Free Republic

A court ruling on Monday in Britain, if it is allowed to stand, could do nothing less than change the course of that country’s history, and that of the entire world. The U.K. has taken a decisive step away from the principles of free speech that it played a dominant role in formulating and giving to the world. There is serious cause for doubt now about whether the Sceptered Isle will even survive as a free society. Officially, Hamit Coskun was found guilty of a “religiously aggravated public order offence.” His specific crime, however, was that he publicly burned a...

HYDERABAD, India — HYDERABAD, India — Indian police charged Monday, August 13, a Bangladeshi writer known for her frequent attacks on Islam with offending Muslims after a complaint from a leading Muslim party in this southern city. "A case was booked against Taslima Nasreen that her anti-Islamic views and writings hurt Muslim sentiments," Hyderabad police official L.K. Shinde told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Under the Indian penal code, promoting "disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will" between groups on the basis of religion is punishable by up to three years in jail. Police said they filed the case against Nasreen,...

The award-winning feminist writer Taslima Nasreen, who is under death-threat from Islamist extremists, is to be housed in an artist's studio paid for by the city of Paris, more than a decade after she was forced into exile from her native Bangladesh. Nasreen's outspoken stance on what she calls the inherent misogyny of conservative Muslim society in Bangladesh has sparked protests, riots and warrants for her arrest as well as a cash reward for her decapitation by religious fundamentalists. In 1994, the former doctor was accused of blasphemy over her novel Lajja (Shame), which described the life of a Hindu...

“The Quran gained a popular readership among Protestants both in England and in North America largely out of curiosity,” says Denise A. Spellberg, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Thomas Jefferson’s Qu'ran: Islam and the Founders. “But also because people thought of the book as a book of law and a way to understand Muslims with whom they were interacting already pretty consistently, in the Ottoman Empire and in North Africa.” When Jefferson bought his Quran as a law student in 1765, it was probably because of his interest in understanding Ottoman law....

He had no doubts at first, but slowly they emerged. He was struck, he says, by the fact that the first coins bearing Muhammad’s name did not appear until the late 7th century — six decades after the religion did. He traded ideas with some scholars in Saarbrücken who in recent years have been pushing the idea of Muhammad’s nonexistence. They claim that “Muhammad” wasn’t the name of a person but a title, and that Islam began as a Christian heresy. Prof. Kalisch didn’t buy all of this. Contributing last year to a book on Islam, he weighed the odds...

PUTIN henchman and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is "preparing to flee Russia" - as he has put his son in charge of the police. The infamous leader of Chechnya has already made several moves to prepare for his escape - and his efforts have sparked a conflict with Kremlin cronies. The 48-year-old dictator is a vocal supporter of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, and has sent tens of thousands of troops to support the bloody war in Ukraine. He has also been accused of violating human rights, including involvement in kidnapping and torture. But relations between Putin and Kadyrov have soured...

Jihadists are murdering, raping, torturing, kidnapping, enslaving, and, in some instances, burning people alive — across Africa, and now in Syria. Local jihadist organizations go by different names, but the ideology that drives them is the same: Every one of them deeply believes that Allah wants him to wipe the world clean of the kuffar (infidels). More than 16.2 million Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa have been driven from their homes by jihadi violence and conflict, reports the human rights organization Open Doors. Women and girls are abducted, forced into "marriage," forced to convert to Islam, raped, and subjected to forced...

Last month Keith (Hakim Mohammad) Ellison of Minnesota became the first Muslim elected to serve in the United States Congress and shocked many Americans by declaring that he would take his oath of office by placing his hand on the Quran rather than the Bible. Can a true believer in the Islamic doctrine found in the Quran swear allegiance to our Constitution? Those who profess a sincere belief in Allah say “no!” In 1789, George Washington, our first president under the Constitution, took his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”...

Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore on Tuesday stood by his decades-old statement that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress, Mediaite reported. "Read my article and you'll find out what I believe," he told MSNBC reporter Garrett Haake while on the Senate floor. "It's clarified very clearly in my article." Moore, a former Alabama chief justice, has made a number of controversial statements in the past. In 2006, he urged Congress to bar Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, from being sworn in because he would be taking his oath with his hand on a...

During his visit to Chechnya on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped at the Prophet Isa mosque in Grozny and posed for photos while holding, and kissing, a gold-leaf copy of the Quran. Putin was flanked by his hand-picked Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and top Chechen Muslim cleric Mufti Saah Mezhiev during his Quran smooch. The Grand Mufti ceremonially read a verse from the Quran, translated into Russian for Putin. The Prophet Isa mosque, constructed in 2020, is a huge and expensive structure that can accommodate 5,000 worshipers at once. “Prophet Isa” is Islam’s version of Jesus Christ, who ranks...

