Free Republic

Paris (CNSNews.com) - A Swiss-born Muslim scholar scheduled to begin teaching at a U.S. university next month is a controversial figure in Europe, where he is accused of anti-Semitism and advocating violence against women. Tariq Ramadan plans to teach at Indiana's Notre Dame University, instructing students on Islam, conflict and peace building. Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan Al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the radical Muslim Brotherhood. With a perfect command of the language and a tailored western look, he is well-known in France, where disaffected Muslim youths listen to his speeches on Islamic pride. But some municipalities have barred...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - With a newly robust endowment burning holes in its not-for-profit pockets, National Public Radio is in the midst of a major expansion. But NPR's ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation. NPR, a member organization governed in part by local stations, is pumping $15 million into its news division over the next three years, using interest from a recent bequest...

A media watchdog organization believes it is time for the U.S. Congress to re-evaluate the necessity of allocating 86 million taxpayer dollars to National Public Radio (NPR) in light of the tremendous private funding it receives. Recently, National Public Radio announced that it plans a $15 million expansion of its news operation. NPR is funding the expansion with just a fraction of the 200 million-dollar bequest the network received last fall from the late widow of McDonald's magnate Ray Kroc. Seeing how the public radio network appears to be living high on the hog, Tim Graham of the Media Research...

The final hours of 2003 are an appropriate time to reflect on some of the people who left us over the past year. Numerous showbiz types went to that great stage in the sky. Bob Hope, who combined a love of entertaining with an unadulterated patriotism, passed on at 100. Art Carney, Ed Norton of the fabled Honeymooners, will be remembered as the ultimate pal. Sure, he often realized that Ralph Kramden’s latest get-rich-quick scheme was fatally flawed, but he hung in there anyway. Just out of pure, unquestioning friendship. Bee Gee Maurice Gibb died in January. Whether one loved...

Nov. 6, 2003 -- NPR will benefit from a bequest of more than $200 million from the estate of philanthropist Joan B. Kroc, NPR President Kevin Klose announced Thursday. "Joan Kroc believed deeply in the power of public radio to serve the communities of America," Klose said. "She made this extraordinary gift from her steadfast conviction that NPR and our member stations provide a vital connection to millions of listeners." Most of the money -- described by NPR as "the largest monetary gift ever received by an American cultural institution" -- will go toward the NPR Endowment Fund for Excellence,...

SAN DIEGO – Joan B. Kroc, the billionaire widow of McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc, died Sunday after a brief bout with brain cancer. She was 75. Kroc was known in recent years as a major donor to organizations working to promote world peace, including namesake think tanks at the University of Notre Dame and the University of San Diego. She inherited the San Diego Padres after her husband died in 1984 and sold the baseball club in 1990 to a group led by Los Angeles television producer Tom Werner. Kroc died at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, a...