Free Republic

Egypt is considering a law which would ban the burqa in public places in a crackdown on Islamic extremism. The Muslim-majority nation has faced a series of extremist attacks including the shooting of six Coptic Christians by ISIS last week. A draft law to be considered by the Egyptian parliament calls for a burqa ban in public spaces including hospitals, health clinics, schools, cinemas, theatres and museums. Women who wore the full face veil would be punished with a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds, equivalent to $56 or £42, the Jerusalem Post reported.

From the window of a helicopter crossing the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the Emirati military base looms into view — an expanse of clay-coloured barracks guarded by US Patriot missile systems. This used to be a quiet corner of Yemen, its palm-fringed beaches reaching for miles. Now Emirati forces have made it a showcase of increasing military might. Once best known for holiday beaches and a lackadaisical approach to tax regulation, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become one of the most powerful and interventionist forces in the Middle East.

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

RAMALLAH (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES) (AFP) - A senior Palestinian official on Friday condemned Brazilian far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro's announcement that he would move his country's Israel embassy to Jerusalem. "These are provocative and illegal steps that will only destabilise security and stability in the region," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, told AFP. The United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, sparking fury among Palestinians, who consider the Israeli-annexed eastern part of the city the capital of their future state. "It is very unfortunate that Brazil has joined this negative alliance...

Nation of Islam leader and prominent antisemite Louis Farrakhan chanted “Death to America” and claimed that “America has never been a democracy” on Sunday during a solidarity trip to Iran, ahead of the re-implementation of US sanctions on the country this week. According to Iran’s semi-official state news agency Mehr, Farrakhan said at a meeting with the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei that America is conspiring against Iran. “I understand how the enemies have plotted against the Iranian people and I would like to stay alongside you to stop their plots,” he said. He also blasted American support...

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Arab allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are discussing the creation of a military pact to take on Islamic militants, with the possibility of a joint force to intervene around the Middle East, The Associated Press has learned. The alliance would also serve as a show of strength to counterbalance their traditional rival, Shiite-dominated, Iran. Two countries are seen as potential theaters for the alliance to act, senior Egyptian military officials said: Libya, where Islamic militants have taken over several cities, and Yemen, where Shiite rebels suspected of links to Iran have...

Just ahead of U.S. sanctions on Iran set to snap back on Monday targeting primarily the energy, shipbuilding, shipping, and banking sectors, Iran’s most prominent conservative cleric has announced that if oil exports are halted, Saudi tankers will be confiscated and Gulf countries attacked. Powerful Shia cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda is the Friday Prayer leader in Mashhad, considered Iran’s spiritual capital and among the holiest places in Shia Islam, and sits on the government’s “Assembly of Experts” but has no formal government role or decision-making ability. However, he’s a powerful leader and chief spiritual force behind Iran’s conservative faction who...

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Israeli army's use of force against Palestinians at protests inside the Gaza Strip was unacceptable. Palestinian demonstrations, which began on March 30, have been dubbed "The Great March of Return" of refugees and their descendants to ancestral homes now in Israel. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized what it described as Israel's "indiscriminate use of force against the civilian population." Earlier on Monday, Russia's Defense Ministry accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes against a Syrian air base on Sunday following an alleged chemical weapons attack against civilians.

CAIRO — Egypt said Sunday that security forces have killed 19 militants in a shootout, including the gunmen suspected of killing seven Christians in an attack on pilgrims traveling to a remote desert monastery.The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said the militants were tracked to a hideout in the desert west of the central province of Minya, the site of Friday’s attack, which also left 19 people wounded.It said the alleged militants opened fire when they realized they were being besieged by security forces. It did not say when the shootout took place. The ministry published photographs purporting to...

By Hassan Mahmoudi There is only one day left before the sanctions on Iran's ruling mullahs , which the Trump administration says are the new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, if they are imposed as expected, will be painful for Iran's tyrannical rulers, The US will add 700 individuals and companies to a list of blocked entities And with Iranian leaders continuing their malign behavior, huge Iranian treasure is being directed away from the Iranian people and towards fueling Iran’s regional ambitions, as well as its human rights abuses, and destabilizing activity in Syria. This week, Danish authorities accused...

