Free Republic

FASCINATING images show devout Muslims using knives to cut open their heads during a traditional show of faith. Every year, thousands of Shia worshippers take part in the ceremonies, performed to mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Part of a walkway collapsed as tens of thousands of people celebrated Ashura on Tuesday, causing a stampede and killing at least 31 pilgrims on one of the most sacred religious holy days for the Shia sect, officials said. Around 100 others were injured in the incident, which occurred toward the end of the Ashura procession, causing a panicked rush, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press from Kerbala. Hundreds of thousands of people converge on the holy city, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, for the occasion every year. The somber day of Ashura...

Afghanistan: Bomb rips through wedding in Kabul An explosion has ripped through a wedding hall in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and many casualties are feared. Eye witnesses told the BBC a suicide bomber detonated explosives during a wedding ceremony. Witnesses said they had seen bodies. The explosion happened at around 22:40 local time (18.10 GMT) in an area mostly populated by Shia residents. No group said it carried out the attack, which happened in the west of the city. Sunni Muslim militants, including the Taliban and the Islamic State group, have repeatedly targeted Shia Hazara minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan....

Foot on pedal, 10-year-old Murtaja Qureiris is about to lead the group of around 30 children. In video footage obtained by CNN, he is wearing rolled up denim jeans and black flip-flops on his feet, and grinning at the camera recording the event. It may look like a regular bike ride, but the group is staging a protest. Moments after they set off, Qureiris gets lost in the sea of boys, struggling to keep up as he lifts a megaphone and presses it against his lips. “The people demand human rights!” he shouts. As a boy, Qureiris participated in demonstrations...

A sign alluding to a historical massacre of Jews was carried openly at the annual al-Quds Day hatefest in downtown Toronto on Saturday afternoon, the B’nai Brith of Canada reported Sunday. The sign depicts the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and warns that, “The last Khayber is ready,” an allusion to an ancient battle in which a Muslim army defeated and slaughtered Jews in the Arabian Peninsula. It also predicts the coming of “the last Hayder,” a nickname for Ali, the leading figure in Shi’a [Shi’ite] Islam. Shi’a [Shi’ite] clerics are among the speakers and organizers of the Toronto...

The Shia Muslim community in Sweden is concerned about its safety “if Islamic State militants return home.” Unfortunately for the Shia, Leftist Swedes believe that it is “racist” for Sweden not to embrace Swedish jihadis as they would any other Swedish citizen. Many other nations, such as Canada, hold the same view. Leftists and the many charlatans who are gainfully employed in the anti- “racism” industry have managed to exacerbate racial divisions. In this industry, those who do not fit their narrative do not exist. Muslims who are threatened by other Muslims do not exist; neither do blacks who are...

The daughter of one of the founders of the Islamic republic has warned that, while still strong, the system her late father helped establish some 40 years ago is weakened and could someday collapse. Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said in an interview with a Tehran daily published on December 27 that "intimidation" and "fear" were the main things propping up the Islamic establishment. "In my view, a breakdown of principles has already happened, there hasn't been a physical collapse, but I see that as very likely," Hashemi told the independent Mostaghel newspaper. Hashemi,...

One of the instruments that the enemies use is creating discord among us. I insist that we stress and place great emphasis on this matter. Brothers, sisters, Muslims in the world of Islam, if this call reaches your ears, you should know that the day when the words “Sunni” and “Shia” appeared in the American discourse, we became concerned. Every insightful person became concerned. What does America have to do with Sunni and Shia? What does such and such a Jewish Zionist politician in America – who has done nothing except for showing malevolence against Islam and Muslims – have...

Shia populist cleric and Iraqi nationalist Moqtada al Sadr won the May 12 Iraqi elections to the surprise of Iran, Turkey, the United States and many Iraq experts. Sadr is against Israel, the United States and Iran, and also opposes the presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi territory. Now he is the kingmaker of Iraq’s elections, winning 54 out of 329 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Washington was hoping Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi would win as a result of his defeat of Islamic State (ISIS), while Iran backed the Conquest alliance headed by the leader of the paramilitary...

