Free Republic

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia has canned an annual craft beer festival after an Islamist party warned it would turn the city into “the biggest centre of vice in Asia”. Drinking alcohol is common among the large ethnic minorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia but there have been a growing number of protests against activities and events seen as un-Islamic by politicians and hardliners. The Better Beer Festival, billed as Malaysia’s biggest craft beer festival, was due to take place on October 6 and 7 at a shopping mall on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. But last week the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party...

A Turkish born, German citizen, Seyran Ates, has done something that needed to be done. She has tried to drag Islam into the 21st century by opening a Mosque that is open, inclusive and genuinely Liberal in its outlook. There is only one problem standing in her way…Since opening its doors, she has been the subject of a mass death threat and hate mail campaign and is now under 24-hour Police Protection. The Ruschd-Goethe Mosque (named after the Islam scholar and philosopher Ibn Ruschd, and the German poet Goethe), opened doors in mid-June and set out to preach Religious freedom...

Hardline To Swallow: Obama’s causes are not common to us by Daniel Clark While pitching his Iranian nuclear deal to an audience at American University, President Obama said, “It’s those hardliners chanting ‘death to America’ who have been most opposed to the deal. They’re making common cause with the Republican Caucus.” The controversy that’s arisen over that remark is curious, considering that the president has all along condemned “hardliners” in both countries for criticizing the agreement. In fact, after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton voiced his objections in an open letter back in early March, Obama said, “I think it’s somewhat...

The lowest moment from what was probably the lowest speech of his presidency — so far. David Harsanyi, watching this, asks a good question: Imagine what would have happened if Bush had said that Democrats were caucusing with Saddam Hussein?— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) August 5, 2015 The GOP opposes the nuclear deal because they think it’s too favorable to Iran and not favorable enough to America. The hardliners in Iran’s parliament oppose the deal for the opposite reason. Insofar as they both want the deal to fail, I suppose that’s “common cause.” But then, as Harsanyi says, it must also...

Ron Paul, the outspoken libertarian congressman and Republican presidential candidate from Texas, disagreed with his fellow GOP hopefuls on the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons at the CBS/National Journal debate on Saturday. While Paul refused to rule out the possibility of war with Iran, he insisted a war would not be worthwhile and that the president should go to Congress before launching any military action. “The only way you would do that is you would have to go to the Congress,” he said. “We as commander in chief aren’t making the decision to go to war. The old fashioned way,...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Fed up with violence and economic hardship, voters in the deeply conservative northwest have thrown out the Islamist parties that ruled this province for five years — a clear sign that Pakistanis are rejecting religious extremism in a region where al-Qaida and the Taliban have sought refuge. Instead, voters in turbulent North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, gave their support to secular parties that promised to pave the streets, create jobs and bring peace through dialogue and economic incentives to the extremists. That may conflict with U.S. pressure to step up the fight against armed militants...

Cameron attacks Muslim hardliners By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 31/01/2007 David Cameron yesterday endorsed a new Conservative report which condemned the "hardline" views of the Muslim Council of Britain and other Islamic groups. The Conservative leader argued that the Government must not bow to the "loudest voices" in the Muslim community when he attended the launch of the report by his national and international security policy group. He went on to argue that extremists had to be confronted to drain the "sea" in which terrorist groups can swim. The report, Uniting the Country, singled out the...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign bus tour hit a pot hole on its very first stop: a town hall meeting Tuesday at which the governor was heckled by people upset with his position on illegal immigration. The hot-button issue was a theme of a day on which Schwarzenegger emphatically distanced himself from a 1994 ballot proposition, saying "I was wrong" to support a measure that sought to deny illegal immigrants many government services. His day began in the San Diego County community of La Mesa, where about 150 people attended a campaign event. Among them was Sally Plata, a 66-year-old retiree...

Speaking at Saturday's opening session of the National Council of La Raza convention, former U.S. President Bill Clinton accused the Republican Party of using the immigration issue to divide Congress and the nation. "It is a way of creating a divided community and distracting people from the real challenges facing the country, whether it is in Iraq and Afghanistan, or homeland security, or how to build a clean energy future, or how to solve the healthcare crisis, or how to create new jobs for America," Clinton told one of the nation's largest Latino civil rights groups in Los Angeles Saturday...

