Free Republic

Radical anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr today rejected Western calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to quit, calling the embattled leader a"brother"who stood in opposition to the United States. For the first time Thursday, US President Barack Obama and Western leaders said that Assad must step down. "We reject Obama's interference in Syrian affairs,"Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf in south Iraq. Sadr said he supported revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that overthrew despots there, but added that"there are many differences between the popular revolutions and what is happening in Syria."...

U.S. Muslims outraged after imams kicked off plane By Michael Conlon 27 minutes ago Muslim leaders expressed outrage on Tuesday after six imams were removed from a commercial airline flight in Minnesota for what they said was nothing more than trying to say evening prayers. "They were treated like terrorists ... humiliated," said Abu Hannoud, civil rights director for the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said the men were taken off the US Airways flight in handcuffs. He said the men were still trying to find a flight back to Phoenix where most are affiliated with...

KSTP "They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix. The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said. Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam. "I never felt bad...

MINNEAPOLIS - Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said. The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m., airport spokesman Pat Hogan said. A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and...

THE head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards called on his troops today to "prepare themselves to get even" with Israel and the US, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and Basij should prepare themselves to get even with Zionists and Americans," General Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying. "The supreme leader will announce the time for this," he said, referring to Iran's top cleric and commander-in-chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was not clear if the comments represented the latest shot in what Iranian officials describe as an ongoing "psychological war" with Israel and the United States,...

There has been an explosion of some sort near the White House, apparently a small one. I'm at a conference about one block from the White House and arrived at 9 AM. Half the people who were supposed to attend have not been able to get here. Those arriving report 17th Street closed traffic and other areas blocked off. Someone said they heard a transformer exploded. Others report fire and smoke. I can see no fire or smoke from here, but my view is to the west.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Partial election results from six of Iraq's 18 provinces showed the cleric-endorsed Shiite ticket running strong for seats Thursday in the National Assembly. The United Iraqi Alliance, which is backed by the country's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was leading in the six provinces, according to the partial results from the Baghdad, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Qadisiyah, Najaf and Karbala provinces. The vote count ranged from 25 percent in Baghdad province to 70 percent in the sparsely populated province of Muthanna. In Baghdad province, the United Iraqi Alliance was leading 3-1 against its closest...

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- A North Carolina teenager may have to go to jail for using foul language with a high school teacher. Glenn Gattis and his parents don't deny that he cursed or has had other disciplinary problems at Ashley High School in Wilmington. But they said the misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct is an overreaction. The 17-year-old Gattis said he became frustrated and used bad language when he got in trouble for being late to class again. He said he was ultimately stopped by deputies working as school resource officers, who gave him a citation for using language meant...

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical Shi'ite militiamen fought gun battles with Italian troops in the southern town of Nassiriya on Tuesday and two civilians were killed, witnesses said. The violence was part of a surge of unrest led by Moqtada al-Sadr, a cleric fiercely opposed to the U.S.-led occupation. The fighting in Nassiriya erupted at about 4 a.m. (0000 GMT) and continued into the morning. Four Italian vehicles had been burned in the clashes in the Zeitoun district, witnesses said. Pro-Sadr fighters were still controlling the area, near the local headquarters of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Coalition Provisional...