Free Republic

New York (CNN) -- The serendipitous occurrence of this year's Thanksgiving holiday on the same evening as the Muslim Eid-ul-Adha is a festive occasion to reflect on the place of Islam in American collective consciousness. On the same evening that millions of Americans gather around their Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate this most American of holidays, even more millions of Muslims around the globe, including the growing number of American Muslims, will do the same -- celebrating as well one of the most definitive moments of their faith -- Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for his God. This holiday...

Mecca, 25 Nov. (AKI) - The grandmother of US president Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the 'Hajj' or Islamic pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a Saudi daily said on Wednesday. Sarah Obama, 87, is being accompanied by a nephew and Obama's cousin, Omran. On Wednesday Sarah Obama was in the valley of Mina with an African delegation, according to the Saudi daily Okaz. Obama, the mother of the American president's father, lives in a village in Kenya and is one of the many guests of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud....

Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions. During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat. The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less...

(IsraelNN.com) Veteran settler and ex-MK Elyakim Haetzni warns Judea/Samaria towns against divulging construction information to Obama’s roving representatives. Emissaries of the Obama Administration have been traveling around Judea and Samaria in recent weeks, asking residents about construction in their towns and passing the information back to Washington.

President Obama continued his outreach to the world's Muslims today, sending greetings to pilgrims to Mecca. .... "Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions," Obama said in a statement. "During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand...

China , Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan... US president Barack Obama ran through the gamut of nations as he articulated another elegant Asia policy speech in Tokyo this week. Conspicuous by its absence was India. Was India not on his radar? Or was it such a close ally that he skipped naming it at a public function? It left New Delhi wondering. Just two days later, bam! He did something even more astonishing by acquiescing in a Chinese demand to let Beijing assume the role of a monitor in South Asia, an area where China is seen by India as...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder continued the federal government's campaign to reach out to local Arab Americans, saying last night in Detroit that civil rights must be respected even as the country deals with security threats. "For the last nine months, I've heard from Muslim and Arab Americans who feel uneasy about their relationship with their government, who feel isolated and discriminated against by law enforcement," Holder said, according to the Detroit Free Press. "It is inconsistent with what America is all about." Holder spoke at the Detroit Marriott as part of the Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community...

Read: “Some strange ideological impulse—rather than common sense and respect for the rule of law—is driving the Obama administration to give special treatment to the perpetrator of one of the greatest war crimes ever committed against the United States” per CNSNEWS.com’s Terence P. Jeffrey. “. . .ideological impulse. . .” Richard Morris stated the Obama motive being an “ideological” one. What these two men are saying when using the term “ideological” is Muslim. It is the theology of the Koran. It is what Allah would have Obama do.

"Stop portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a suicide bomber or more Muslims will become suicide bombers and murder you blasphemers." That's pretty much what Algeria's Ambassador to the U.N., Idriss Jazairy, who serves as chairman of the U.N.'s Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards told the Associated Press in an interview about efforts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to pass a U.N. treaty banning blasphemy against Islam.The exact quote from the AP:"If we keep hitting this glass wall and say there's nothing you can do about Islamophobia — you can do something about anti-Semitism but Islamophobia is...

Invited dinner guests included: Cabinet: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Deputy Cabinet secretaries: Commerce Deputy Secretary Dennis Hightower and Education Deputy Secretary Adam Miller. Congress: Reps. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) and Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.). Diplomats: Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al Hussein of Jordan; Ambassador Adel A.M. Al Jubeir of Saudi Arabia; Ambassador Husain Haqqani of Pakistan; Ambassador Erlan A. Idrissov of Kazakhstan; Ambassador His Excellency Said, Tayeb Jawad of Afghanistan; Ambassador Aziz Mekouar...

It’s one thing to avoid the “terrorist” label when reporting on Ft. Hood suspect Major Nidal Hasan. It’s quite another to say that those who do use it are making a political calculation to “paint the Democrats as soft terror.” Yet that’s what MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow insisted on her Nov. 11 broadcast. Maddow launched into a minute-and-a-half soliloquy on why it is bad for the Democratic Party when commentators label Hasan a “terrorist.” She even attempted to make the case on Hasan’s behalf against a terrorism label. Who needs a legal team when you have friends like Maddow and Chris...

