Free Republic

Egypt court approves first Islamic Party Cairo, Egypt - Egypt's administrative court on Saturday approved the country's first party with religious reference. The 'Wassat' or Middle Party, which has Islamic reference, had sought in vain for years to obtain a legal status. But the party, founded in 1996 by former Muslim Brotherhood member Abu Al-Ela Madi, finally made it this weekend, in the aftermath of the revolution that swept away long-tenured autocratic ruler President Hosni Mubarak. The party of Madi, a liberal with Islamic background, may now field a presidential candidate for polls expected to hold before the end of...

Libyan Protests Spread To Capital Tripoli Alex Rossi, in Cairo, and Kat Higgins Anti-government protests are taking place in Libya's capital Tripoli for the first time since the uprising against leader Colonel Gaddafi began. Eyewitnesses in the centre of the city have reported hearing gunshots and seeing burning vehicles as thousands of pro and anti-regime demonstrators clash. The North African country has seen days of unrest as protesters, spurred on by the revolutions in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia, call for Gaddafi to step down after 40 years. Much of the violence has so far centred on the second city of...

Israel to World: Don’t Be So Fast to Push Democracy on Middle East Written by Arieh O’Sullivan Published Thursday, February 17, 2011 Netanyahu and other fears democracy will lead to chaos, bringing Islamists to power While touting its own democratic credentials, Israel has been warning the world not to let experiments in democracy spread across the Middle East, lest Islamic fundamentalists are voted in. “We don’t want to stay the only democracy in the Middle East. We would love to live in a neighborhood where all countries are democratic. But is it feasible now?” Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said...

Iakov Levi HATRED FOR WOMEN AND ISLAMIC TERROR February 2002. During the last three years we have been witnesses to the atrocities perpetrated in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime on their own women. Women hatred is nothing new, however, the extent of the abuse and its ferocity has no precedent in the history of mankind. It is in act a real genocide which, since it is being committed on their own women, must be interpreted also as an act of collective suicide. The Talibans do not limit themselves to controlling and humiliating their women, which is quite common in many...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A triumph for Taliban's tutors Arnaud de Borchgrave THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 11/12/2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of Pakistan's most notorious homegrown terrorists was elected to parliament — from prison. As Azam Tariq emerged from confinement a free man, he stepped into a limousine and was driven away by his own armed guards. His pro-Taliban, pro-al Qaeda outlawed party, Sipah-e-Sahaba (Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet), was one of five extremist groups banned by President Pervez Musharraf last January as he tried to dulcify U.S. concerns. The Pakistani police blame Tariq's Guardians, the country's most violent group, for some 400...

Bruce Bawer Tolerating Intolerance: The Challenge of Fundamentalist Islam in Western Europe I grew up in New York, the world’s most multicultural city, and for some time lived only a few blocks from the imposing Islamic Center on Third Avenue between 96th and 97th Streets. But it wasn’t until I moved to western Europe in 1998–living first in Amsterdam, then in Oslo–that fundamentalist Islam became a daily reality for me. The reason this took so long seems pretty clear. Owing partly to different immigration patterns, but partly also to America’s genius for turning immigrants into proudly integrated citizens with realigned...