Trudeau may have violated the federal ethics code during his holiday with the Aga Khan, the philanthropist and hereditary spiritual leader to the world’s Ismaili Muslims who Trudeau says is a family friend. It is the first time the ethics commissioner has opted to investigate the actions of a sitting prime minister. In a letter to opposition Conservative politician Blaine Calkins, who was among those who filed formal complaints, Dawson said she was looking into Trudeau’s stay at the island and his use of the Aga Khan’s private helicopter to get there. ... The Conflict of Interest Act and Trudeau’s...

Prime minister says it's not up to him to determine who the Aga Khan invites to his residences Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talked about the then-incoming Trump administration and the general state of the world when the two of them were on the Aga Khan's private island in late 2016. During an interview this week with The Canadian Press, Trudeau shed a bit more light on his direct interactions with Kerry, who happened to be at the spiritual leader's island in the Bahamas at the same time as the prime...

On December 8, 2017, the leader of Iraq’s Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Qais al-Khazali paid a visit to the Lebanese-Israeli border to inspect Lebanese “Hezbollah” resistance positions and to issue a threat to the southern neighbor. In a leaked video, he was shown as saying: “We are here with ‘Hezbollah’ and we announce our complete readiness to stand side by side with the Lebanese people and Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.” Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, or Khazali Network, is affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). -excerpt- His statement however demonstrated the common interests of pro-Iran regional militias to allow Tehran...

Many observers have warned that Putin’s military campaign in Syria may backfire at home. Russia’s 144 million people include about 20 million Muslims; the overwhelming majority are Sunnis. Some analysts believe that these Russian Sunnis will recoil from Russia’s support for Assad’s Alawite-dominated regime and its attacks on Sunni rebels, and from Russia’s effort to lead a coalition of Shiite powers, Iran, Iraq and Syria. If pundits’ predictions were true, Muslims would be more likely to choose the anti-war response and less likely to support Putin’s intervention. But that’s not exactly what we found. ...There wasn’t a consensus among any...

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) - The Latest on Iraq, where federal forces have attacked the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk (all times local): 2:30 p.m. A spokesman for Iraq's state-sanctioned militias says they have "achieved all our goals" in retaking areas from Kurdish forces in and around the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. Ahmed al-Assadi says federal forces came under fire from "some rebels" after launching the operation early Monday and returned fire. He says federal forces have been deployed in the area of the K-1 military base, the Kirkuk airport and a number of oil fields and installations. But he says...

In vino veritas. And with failed actor, Shia LaBeouf, we learned that a lot of vino led to a lot of veritas when he was arrested for drunken and disorderly conduct in Savannah, Georgia on July 8. The leftwing LaBeouf, while heavily under the influence of his alcoholic truth serum revealed himself as the worst stereotype of the one percent rich folks when he drunkenly boasted of his "millionaire lawyers." It is unknown at this writing what his sentence will be but his worst punishment is that the highly embarrassing police bodycam footage obtained by TMZ will follow him around...

Turkey's parliament is expected to fast-track on Wednesday a draft bill allowing its troops to be deployed to a Turkish military base in Qatar, officials from the ruling AK Party and the nationalist opposition said. The move appears to support the Gulf Arab country as it faces diplomatic and trade isolation from some of the biggest Middle Eastern powers.

THE Iranian Parliament is under fire with a gunman shooting guards, with at least eight injured. Iranian state TV has reported that there were four attackers in parliament with one person killed and eight people injured. The situation is still ongoing, according to the broadcaster. [Snip] [Additionally] an armed man opened fire at the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in southern Tehran and wounded a number of people. A gunman opened fire at pilgrims at the late Imam Khomeini mausoleum in southern Tehran on Wednesday injuring a number of people. There are reports of witnesses saying that they heard an explosion...

Anti-Trump actor Shia LaBeouf has a new art project that involves him and two of his friends sitting by themselves in cabins in Finland with their only contact with the outside world through text messages to patrons of a local museum in Helsinki…

Shia's little flag was taken in less than 24 hours this time. Pepe Team 6 escaped the police pursuit and have the flag.

Yesterday, the He Will Not Divide Us flag was moved from Tennessee to Liverpool, England. Why a flag referencing the American "Resistance" would be moved to England is beyond me, but it seems to have been stolen again.