Free Republic

Second-generation Americans have found a new way to show their faith, through noisy rock music that reflects their beliefs and considers their questions of identity The notion of Muslims playing punk rock may seem like incongruous cultures -- profanity-laden lyrics following the religion's traditional greeting ("Salaam aleikum"), melodic Middle Eastern strumming punctuates noisy guitar feedback, purple and red mohawks and Arabic-scripted tattoos. But for the second-generation Americans leading this contemporary cultural movement, Muslim punk isn't just an irreverent juxtaposition. "It makes sense," said 23-year-old Marwan Kamel, a Syrian-American and the lead guitarist for Al-Thawra, an experimental punk band whose name...

An alleged al-Qaeda terror operative told investigators he received training in "weapons and explosives" from Osama Bin Laden's goons last year, according to documents released Sunday. Najibullah Zazi admitted he visited Pakistan's wartorn tribal areas for the training, documents said. Zazi, 25, was collared by the FBI late Saturday night in Aurora, Colo., along with his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi. Also arrested was Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, the imam of a mosque in Flushing, Queens.

KABUL — Afghan and foreign troops will cease offensive operations in the intensifying war against Taliban-led insurgents to observe the UN's International Day of Peace, the defence ministry said Sunday. Afghan defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has ordered his troops to remain on the defensive for Peace Day on Monday, and not to attack rebel positions unless attacked, his spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. "The people of Afghanistan are more thirsty for peace than any other nation. They have experienced decades of war and they want peace now," Azimi said. The directive follows a similar order from US General...

Federal authorities arrested an airport shuttle bus driver and his father in Colorado and another man in New York City on Saturday night, charging them with lying to investigators about an alleged terrorist plot to detonate an improvised explosive against an unknown target in the United States. Acting swiftly late Saturday after a week in which investigators worked intensely in New York and Denver to put together a case, F.B.I. agents arrested Najibullah Zazi, 24, his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, who both reside in Aurora, Colo., and Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, who lives in Flushing, Queens. The arrests indicated...

As a political junkie, one the most baffling aspects of national elections is the Jewish vote. American Jews vote overwhelmingly for Democrat candidates in national elections. 2008 was no exception, as reported in an editorial at HAARETZ.com immediately following the election: Despite the tense rift between Republican and Democratic Jews over the course of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, exit polls on Tuesday showed that Barack Obama received about 77 percent of the Jewish vote. These numbers were higher even than the 2004 election, when Democratic candidate John Kerry received 74 percent of the Jewish vote. Al Gore received the...

President Barack Obama says he hasn't asked his top commander in Afghanistan to sit on an expected request for U.S. reinforcements in a backsliding war, but he gave no deadline for making a decision about whether to send more Americans into harm's way.

The Boston Globe reports on the latest round of terrorist appeasement from that man-made disaster called the Obama Administration in a story revealing the removal of many of the restrictions imposed upon the nefarious shoe-bomber, Richard C. Reid. Confined to life in prison in the Supermax prison in Florence,Colorado along with Ramzi Yousef and Zacarias Moussaoui, the bumbling Al-Qaedan cannon fodder had formerly been restricted "from associating or praying with fellow jailed Muslim terrorists, and (had) his access (limited) to the news media and pen pals." Counter-terrorism experts consulted by the Globe suggested that Reid is considered a "dim bulb"...

...will President Obama be willing to utilize enhanced interrogation techniques to save innocent American lives? The president and his radical AG are going after the very people who may have stopped another 9-11. What would a truck full of explosive do to a NFL football crowd? It would be a nightmare of course. - end update The good news out this weekend is that our vigilant and unsung defenders in the NSA, CIA, FBI and FIS Court have been able to detect and stop a serious attack on America. The men and women who work tirelessly to legally detect and...

"Every third young Swede has been subjected to repeated harassment, threats or violence over the past year. Six percent of young girls have been raped, a new report from Swedish researchers shows."

Area schools are increasingly accommodating Muslim students and staff on Islamic holidays, but not canceling classes as with Jewish and Christian observances. Many Capital Region schools in recent years have put Eid al-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha on their education calendars, which allows Muslims to take the days off as unmarked absences and make up missed lessons.