Like many New Yorkers and members of the families of the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans murdered on that horrific Tuesday morning eight years ago, I'm outraged and insulted by President Obama's decision to transfer Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the admitted mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, to New York City for trial in civilian federal court. The decision will go down in history as one of the worst made by any US president. While it may be hailed by Europeans, the ACLU and the far-left-wing of the Democratic Party, the president's action actually threatens American lives and weakens US national security.

In surveying the cultural carnage in the wake of the worst terrorist attack on a military installation in U.S. history, it bears noting that there have been seismic shifts in America. When America was free of the shackles of Islam, say, fifty years ago, the current response to such an attack by an enemy faction would have been unthinkable. I have watched in abject horror the elites' stunning reaction to this act of war. The denial, the submission, the excuses, the dodging, the self-flagellation, the shame -- the deceiving of the American people by the media, the military, society, law...

Ben Smith, following on Eli Lake’s blockbuster story, has a must-read post on the emerging scandal concerning the mullahs’ favorite front group, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). The issues go far beyond whether NIAC has been illegally operating without registering as a foreign agent, and have ensnared NIAC’s close ally, none other than J Street. First, NIAC is a Soros-backed group. Soros is of course the money behind MoveOn.org and got J Street up and running. He is also paying “the $90,000 annual salary of the NIAC staffer, Patrick Disney.” The Left’s moneyman is plainly in the mullah’s corner....

Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim and always has been a Muslim. His disgraceful conduct in response to the Ft. Hood murders strengthens the case. While campaigning Obama and his lackeys did everything they could to smother the truth about his background, but the truth is now shining through. Leftist websites like Urban Legends and Media Matters led the counterattacks against anyone who raised questions about Obama. CNN boasted of sending a crew to Indonesia to check out the school Obama attended in 1971 and guess what? They were told it was NOT a religious institution when he went there,...

Though it’s been moving in this direction for quite some time, political correctness has finally gone from a cute liberal idea meant not to offend anyone to become a dangerous idea that threatens the lives of American soldiers and citizens... Hasan is a Muslim. Witnesses say that, just before he began shooting, he yelled “Allahu Akbar!” meaning, in English, “Allah is great!” This is a war cry used by radical Islamic jihadists. He was known to be an admirer of Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam with various ties to al-Qaeda and someone found on a number of United States and United...

Last week, there was a spate of editorials and punditry on how President Obama and his team have misfired in their efforts to have Israelis and Palestinians back at the table negotiating a final peace deal. Even NYTimes’ Tom Friedman let forth his frustration by calling for the President to “get out of the picture” and leave Israelis and Palestinians alone until they are ready to come back to the table of their own needs and will. (Hey, wasn’t that an approach Friedman and others regularly attacked President G.W. Bush for engaging in?) This week saw Rahm Emanuel standing in...

Few words have been more popular in recent years than "diversity." And few concepts have been more destructive. Destructive of our social fabric, destructive of our moral well-being, destructive of our ability to make judgments. In schools, non-profits and government programs across the nation, diversity has been held up as a great and noble prize. Some objective to be fought for and given prominence. It has become the top priority in institutions from colleges to corporations. And it has become a philosphy handed down like the word of god from the pulpits of education, business and government. And yet it...

Recently on ABC television news, one of their videos showed a U.S. Marine hunkered down in Afghanistan complaining on camera that he was not allowed to shoot back when under fire. This situation resulted from Obama’s new rules of engagement from his new Afghanistan commander. General McChrystal explained it to BBC news that they are now advising troops to break off from firefights with the Taliban, "If you are in a situation where you are under fire from the enemy... if there is any chance of creating civilian casualties or if you don't know whether you will create civilian casualties,...

John Limbert will be the senior Iran official at the State Department, replacing Dennis Ross, who has moved to the National Security Council (and who has not been heard from publicly since). Should America be concerned? Yes. Limbert is not a neutral arbiter; he serves on the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). What is the National Iranian American Council? The Council is widely considered the de facto lobby for the Iranian regime in America. It opposes sanctions on Iran, soft-pedals any controversial events in Iran, and counsels "patience" regarding Iran's stance towards its nuclear program. The...