Free Republic

Protesters waving Australian flags and carrying signs such as "Yes Australia. No Sharia" rallied around the country on Saturday in events organisers said were against Islamic extremism. The "Reclaim Australia" events drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance. "We are pro-Australian values and anti-extreme Islam, but we're not anti-Muslim," Reclaim Australia spokeswoman Catherine Brennan told AFP, adding there was no racism behind the rallies, which she said had attracted people from diverse backgrounds.

CAIRO - Egyptian security forces arrested 15 armed bodyguards of the number two in the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat El-Shater, on Monday after an exchange of fire in which no one was injured, security sources said. The Brotherhood's political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), denied the report, and quoted Shater as saying his private driver had been kidnapped after shooting in the area. The sources said the shootout occurred when security forces went to arrest the guards for alleged unlawful possession of firearms they are suspected of having used to shoot at protesters attacking the Brotherhood's headquarters on...

Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a bill aimed at keeping Kansas courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes...

Pakistan's only Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead today after pushing for the reform of harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.The assassination comes just a fortnight after Mr Bhatti, Minister for Minorities, said he was prepared to die for his beliefs following a series of death threats. ...Earlier this year, Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by a bodyguard who said he was angry that the politician opposed the blasphemy laws.

America is facing assaults from several fronts, including from our very own government. Look at this astonishing administration. It's loaded with radical homosexuals and leftist affirmative action appointees—certainly not representative of the mostly conservative America! We are also facing an invasion that has been going on for years without most of us realizing it was happening. I'm not talking about the illegal alien invasion, although that is yet another serious assault on our country. I'm talking about the invasion of Islam with its attendant mandate of conquest. Despite what all the suicidal leftists and the beguiled, sleeping Americans would have...

This week we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in the government takeover of insurance giant AIG. In the last several months, the US government has tried, unsuccessfully, to throw out plaintiff Kevin Murray’s case, alleging that the government’s takeover of AIG puts it in the position of supporting and promoting Islam and Shariah finance. In the discovery process attorneys for Murray, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise (of the Thomas More Law Center), discovered that the takeover itself may have been illegal, and have attempted to get Treasury Secretary under oath to try and untangle this mess. Again, the...

The country is buzzing about Rush Limbaugh's post-election comments that he felt liberated now that he would no longer have to shill for those who had not earned his unequivocal support. Limbaugh said, "I feel liberated, ladies and gentlemen, because I feel like I don't have to carry the water for people that I think don't deserve to have their water carried." Limbaugh's success as a talk-radio host comes from his incredible talent at analyzing the lay of the land, breaking down the issues of the day for his audience and seeing things that most people miss when sizing up...

Muslim leaders summoned to talks with the Government on tackling extremism in their midst called for public holidays to mark their religious festivals. The Whitehall meeting was set up in response to last week's airline bomb plot discovery. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly had prepared an uncompromising message on the need to tackle dangerous radicalism. But, in what she admitted were 'sharp' exchanges, some senior Muslim figures turned the tables yesterday and made a series of demands which also included the introduction of Sharia law for family matters. Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of...

In a move which is both courageous and stupid, Dutch blogger 'Reet' (a Dutch colloquialism for 'ass') of the blog 'Retecool' (a Dutch colloquialism for, er, "really" cool) has started a Photoshop contest in which participants create parodies of Mohammed. The contest can be viewed here (a mirror can be found here). It's a brave move which I applaud, especially considering the cowardly attitude of the European Commission, which, according to Elsevier, seeks to curtail the press rather than deal with the real issue at hand: the lack of respect amongst some Muslims for freedom of speech (if not sheer...

THIS IS AN UNCORRECTED TRANSCRIPT. P R O C E E D I N G S MR. STEINBERG: Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Brookings. I'm Jim Steinberg, the Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program here. And it's my privilege to welcome and introduce Senator Hillary Clinton from New York as our speaker this morning. It's a cliché when somebody comes up to start an introduction to say, of course our speaker needs no introduction--but in this case it's no cliché. Our speaker, clearly, needs no introduction to this or any other audience. She's had a remarkable...