the 1991 murder of his three children in a Corsicana, Texas, house blaze "bad science" in the report presented to Texas officials Tuesday. "(The state's expert witnesses) relied on interpretations of 'indicators' that they were taught constituted evidence of arson. While we have no doubt that these witnesses believed what they were saying, each and every one of the indicators relied...

While the media in communist China censored the protestor who interrupted the White House-welcoming of China’s President, CBS and ABC prattled on about how a U.S. official’s misnaming of China was a huge embarrassment for President Bush and also re-spun China’s propaganda about Taiwan. MSNBC’s liberal Keith Olbermann, who regularly slams Fox News Channel as unreliable, miraculously found the network highly reliable when it reported President Bush’s approval rating at 33 percent. Today’s Katie Couric endorsed Senator Kennedy’s neo-socialist national health care plan as “noble.” Hardball’s Chris Matthews, apparently short on material, discussed Rolling Stone’s issue about Bush being the...

FRiends, I live in Thailand. Every couple of years I like to get a fresh couple of cannisters of Mace or pepper spray. I used to order from the USA, but suppliers will no longer send through the mail, and I don't know anyone in the USA that would do that for me. Pepper spray is legal in Canada in limited form (for protection against bears and dogs only!) and I do have someone there that will send it to me, but it is tough to find. After a couple of hours on the web I could only find one...

Her list of campaign donors reads like a “Rogue’s Gallery” of Islamic Terrorist Supporters. Hani Y. Awadallah – president, Arab American Civic Organization, New Jersey. Jesse Aweida – co-founder, American Task Force on Palestine. Belal Dalati – a vice president of Arab-American Broadcasting Co. (Orange County Register, February 19, 2002) associated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Hasan Elkhatib –member, board of directors, American Islamic Educational Foundation (MetroWest Jewish News, October 10, 1996) Yaser Elmenshawy - chairman, Islamic Council of New Jersey. Rafeeq Jaber – president, Islamic Association for Palestine, a Hamas offshoot. Oussama Jammal – president, Bridgeview Mosque. Samer...