Free Republic

King Mohammed VI's Message to Conference on 'Rights of Religious Minorities in Muslim Countries'Rabat – King Mohammed VI addressed a message to the participants in the conference on "The rights of religious minorities in Islamic lands", which kicked off Monday morning in Marrakech. Here follows the full text of the Royal message, read by Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq. Praise be to God May peace and blessings be upon all Prophets and Messengers Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to send this message to your Conference and to welcome you to Marrakesh, the city...

Recent statements from various leaders within the Syrian rebel movement show that the rift between secularists and Islamists remains a key issue. A video released by a leading Islamist faction shows Islamist military leader Abu Bilal al-Homsi exhorting his followers to reject the largely secular Free Syrian Army, led by Salim Idris. According to Al-Homsi, Idris has said that the Free Syrian Army under his command is fighting for "democracy, secularism, communism, and the rights of minority groups", including Syrian Druze. Rebels must fight not for democracy or rights, but for Islam, Al-Homsi declared. From the beginning, the purpose of...

Three brilliant black leaders are tuning out Obama and the black community needs to tune into these leaders. I’m surfing between the major news networks on a recent evening and I catch FOX News Channel’s Sean Hannity in the middle of an amazing interview with a guest named Harry Alford, the CEO and co-founder of the Black Chamber of Commerce. My jaw drops as Alford essentially calls Obama an anti-business tyrant who is hurting the African American community; he says he voted for Obama in 2008 but now has buyer’s remorse. I get to thinking: Given the choice between Alford...

Gays can be leaders. Women can be leaders. Without realizing it, I think gays and women inadvertently work against their own objective of equality when they force private organizations to support gay and female leaders. As I wrote here, gays and women are already equal before the Constitution, which defines us by our humanity, not by our sexuality, and is silent on most personal matters like marriage. Furthermore, the more the federal government defines our rights, the less free, equal and human we all become. Here is what generally happens when minority groups confuse social acceptance with equality and push...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Vietnam veteran who lost his eye while serving his country was violently beaten during a random attack by a group of teens on a Philadelphia street earlier this week. The attack happened shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday in the 5000 block of N. 5th Street in the city’s Olney section. “These animals are specializing on our elderly people out here and a gentleman who served our country,” Lt. George McClay said. According to investigators, 64-year-old Edward Schaefer was walking to meet his wife at the bus stop when he was approached from behind by six males.

Observers have characterized President Obama's many efforts to nationalize industries a systematic form of "wealth redistribution." But the activities instigated by the White House go beyond redistribution and devolve straight into reparations. Consider: Race Gender Quotas in "Financial Reform" Section 342, which declares that race and gender employment ratios, if not quotas, must be observed by private financial institutions that do business with the government. In a major power grab, the new law inserts race and gender quotas into America's financial industry... ...Section 342 sets up at least 20 Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion. Racial Preferences in Obamacare Transfer...

DEAF parents should be allowed to screen their embryos so they can pick a deaf child over one that has all its senses intact, according to the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID). Jackie Ballard, a former Liberal Democrat MP, says that although the vast majority of deaf parents would want a child who has normal hearing, a small minority of couples would prefer to create a child who is effectively disabled, to fit in better with the family lifestyle. Ballard’s stance is likely to be welcomed by other deaf organisations,...

Justice Stephen G. Breyer says the Supreme Court must promote the political rights of minorities and look beyond the Constitution's text when necessary to ensure that "no one gets too powerful." Breyer, a Clinton appointee who has brokered many of the high court's 5-4 rulings, spoke in a televised interview that aired one day before justices hear a key case on race in schools. He said judges must consider the practical impact of a decision to ensure democratic participation. "We're the boundary patrol," Breyer said, reiterating themes in his 2005 book that argue in favor of race preferences in university...

Light Pollution At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity is losing a valuable and beautiful part of its heritage. For the first time in history, poorly designed and badly aimed lighting is denying vast numbers of humanity a view of the night sky. Urban sky glow now pollutes nearly all of Britain's night skies. As amateur astronomers we have a responsibility to guard our night time environment against light pollution. What is light pollution?  Light pollution is the popular name for sky glow - a brightening of the night sky caused by the scattering of artificial light by aerosol...

Starting this year, every educational institution receiving federal aid must teach about the U.S. Constitution on the September 17 anniversary of its signing (September 16 in 2005...) The requirement is ironic, given that it came from the Senate's leading Constitutional scholar, yet clearly conflicts with the Constitution, and on many grounds. Last year, Senator Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va.) inserted it into a spending bill packed with pork that was blatantly inconsistent with Americans' general welfare, which is the Constitution's rationale. There is nothing in the document that permits the federal government to tell local schools what they can and cannot teach....

Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) has introduced a bill called the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005, S.147. Akaka wants to extend the government's policy of self-governance and self-determination to Native Hawaiians. He, and fellow Hawaiian Senator Inouye intend to do this by creating a race-based and racially separate government for Native Hawaiians. Under S. 147 Native Hawaiians would be under the federal Indian law system and would be designated as a "tribe." This new race-based government would have jurisdiction over 20 percent of Hawaii's citizens as well as 400,000 citizens nationwide. This would be the first time in our...

Foremost among those victims are the Shiites of Iraq, of whom I am one. Shiite parties and 111 coalitions are poised on the verge of a great electoral victory. But who is this mass of people, politically speaking? What do they stand for? What kind of a state do they want? Since 1968, the Baath have been trashing the only idea that can hold the great social diversity of Iraq together: the idea of Iraq. Their answer to the question "Who am I?" was: You are either one of us, or you are dead. True to their word, they killed...

The fox-hunting ban that has caused a bloody split in Britain is just the first step anti-hunters will take to stop sportsmen all together. Huntsmen and women all over Britain are in open revolt. They have watched their way of life be undermined and ridiculed by the urban masses that consider any form of hunting to be abhorrent. So abhorrent that they have campaigned for a total ban. The fact that the vast majority of urban protestors have little or no knowledge of fox hunting or the countryside is unimportant to our lawmakers. To them the Antis have something more...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 22 — Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned of "dangerous consequences" if the United Nations endorses the American-sponsored interim constitution for an independent Iraq that was adopted over Shiite protests two weeks ago. The warning came in a letter released by Ayatollah Sistani's office on Monday, four days after it was delivered in New York to Lakhtar Brahimi, the chief United Nations envoy to Iraq. It amounted to a warning that the ayatollah's followers, by far the most powerful political bloc in Iraq, could move to paralyze American plans for a smooth...

Minority activists air complaints about proposed redistricting AUSTIN (AP) — Minority activists and elected officials testified Wednesday that a Republican-drawn congressional redistricting map could hurt the political progress black and Hispanic Texans have made over many years. "I think it's probably going to set us back maybe 20, 25 years," said Deralyn Riles Davis, a black political activist from Tarrant County. "The people are going to be discouraged." Attorneys for the state say Republican legislative leaders were trying to craft a congressional map for partisan gain, and that race was not a predominant factor. They dispute claims by Democrats and...