Free Republic

An Egyptian court sentenced a man to three years in jail with hard labour on Saturday for insulting Islam in postings on Facebook, the official MENA news agency reported. The Cairo court found that Ayman Yusef Mansur "intentionally insulted the dignity of the Islamic religion and attacked it with insults and ridicule on Facebook," ... The court said his insults were "aimed at the Noble Koran, the true Islamic religion, the Prophet of Islam and his family and Muslims, in a scurrilous manner,"... ... Egypt...is also home to the Middle East's largest Christian population, roughly 10 percent of its 80...

As the media did a victory lap over Friday's announcement by President Obama that all American troops would be removed from Iraq by the end of the year, Fareed Zakaria took a surprisingly contrary position. Speaking from Tehran with a variety of CNN hosts throughout the day, Zakaria said this development was a disappointment for the United States and a victory for Iran. (video follows with transcript and commentary) JOHN KING, HOST: A simple question up front. U.S. troops leaving Iraq by the end of the year, Iran has to view this as a victory. FAREED ZAKARIA: Oh, I'm sure...

A bloodied and beaten Moammar Gadhafi asked the fighters who captured him "Do you know right from wrong?" in what could well have been the final words of the ousted Libyan dictator. New video footage emerged Friday showing the former strongman apparently in his last moments, surrounded and pleading for his life, repeatedly telling the mob swarming around him, "What you are doing is forbidden in Islamic law." One of the group is heard responding, "Shut up you dog," as the armed fighters fired celebratory bullets in the air. The footage ends with Gadhafi telling them, "What you are doing...

PIERRE, S.D. — The good news about Moammar Gadhafi's demise arrived via my cellphone early Thursday morning. A friend from the Reagan administration, remembering the Libyan dictator's attempt to kill my family, called to let me know and added, "You must be very glad to see this day." But it doesn't seem to be a time for celebration. Most of the Libyan people seem to be rejoicing — and with good reason. They suffered the most under the egomaniacal despot. But unless you are a U.S. Air Force, Navy or Marine pilot who had to brave anti-aircraft fire in...

The two Persian Gulf powers have been on a collision course since the 1979 Iranian revolution, and tensions between the two have increased over the past eight years amid rising oil prices, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon and the Arab Spring. The Justice Department's announcement last week that it had foiled an Iranian attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador "is just the most recent episode, but it's also the most dramatic," said Toby Jones, Rutgers University professor of Middle East history. "This is just one moment in a recent history of escalation that...

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is charging the Obama administration has failed to undermine the Iranian regime, saying Tehran has been “waging war against us since 1979.” The Georgia Republican tells CNN’s “State of the Union” he thinks President Barack Obama should have done more to reach out to ordinary Iranians when they protested against the regime. He was questioned about Iran in the wake of allegations that elements of the government supported an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Gingrich says “our goal should be the replacement of the Iranian dictatorship.”

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Saudi Ayatollah Nimr Al-Nimr, which was posted on the Internet on October 7, 2011: Nimr Al-Nimr: For the past 100 years, we have been subjected to oppression, injustice, fear, and intimidation. From the moment you are born, you are surrounded by fear, intimidation, persecution, and abuse. We were born into an atmosphere of intimidation. We feared even the walls. Who among us is not familiar with the intimidation and injustice to which we have been subjected in this country? I am 55 years old, more than half a century. From the...

Tuesday, an Atheist wearing a “Zombie Muhammad” costume while marching in a local Pennsylvania Halloween parade was attacked by a Muslim. According to reports, the Parading Atheists of Central Pennsylvania (PACP) were marching in a Halloween parade in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania,when a Muslim stormed out of the hometown crowd to assault one of the marching atheists who happened to be wearing a Zombie Muhammad costume. The atheist in the Zombie Muhammad costume was proclaiming that he was the Prophet Muhammad, risen from the dead. Apparently the words and costume offended a Muslim man, who came out of the audience and began...

"Today the Islamic Republic's words about the unfruitfulness of the Marxist system have been proved and the same thing is happening to the capitalist system," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing Sunni and Shiite clerics, theology students and teachers and jurisprudents in the Western Kermanshah province Wednesday night. He also stressed the rising tides of Islamism in the world, and called on Islamic scholars to double their efforts to illuminate the concepts and values of Islam to the world people. The Supreme Leader said that the Occupy Wall Street movement will bring down capitalism in America, underlining that the US administration could...