Sana, who, like many people interviewed for this article, asked that her real name not be used, has seen some 12 mental health professionals and, she said, has had her Muslim identity questioned on several occasions. She discovered psychotherapy and mental health counseling during her college days. It took her more than a year "to overcome the stigma and the shame associated with saying that she needed support." In addition to the personal challenges that come with seeking mental health support, Sana faced with the additional challenge of navigating the mental health care space in India as a Muslim. The...

A massive Ukrainian drone attack repelled in Russia's Rostov Region... The Rwandan-backed rebels say they intend to follow up on seizure of Congo's largest city Goma with a move on the capital city... Israeli air strikes late tonight in two parts of Lebanon... A US Appeals Court ruling that a federal ban on selling handguns to 18, 19 and 20-year-olds is unconstitutional... Top officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation being asked to resign or retire... President Donald Trump says the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico begin Saturday... The US Federal Aviation Administration says that air traffic controller...

The brother of the terrorist who launched the deadly car attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans says that “radicalization” is to blame for his kin’s rampage. Abdur Jabbar, 24, of Beaumont, Texas, told The New York Times that his brother Shamsud-Din Jabbar — who killed at least 15 people in the New Year’s Day attack — converted to Islam at an early age. The younger Jabbar told the newspaper that what his brother “did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.” Abdur described his brother, who was killed by police after mowing down...

Proofs that Islam should be outlawed — that is, if the West was actually serious about its own laws — continue to pile up. In a recent article, we saw that, according to the UN’s own definitions of hate speech, the Koran should be banned not just for routinely hating others by name — Christians, Jews, polytheists, and “infidels” (kuffar) of every stripe — but openly calling for overt violence against them. As it happens, Islam is also inherently genocidal — again, according to the UN’s own definition:

As an amateur historian -- and probably not a good one -- I go nuts when I see amateurish fictions tendered as core premises. This is no more frequently found than in Hollywood; but do not kid yourself, it is not confined to Hollywood. The following famous movie scene (based on the play) is a case in point, one worse than most: Camelot is unique. And we have, by far and away, the most equitable climate in all England -- Camelot (1967)A) The King Arthur stories hail back to the collapse of Celtic Briton, after the Roman garrison left in...

Swedish prosecutors said on Wednesday they would put two men on trial for setting fire to the Quran in a series of incidents last year that prompted outrage in the Muslim world and raised fears of attacks by jihadists. The two men committed "offenses of agitation against an ethnic or national group" on four separate occasions when burning Islam's holy book outside a mosque and in other public places, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement. Sweden's domestic security service raised its terrorism alert level as a result of the burnings, while neighboring Denmark, which also saw a spate...

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Muslim-majority region of Chechnya on Wednesday, marking his first trip to the area in 13 years. The visit has garnered significant attention, particularly after a video surfaced showing Putin respectfully kissing a gifted Quran and holding it close to his heart. Upon arrival, Putin received a warm welcome from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom he discussed strengthening bilateral relations, military, trade, and economic ties. The two leaders have consistently demonstrated strong relations, with Kadyrov frequently referring to Putin as a close friend in media interactions. During the visit, Russian president, accompanied by Kadyrov...

After receiving a gold-encrusted copy of the Holy Quran of Muslims in a mosque in the Russian Chechen Republic's capital, Grozny, Russian president Putin kissed it and then hugged it to take photos of Kadyrov and Mezhiev.

A clip has emerged online showing Russian warlord Vladimir Putin kissing a copy of the Quran during his visit to Chechnya this week, as Ukraine continues its shock cross-border incursion. Putin also met with Chechnya leader and attack dog Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom he visited the newly constructed "Prophet Jesus" mosque in the capital, Grozny. There the Kremlin leader was presented with a gold-encrusted copy of the Holy Quran, before planting a kiss on it for the cameras.

A Muslim mob stormed a police station and destroyed parked police vehicles in northwestern Pakistan, Madyan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. As reported by AP, the mob seized a man detained there and lynched him on accusations of desecrating the Quran on Thursday, according to local police official Rahim Ullah. Mohammad Ismail, a tourist staying at a hotel in Madyan town, became the target of locals who accused him of blasphemy. Police officers reportedly took Ismail to the station to safeguard him, but a growing mob pursued them. The mob proceeded to storm the station, seize Ismail, brutally assault him to death,...