Free Republic

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday that the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) would be banned for propagating extremism and that its famous "Blue Mosque" was being searched by police. "It is very important to me to make a clear distinction here: we are not acting against a religion," Faeser said, but just against a group accused of undermining the German state as well as women's rights. The Imam Ali Mosque, known locally as the Blue Mosque, is one of Germany's oldest mosques and is operated by the IZH. Germany bans Hezbollah group, backed by Iran, in 2020 The...

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines and Shi'ite militiamen fought fierce battles around a shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Monday in some of the heaviest fighting since the 20-day-old rebellion erupted. At least 15 explosions, many sounding like artillery shells, rocked the area near the Imam Ali mosque, where the Mehdi Army fighters of radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have holed up in defiance of the U.S.-backed interim government. Gunfire echoed through the alleyways near the shrine while U.S. tanks kept up their encirclement around the city's heart. Shrapnel fell in the courtyard of the gold-domed...

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - A senior Shiite cleric called Friday for peaceful resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and warned his followers were running out of patience. In Baghdad, gunmen attacked worshippers after prayers at a Sunni mosque, wounding three people. Imam Sadreddine al-Qobanji spoke to more than 15,000 people who jammed the Imam Ali mosque, Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim shrine. He said last week's bombing outside the mosque - which killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and dozens of other people - was aimed at sowing discord in Iraq. "Once we find that this road (peaceful resistance) has come...

Armed men continued to besiege the home of Shia spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Sunday giving him until Monday to leave the country or face attack, aides to the cleric claimed. The stand-off is a worrying sign of volatility and religious strife among Iraq’s majority community and raises concerns of national unity in post-war Iraq. Tensions are rising among Najaf's Shia community Kuwait-based Ayatollah Abul Qasim Dibaji accused Jimaat-E-Sadr-Thani, led by Moqdada Sadr, of trying to take control of the holy sites of Iraq. “Armed thugs and hooligans have had the house of Ayatollah Sistani under siege since...

<p>DEARBORN -- On Wednesday they danced in the streets. By Thursday, a more somber mood had settled over Dearborn's Iraqis.</p> <p>The joy was shattered at the news that two members of Dearborn's Karbalaa Islamic Center -- exiled Iraqis who rushed back to their homeland to aid in the country's rebuilding -- had died.</p>