The United States has made "direct contact" with Iran to discuss the alleged Tehran-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, the State Department said Thursday. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, without saying who was involved in the talks, confirmed that the Obama administration has contacted Iran over the charges unveiled Tuesday. "We have had direct contact with Iran. I'm not going to give you any further details than that," she told reporters. The outreach comes as President Obama forcefully defends U.S. claims that the plot had "direct links" to the Iranian government. Obama, in his first public remarks...

What? There was nothing surprising, let alone “brazen,” about the Iranian attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, or to blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. It is, after all, what they do. No new “red line” has been crossed. This is simply business as usual for the Tehran regime, you know, the one with which president Obama was so confident he could reach a good working relationship. If you thought — as so many of the overnight experts have declared — that there was anything new about Iranian terrorists operating on American soil, forget it. Iranian agents...

Security: An Iran that's building nuclear weapons sponsors a shot at terrorism and murder on U.S. soil. Will we wait until Ahmadinejad's operatives come across our porous Southern border with a dirty bomb? The good news is the Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. with a car bomb at a Washington, D.C., restaurant was foiled. The bad news is that Iran even attempted to strike inside America. This is something that speaks to the fruits of President Obama's apology tour: Those that should fear us don't. Iran doesn't fear America or possible retaliation any more than...

CIA’s bio attack on Pak suspected Cuba suffered scourge in 1981 Akhtar Jamal Islamabad—Fears are growing in Pakistan that the spread of dengue fever also known as break-bone fever may have been caused by some kind of biological experiment or deliberate release of virus by foreign elements. Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) representatives have called on security agencies to investigate fears of deliberate spread of dengue virus in Pakistan. According to a report, the PMA members and experts have demanded in-depth investigation over mysterious spread of Dengue virus in Punjab. Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue...

WAUSAU, Wis -- A man was attacked on Wausau's east side on Friday afternoon during a reported argument over religion. Witnesses to the attack in the 600 block of Jefferson Street say a man got out of his vehicle, accosted the victim and claimed he had criticized his Muslim religion... Wausau police say the victim knew the attacker but no arrest has been made as of yet

In the world of diplomacy, uttering words of caution on a troubled relationship with another state is pretty much raising a red-flag warning of impending or ongoing conflict. This is what retiring Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, did in his final appearance on Sept. 22 with the Senate Armed Services Committee in describing America’s bizarre relationship with Pakistan. In a carefully crafted public statement before U.S. senators, Mullen said, “Extremist organizations serving as proxies of the government of Pakistan are attacking Afghan troops and civilians as well as U.S. soldiers.” Then Mullen made the...

San Juan Capistrano Councilman Derek Reeve has made the national stage, but not in the most flattering manner. Reeve, who has sparked controversy with his public comment that he named his dog Muhammad after the Muslim prophet, was labeled a "pinhead" by Fox News Channel commentator Bill O'Reilly during the "Pinheads & Patriots" segment of his show "The O'Reilly Factor."

The insurgents who attacked the U.S. Embassy in Kabul last week were killed but their cell phones left a trail. The phones had been used to call Pakistani intelligence operatives before and during the assault. This evidence lies behind the charge made by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the Haqqani network is a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. The attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO's Afghan headquarters resulted in a 22-hour firefight - with American troops pinned down on roof tops.

VIENNA (AP) -- Muslim countries at a 151-nation conference demanded Friday that Israel open its nuclear program to international purview, asserting that its undeclared arsenal is a threat to Mideast peace. Unlike in recent years, however, Arab states did not push for a resolution directly targeting Israel by name after such an attempt was narrowly voted down at last year's International Atomic Energy Agency general conference.

Pakistan has told the US it risks losing an ally if it continues to accuse the country of playing a double game in the war against al-Qaeda, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries. Hina Rabbani Khar, the Pakistani foreign minister, was responding to comments by Admiral Mike Mullen, the US joint chiefs of staff, who said Pakistan military's spy agency, ISI, was closely tied to the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is the most serious allegation levelled by the US against Pakistan since they began an alliance...

San Juan Capistrano Councilman Named His Dog 'Muhammad' San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Derek Reeve announced at last week's council meeting that he gave one of his dogs — animals considered particularly impure in the Muslim world — the same name as the Muslim prophet Muhammad. "That's right," Reeve said at the council meeting, "I named my dog Muhammad." The remarks came during a discussion about a planned dog park in the city. A council action related to the dog park was scheduled for adoption without discussion, but Reeve pulled the item to ask questions and make a brief comment....