LONDON, April 17 (IranMania) - Tehran is replacing 60 of its ambassadors, or around half the total, Iran's deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying, while rejecting any talk of a purge by ruling hardliners, AFP reported. "Some media said the changes were due to political reasons while it is not true. Rotating the diplomats every year is natural in the foreign ministry," Mehdi Mostafavi said. Following the shock election win of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005, authorities had announced that around 40 of Iran's most senior diplomats posted abroad were being changed. Many of these diplomats were seen...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Monday the death of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would be a serious defeat for United States policy in the Middle East, state-run radio reported. "The Americans have been defeated in Palestine since the butcher of the Palestinians, who intended to destroy the Palestinian Intifada, has come to his end," the radio quoted Khamenei as saying to a group of visitors. On Thursday Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he hoped for the death of Sharon.

The take of Iran’s conservative media on an article published last week in the German magazine Spiegel once again highlighted their disconnection with the real world, especially on issues relating to Palestine. Spiegel published a satirical article on Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s suggestion of moving Israel and the Jews to Europe, which in itself was received with chuckles and cynicism in Europe. But the conservative press in Iran and even the influential newspaper Resalat devoted its main headline (issue no 23) to the Spiegel’s article, referencing it as a “document attesting the righteousness of president Ahmadinejad’s suggestion.” In this article, I...

Rooz reporter from Tehran reports that as former Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel and commanders continue their take over of the government, the swapping is now also engulfing the law enforcement agencies. Following the replacement of Mohammad Ghalibaf from the police with the former commander of Tehran’s Basij (Iran Militia), the new hard-line commander immediately began his scheduled cleansing of Tehran’s police forces, replacing the old staff with senior Passdaran commanders. In his most recent measure, Naser Shabani, the Passdaran Commander in Kurdistan province who is also the head of the Passdaran Ground Forces University is appointed as the Commander...

Moscow, Russia Ukrainians will elect a new parliament in March and one-time prime minister and former presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych heads the political party leading the polls. The "Orange Revolution" that delivered Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency is in disarray, and has given Yanukovych an election platform full of irony: Campaigning against the corruption and incompetence of the ruling elite. According to a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Razumkov Center, Yanukovych's Party of the Regions tops voter preference for the slated March 26 parliamentary election with 17.5 percent. The People's Union-Our Ukraine electoral bloc that includes Yushchenko as...

Iran’s hard-line president called for the Bush administration to be tried on war crimes charges related to Iraq and denounced the West for its stance on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, state-run television reported today. “You, who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq should be tried as war criminals in courts,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an apparent reference to the US. Ahmadinejad didn’t elaborate, but he was apparently referring to the US military’s use of artillery shells packed with depleted uranium, which is far less radioactive than natural uranium and is left over...

When Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his "wipe Israel off the map" remarks last month, many diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to explain, read between the lines and relativize what was an unambiguous statement of Teheran's long-established policy. They expressed the hope that Iran would "clarify" - meaning soften - its position. That was followed by feverish diplomatic activities, mainly by the United Nations' Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to persuade Teheran to tone down Ahmadinejad's remarks. (Annan was forced to cancel a planned visit to Teheran after the Iranians told him they would not allow any conciliatory phrases...

Iran's government announced Wednesday that 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, will be fired, continuing a purge of reformers as the regime takes an increasingly tough stance at home and abroad. The diplomatic changes are part of a government shake-up by ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that includes putting Islamic hard-liners in key posts at security agencies. Some Iranians the president will bring back strict social policies. ~snip~ "He wants to remove any official or diplomat with liberal thinking or anybody who backs better relations with the West," said political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand....

The finest collection of 20th-century western art outside Europe and America has been gathering dust in storage. Why? Because it's owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran. But now, Christopher de Bellaigue reports, these spectacular works are finally being displayed in Tehran An Iranian woman stands in front of a huge Picasso, Painter and his Model, on show at Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art. Standing in his studio, illuminated by subdued pools of coloured light, the artist is depicted as an extension of the inanimate objects around him. He has been reduced to a series of mostly straight lines; his...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Monday to use its "full might" to endanger U.S. interests if Washington upped the pressure on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. Washington and the European Union have prepared the ground for the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send Iran to the U.N. Security Council next month for possible sanctions for violating international nuclear obligations. The United States and its European allies argue Iran is making atomic fuel for use in weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear program is dedicated solely to generating electricity. Ali Larijani, secretary-general of Supreme...

While the pro hardline government media in Iran called the meeting between the Iranian and Canadian foreign ministers successful, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said, after meeting with his Iranian counterpart that his country had prepared a new resolution to condemn human rights violations in Iran and would propose it to the United Nations General Assembly. The new resolution condemning Iran's human rights record followed by IAEA resolution last week, which paves the way for referring Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council, has already created new challenges for Iran's foreign policy makers. An Iran analyst believes that although...