Two years ago, eleven HDP deputies were arrested in Turkey. After two years of imprisonment, the European Court of Human Rights is now to decide. On 4 November, eleven deputies of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested in Turkey. In the middle of the night, party leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, as well as Nursel Aydoğan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Selma Irmak, Ziya Pir, Ferhat Encü, Gülser Yıldırım, İdris Baluken, Leyla Birlik and İmam Taşçıer were brought out of their homes. While Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Ziya Pir and İmam Taşçıer were later released against mandatory reporting, others were remanded...

European leaders are opening the door to possible sanctions on Iran in the wake of terror plots across the continent -- even as they criticize the Trump administration for reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports and financial dealings. Denmark’s intelligence agency on Tuesday said that it had foiled an Iranian plot to kill an opposition activist, and had arrested a Norwegian of Iranian descent. The suspect has denied the allegations and is being held in custody. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied any involvement and has issued a “strong protest” to the Danish government. The Wall Street Journal reported...

MINYA, Egypt (AP) -- Hundreds of Egyptian Christians attended a funeral service Saturday after seven people were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants of buses carrying pilgrims to a remote desert monastery. 【Related】IS attack on Christian pilgrims in Egypt kills 7 【Related】Japan, Egypt to work to bring stability to Middle East 【Related】Egypt governor: Remove Disney figures from kindergartens The service at Prince Tadros church in the central city of Minya was held amid tight security. Minya's top cleric, Anba Makarios, led prayers over a row of six white coffins, all victims from the same family. A separate funeral...

In Minya, Egypt, Coptic Christians were terrorized in another attack targeting the minority group on Friday. Islamic militants opened gunfire on two buses carrying Coptic Christians en route to an ancient monastery in Upper Egypt, killing seven and injuring more than eleven. Friday’s attack is one in a series of attacks on Egypt’s ancient Christian community, which currently makes up between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s population. Minya has the largest population of Christians in the country — 35 percent of residents are Christians — and experiences a lion’s share of the sectarian attacks. According to Open Doors USA’s...

At least seven people were killed and at least 19 others were injured in an attack on several buses carrying Coptic Christians near a monastery in Egypt on Friday, according to a spokesperson for Egypt's Coptic Church. Gunmen attacked two buses and a microbus on a road near the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor, in Minya, south of Cairo, the spokesperson said. One of the buses was carrying 28 members of a family that had traveled to the monastery for the baptism of one of its children, six of whom were injured, according to the spokesman. At least seven...

CAIRO – Islamic militants on Friday ambushed two buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing seven and wounding up to 16, according to the Interior Ministry and security officials. Coptic Orthodox Church spokesman Boulos Halim said the death toll was likely to rise. Local church officials in Minya province where the attack took place put the death toll at 10, but the higher figure could not be confirmed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants who have for years...

The Trump administration on Friday announced the reimposition of all U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. The sanctions will take effect Monday and cover Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors. It's the second batch of penalties that the administration has reimposed since President Donald Trump withdrew from the landmark deal in May. With limited exceptions, the sanctions will penalize countries that don't stop importing Iranian oil and foreign companies that do business with blacklisted Iranian entities, including Iran's central bank, a number of private financial institutions and state-run port and shipping companies.

Iranians fear an even more painful squeeze on living costs after additional U.S. sanctions take effect on Monday, from businesses struggling to buy raw materials to the sick and elderly unable to afford life-saving medicines. Iran’s clerical rulers have played down the U.S. move, but many ordinary Iranians appear apprehensive. “All the prices are going higher every day ... I cannot imagine what will happen after 13 Aban (Nov. 4). I am scared. I am worried. I am desperate,” said elementary school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran. “I cannot even buy rice to feed my...

US Policy in a Changing Middle East United States Secretary of Defense - James Mattis—remarkably failed to mention “the two-state solution”, or even the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” in his keynote address—“US Policy in a Changing Middle East”—delivered at the International Institute for Strategic Affairs 14th Regional Security Summit in Manama, Bahrein held between 26-28 October. Mattis’ pointed omissions can only fuel speculation that a “one-state solution”—possibly involving the creation of a Jordan enclave in the West Bank - could now be uppermost in President Trump’s thinking.

Iranian officials, in a first, have admitted to facilitating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. by secretly aiding the free travel of al Qaeda operatives who eventually went on to fly commercial airliners into the Twin Towers in New York City, according to new remarks from a senior Iranian official. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in the Iran's judiciary, disclosed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television that Iranian intelligence officials secretly helped provide the al Qaeda attackers with passage and gave them refuge in the Islamic Republic, according to an English translation published by Al Arabiya.