Shortly after the massive 50,000 Muslim gathering on Capital Hill, an expected 54,000 Muslims will be gathering at 6 Flags Parks across America for Muslim Family Day. The event first started in September 2000 at the NJ 6 Flags in which approximately 2000 Muslims attended. This year it will take place in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Louisville, New Jersey, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

Hold the line.. We are the sons and daughters of Vikings and Romans. We can not be defeated. Our enemy is ignorant and evil. We ourselves choose how to deal with it. Believe in the noble idea of Freedom. Believe. God will not let down a soldier of Christianity. 800 years ago, in 1210, my tiny Sweden began to expand. Today, we are among the richest and most successful nations on Earth. No other nation would wish a war with us. Our stealth subs could simply eraze any adversary out of world history. Then we would send in our "Kustjägare"...

<p>In the previous blog post about the Iranian firewall, we explored macro level Iranian traffic engineering changes (showing that Iran cut all communication after the election and then slowly added back Internet connectivity over the course of several days). Like many other news reports and bloggers, we also speculated on Iran’s intent — how was the government manipulating Internet traffic and why?</p>

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says he has no plans to ask the Justice Department to end its criminal investigation into the harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration. Seven former CIA directors have asked the president to do just that. In a letter to Obama on Friday, they warned that the probe could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to fight terrorism. Obama tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that he appreciates that the former CIA chiefs are wanting "to look after an institution that they helped to build." Obama says he wants...

...Do we arrest potential terrorists too early and allow them to plead to lesser charges? Or do we wait and risk an attack? How seriously has law enforcement taken the plot? Serious enough for the FBI to have sent out warnings to local law enforcement to be on the lookout for bombs and bomb-making material. Was a terrorist attack “imminent”? We may never know how close the alleged plotters were to actually carrying out their attacks. If this New York Post article is to be believed, sometime prior to the raid Zazi was warned that he was the subject of...

Last week’s raids on a number of apartments in New York City and the subsequent questioning of an Afghan immigrant serve once again to remind us that our nation is at war — and that the war is not limited to the battlefields abroad. The threat of terror attacks against targets in the homeland remains high. The case raises important questions about how domestic terrorism should be fought. Should law enforcement wait until a threat becomes “imminent” before acting? If not, then at what point should law enforcement intervene given that much of a plot’s details may remain unknown? It...

Pak had nuke links with Iran, N Korea: A Q Khan In a damning revelation of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, its disgraced scientist A Q Khan, the father of the country's nuclear weapons programme, has admitted to the Pakistani nexus in the controversial atomic programme of Iran and North Korea, a media report said on Sunday. The disgraced 74-year-old Khan, who has been dubbed as the maestro of the world's largest nuclear black market, has made the revelation in a four-page letter addressed to his Dutch wife Henny, the 'Sunday Times' reported today. The letter was written to his wife after...

Once again we see just how backwards things in the UK are. Last week the Manchester Council was calling for an upcoming anti-Islam protest to be canceled. Now two Christians have been arrested for discussing Islam with a Muslim. Apparently non-Muslims there now have restrictions on their free speech, while Muslims can openly call for holy war.

Keep on moving, Muammar. Agents for Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi were met with a strong-arm from a real-estate broker they approached to rent a posh townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side for his visit to the city this week. The broker, with characteristic New York chutzpah, told them to take a hike back to the desert. "They kept asking, 'What would be the price? What would be the price?' I thought about it and said, 'Why don't you send Megrahi back to Scotland, and then maybe we can work something out.' They hung up on me immediately," said Jason Haber,...

AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- Federal agents have charged a 24-year-old Colorado resident, his father and another man with making false statements during an extensive terror investigation that stretches to Pakistan. Najibullah Zazi is accused of making false statements to officials about an alleged bomb plot in the United States. The Justice Department said Sunday it is investigating several other people in connection with the plot to detonate bombs in the United States. Najibullah Zazi and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi -- both originally from Afghanistan -- were arrested Saturday night. They were handcuffed without incident after authorities raided Zazi's home...