Free Republic

BAGHDEDE, Iraq — After much effort and work, the statue of the Virgin Mary was raised on the tower of Tahira Church in Baghdede (Qaraqosh) in Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. The four-meter-long statue is made of plaster and is the work of sculptor Thabet Mikhail. Tahira Church is one of the largest churches in Iraq, opened in 1948 after a popular effort by the people of Baghdede over a 16-year period. The church was completely destroyed by the Islamic State (ISIS) and is currently being reconstructed. The tower of the church is the tallest and most ornate building in...

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) - "The merciless murder of Abida and Sajida is a tragedy that shows how the lives of religious minorities in Pakistan are held by a thread or is worthless. Rape, kidnappings, forced conversions and even murders of young Christian girls are worrying phenomena. The government must not deny this and has the duty to stop the violence against Christians". This is what Nasir Saeed, Director of the NGO CLAAS (Center for Legal Aid Assistance & Settlement) said in a note sent to Agenzia Fides, commenting on the case in recent days which has provoked outrage and the...

Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - The Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al Sadr, head of the Sadist political group who enjoys strong representation in the Parliament of Baghdad, has ordered the creation of a Committee in charge of collecting and verifying news and complaints regarding cases of illegal expropriations from Christian property owners in various regions of the country. The decision was communicated in a statement published in the first few days of 2021, in which the names of the collaborators of Muqtada al Sadr chosen as members of the Committee are indicated, as well as the e-mail addresses and Whats App...

All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, holds Eucharist with Muslim reader denying the divinity of Christ. Orthodox theologian says it is a theological, literary and spiritual mistake to have done thisA Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at Grace Cathedral, the iconic Episcopal cathedral in San Francisco held a Christmas service, which featured traditional Christian carols. It also featured a Muslim reading. It can be viewed here at 51:10-ish mark of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNcxgrSBjQThe cathedral is the seat of The Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus, Episcopal Bishop of California. There was also a Muslim reading rejecting the divinity of Christ during...

The Palestinian Christian Bishara Bahbah paints a grim picture of the lot of Christians in Hamas-ruled Gaza, but at the same time he misleadingly describes a pollyannish version of how Palestinian Christians live in the PA-ruled parts of the West Bank. In this version, Christians get along swimmingly with their Muslim “friends and neighbors.” The truth is very different.As part of his attempt to whitewash the treatment of Christians in the PA, Bahbah refers to the Pact of Umar as having “guaranteed rights and spelled out obligations” of Christians in a Muslim-dominated land. He maintains that “the pact primarily represents...

Two of the most notorious bigots in the House of Representatives signed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding that he “eradicate anti-Muslim bigotry from Facebook”. The three-page letter signed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, as well as 28 other left-wing House members, spends a great deal of time demanding the removal of what it calls “anti-Muslim content” without ever specifically defining it. That’s convenient considering Omar and Tlaib’s own history of racism and antisemitism, and support for the sorts of Islamic bigotry and violence that groups like CAIR, which supports the letter, have become known for....

Two days of communal clashes in southeast Guinea have left at least 11 people dead and more than 40 wounded, officials said Sunday. The violence between mostly Muslim Tomas Mania and mostly animist Tomas was sparked Saturday by the unveiling of a new house for the Tomas patriarch in the town of Macenta, local sources told AFP. Police reinforcements from neighbouring towns failed to stop the fighting Sunday and several of their number had been injured, a prefectural source said. Witnesses said many residents had fled and taken shelter in the surrounding forest. Eleven corpses were brought to the local...

At least nine people, including an infant and a woman, were killed when a landmine hit a vehicle carrying civilians in Somalia's Lower Juba region late on Monday, officials said. The incident took place near the vicinity of Taabto, northeast of Dhobley town near the Somali-Kenyan border. Abdi Asis Hussein Gedi, an official from Jubaland administration in the coastal town of Kismayo, said that a vehicle traveling to the Dhobley town area was targeted by a landmine explosion, killing at least 9 civilians, including a woman and an infant. Those responsible for this heinous attack against unarmed civilians must be...

Nearly 30 years ago, Sami Al-Arian stood before an audience in Chicago and made his radical ideology as clear as possible. "The Quran is our constitution," he bellowed. "Jihad is our path ... Victory to Islam... Death to Israel... Revolution... revolution till the victory." Two weeks ago, Al-Arian appeared from Istanbul before a virtual audience and made his radical ideology clear, albeit in softer, more academic language. The global Muslim community, or ummah, cannot realize its full potential without "defeating and dismantling the Zionist project," he said during a Dec. 18 panel discussion in Turkey. "We cannot pursue an ummah...

On the day after Christmas, the Iranian Islamic regime’s Ahlul Bayt News Agency published a collection of the sayings from Shia Islam’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, about Christianity and related matters. Khamenei denounced the claim that “Islam is hostile to other nations and to other religions” and insisted: “This is not true. Islam is not antagonistic toward other religions.” Digging even deeper, he added: “When Islam dominated non-Muslim regions, the followers of other religions were grateful to Muslims for their Islamic mercy.” Khamenei and his regime are known for their deceptive practices, but this one may be the biggest...

