Free Republic

A Chicago lawyer is the key player behind the secret talks between the US and Iran. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. A close friend of Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett is assisting the US government communicate behind the scenes with the representatives of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Jarret, who was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz, is a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama. Last month, The New York Times reported that the US government is engaged in secret talks with Iran aimed at establishing a direct line of communication once the US presidential elections are over. The National...

A Sudanese opposition leader and prominent Sunni Muslim who had links to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s said he hopes President Barack Obama will get re-elected in Tuesday’s much anticipated election, AFP reported.“You know what ‘Baraka’ means in Arabic? Blessing,” said veteran Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, who served as the secretary-general of the Islamic Charter Front, a political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood that advocated an Islamic constitution and opposed western secularism.“Obama of course,” Turabi told AFP, when asked about his U.S. presidential preference during an interview. “He’s gentle towards the Muslims generally,” Turabi said, and referred...

... In a town hall with students at St. Xavier College in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, Obama responded to a question about his views of jihad by saying that the term has a lot of meanings within Islam, but the overwhelming majority of the more than 1 billion Muslims in the world see their religion as one that reaffirms "peace and justice and fairness and tolerance." "I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never justified," Obama said, adding that...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Friday forcefully endorsed building a mosque near ground zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less. "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said, weighing in for the first time on a controversy that has riven New York and the nation. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York -- a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers. "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on...