Free Republic

A militant Pakistani cleric and about 50 of his supporters have been killed after troops stormed a mosque in Islamabad, government officials say. Abdul Rashid Ghazi's body was found in the Red Mosque basement. Officials said he had been caught in the cross-fire. The army says eight soldiers were also killed in the military operation, and about 50 women and children rescued. Students at the mosque and its attached religious schools have waged a campaign for months pressing for Sharia law. Public anger in the capital had been mounting after they kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to...

(CNSNews.com) - Terrorism experts have long warned that Islamists espousing violence enjoy a haven in London, an assertion that has come into sharp focus again with Thursday's bombings in the British capital. For years, Britain tolerated the presence of high-profile and outspoken Islamic clerics whose fiery sermons frequently extolled jihad against the West. Since 9/11, however, anti-terror legislation has been tightened, some groups have been outlawed, terror rings have been broken and some controversial figures have been arrested. One of them, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri, went on trial this week at London's Old Bailey courthouse, where he faces more than...

With Iraqi frustration growing over the timetable being used to form a cohesive and effective Iraqi sovereignty a question must be asked. Are the coalition forces led by L. Paul Bremer occupying forces meant to remain in Baghdad to coerce any Iraqi government into an a pro-American way of thinking or are they stabilization forces caught in the middle of a people so divided in their own cause that their extraction would be leaving Iraq in a more lawless state than it was before? The front-runners who have established themselves in the Iraqi power struggle have their good points and...

ISLAMABAD (AP)--Islamic clerics, representing thousands of religious schools in Pakistan, threatened Saturday to launch nationwide demonstrations to protest new laws that would regulate their finances, the enrollment of overseas students and prevent the teaching of Islamic extremism. After attending a meeting with top government officials to discuss the new rules, the heads of religious schools gave the government two weeks to withdraw the new regulations or face the protests.   In a statement issued after the meeting, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat, an alliance of organizations representing most of some 8,000 religious schools, said it would organize street demonstrations if the new regulations...