The two Iraqis are accused of using the “hawala” system to finance ISIS An Iraqi father and son face two to 12 years of imprisonment for financing ISIS terrorists between February 2015 and April 2016 from Poland, according to Polish authorities. The spokesman of the minister-special services coordinator, Stanisław Żaryn, stated that the investigation into the two Iraqi men was conducted by officers of the Wrocław unit of the Internal Security Agency (ABW). The investigation was concluded with an indictment against the Iraqis who had been detained by the ABW in June 2020. The indictment was directed to court by...

A 30-year-old man was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday, December 21, 2020 for the sexual assault of a schoolgirl in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). The facts go back to the afternoon of Tuesday, November 3, 2020, on the outskirts of Place Poincaré. The 15-year-old victim was walking home after her day of school when she was accosted by two men. One of them, an alcoholic, grabbed her by the arm before tearing off his mask. He kissed her a dozen times on the side of her face before licking her cheek. While struggling, the teenager was able to free...

Can Dündar, the former editor-in-chief of the anti-Islamist Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, received a 27-year prison sentence Wednesday for allegedly aiding a terrorist group by publishing a news story. Dündar left Turkey in 2016, stepping down from the top post at Turkey’s oldest national newspaper, following a public assassination attempt on the steps of the courthouse. Cumhuriyet has endured police action and prosecutions at all levels — from editor-in-chief to cafeteria cook — for publishing stories unfavorable to Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Dündar and his Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, initially faced legal action in 2016 after publishing a report...

At least 190 police officers were involved in an anti-terrorism raid targeting a 15-year-old Syrian migrant boy who had allegedly threatened to carry out a terror attack. The massive raid took place on Tuesday at 6 am in the Marzahn area of the German capital and saw the nearly 200 officers moving in on the third floor in an apartment building where the Syrian teen lived with his family. A spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor’s office said investigators had evidence of an impending attack, saying, according to Bild: “Based on a credible indication last night, it was suspected that the...

The strongman leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya says two brothers attacked police with knives and killed an officer before being shot dead Officer, 2 suspects die in attack on police in ChechnyaThe Associated PressMOSCOW MOSCOW (AP) — Two brothers attacked police with knives Monday in Chechnya, killing an officer and injuring another before being shot dead, the Russian republic’s leader said. Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman head of Chechnya, said the men attacked road police in the center of the provincial capital, Grozny, in an attempt to seize their weapons. Kadyrov said the brothers came from the neighboring region...

Muslim groups were given two weeks to sign on to a “Republican values charter” by French President Macron after a series of terror attacks, but six weeks later the groups have yet to agree on and finalise a signed document. The charter called on Muslim groups to rejected political Islam and reject anti-Semitism, homophobia and other issues frequently observed among those who subscribe to ultra-conservative and radical ideologies of Islam. The charter refers to political Islam as “the political and/or ideological currents commonly referred to as Wahhabism; Salafism; the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood; and more generally any local movement,...

29.12.2020 Attacks by gunmen suspected to be from Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadist rebels have killed at least 10 people in Borno state in northern Nigeria, according to local residents. The attackers hit four villages, according to the Borno state government which confirmed the attacks but put the casualty figure at three dead. However, residents said at least 10 people were killed. The first attack was on the town of Azare, where insurgents hit government offices and burned down a police station. Heavy gunfire was heard as soldiers fought the attackers. A soldier, officer and a local self-defence fighter were killed...

Landmines planted by Boko Haram jihadists have killed 11 security personnel, including four soldiers in northeast Nigeria, security sources said Tuesday. Seven hunters recruited to help the military fight the Islamist insurgents were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a landmine in the village of Kayamla, outside Borno State’s capital Maiduguri. “Seven hunters died in the explosion and nine others are badly injured,” Babakura Kolo, the head of a local anti-jihadist militia, told AFP. “Their vehicle hit a landmine as they were pursuing Boko Haram insurgents,” he added. ... Four Nigerian soldiers were killed on Monday when their vehicle...

The number of Pakistani girls being forced to convert to Islam has increased during the pandemic, human rights advocates say according to an Associated Press report. Nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities in Pakistan are are forced to convert to Islam each year, but since underage girls have been out of school due to the pandemic, predators looking to kidnap and force them to convert to Islam have taken advantage of the circumstances, according to the AP. Usually, male acquaintances and relatives looking for brides kidnap the girls, who are often from impoverished Hindu families or are Christians. Sometimes the...

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people including two security personnel were injured in a hand grenade attack at a security forces' vehicle in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Tuesday, local media reported. The vehicle of paramilitary troops Frontier Corps was passing by a busy market area in Surab city when it was attacked, the reports said, adding that the injured also included passersby who were doing shopping in the market. The wounded were shifted to a nearby hospital, but their condition is not known. The area was cordoned off by police and security forces for investigations. No group or...