Free Republic

On October 7, 2023, the Sabbath of the Joy of the Torah, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust took place. It took place not in the Diaspora, but in the Jewish state, in the south of the country, in the areas bordering Gaza. In an independent, strong Jewish state founded to protect Jews from pogroms, there was a very real pogrom. Why did it happen?October 7 was a holiday, and the soldiers and officers wanted to be at home with their families, not on military bases in the Israeli south. They wished to keif and enjoy themselves. Hedonism...

I believe that the war that has just erupted in the Middle East is the biggest news story in decades. This is bigger than the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, 9/11 or the Iraq War. Once Israel sends troops into Gaza, the Great Middle East War will have begun. There is going to be so much death and destruction in the months ahead, and it will not just be limited to the Middle East. There will be violence in the United States and other western nations that support Israel. In fact, I believe that eventually we are going to see...

ROME — Pope Francis has called for greater restrictions on weapons worldwide, spanning the production, marketing, and possession of both heavy and light arms. “How many cases have we seen of children dead for handling weapons in their homes, how many massacres have been perpetrated due to the easy access to them in some countries?” the pontiff asks rhetorically in a new book, an excerpt of which was published Sunday in Italian media. “Legal or illegal, on a large scale or in supermarkets, the arms trade is a serious problem around the world,” the pope declares in the book, titled...

The two men are seeing attacking her but she manages to repel them.

Human rights usually feature prominently in America's political rhetoric but fade insignificance when it comes to concrete action. That trend can take a historic turn when it comes to Iran, where a genocidal madman has taken the presidency. That the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran hasn't galvanized governments in the West and in the U.S. in particular to pursue his prosecution is still a mystery. Human rights groups, UN experts, Nobel laureates, scores of elected officials, lawmakers, and journalists have already expressed outrage over Raisi's rise to power. And justifiably so. In 1988, Raisi was one of the members...

Pope Francis on Saturday put Robert Schuman, who paved the way for the founding of the European Union, on the path to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. The pope approved a decree recognizing the “heroic virtues” of the 20th-century French statesman who died in 1963, the Vatican said in a statement. “Behind the action of the public man, there was the interiority of the man who lived the sacraments, who, when he could, would take to an abbey, who would reflect on the sacred Word before finding the shape of his political words,” the Vatican said about Schuman. The...

A history that also shows Spain how to survive - should it actually care to. Spain is reliving its ancient history with Islam. Ongoing reports indicate that Muslims migrants from North Africa are illegally entering and flooding Spanish territory. In just 2020, 23,000 migrants invaded Spain’s Canary Islands, representing a 234 percent increase. Most recently, in just one day, some 6,000 North Africans invaded Ceuta “by sea, either swimming or with inflatables, all in a bid to eventually get to mainland Europe.” Once arriving on Spanish territory, such migrants invariably engage in unsavory and downright criminal behavior, such as gang-rape,...

Concerns are mounting from bipartisan US lawmakers and Afghan women's rights activists that the hard-won gains for women and civil society in Afghanistan could be lost if the United States makes a precipitous withdrawal from the country. President Joe Biden has suggested it will be difficult to meet the May 1 deadline for US troops to leave the country as dictated in the deal the Trump administration signed with the Taliban. However, there are fears that if the US withdraws troops before the conditions on the ground are right -- regardless of the date on the calendar -- there will...

Over a two day period in late March of 1979, the people of Iran held a groundbreaking referendum to turn their country into a theocratic Islamic Republic where the religious leaders ruled supreme. According to the wholeheartedly honest and incorruptible officials who counted the votes, 99.3% of the ballots were cast in favor of becoming an Islamic Republic. (This bears a striking resemblance to Kim Jong Un winning a 2014 ‘election’ in North Korea with 100% of the vote, or when Saddam Hussein won re-election in Iraq back in 2002 with 11.4 million votes in favor, and 0 against.) Within...

...Northwestern University received more than $340 million from the country of Qatar from 2012 to 2019 as it operated a campus in the Middle Eastern country and continued a years-long collaboration with Al Jazeera, a media outlet owned by the Qatari government. That’s according to a 2019 Clarion Project report, which found that Al Jazeera and Northwestern University formed a relationship in 2008 when the Qatar Foundation, which the Clarion Project alleges of being linked to terrorism, funded a Northwestern campus in Qatar. Northwestern, one of the top journalism schools in the U.S., partnered with Al Jazeera in an agreement...

A Handmaid’s Tale is becoming, for American Christians, what the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been for Jews. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian 1985 novel tells stories of women living in a hellish American theocracy. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion claimed to be the minutes of a secret Jewish conspiracy meeting, held late in the 1800s. Protocols was written as slanderous propaganda, intended to justify hatred. Whatever Atwood intended, that’s become the role A Handmaid’s Tale increasingly plays here — especially now that it’s a hit Netflix show.

Murderous millennial preachers and prophets take over the German city of Munster after Martin Luther unleashes a Pandora’s Box of religious anarchy with the Protestant Reformation.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - One of Shi'ite Islam's highest religious authorities praised Wednesday the "sincerity" of U.S. President Barack Obama's message to the Muslim world and predicted a positive outcome for his approach to Iran. Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said Obama appeared to be a man of "human values" but would be judged on his actions. The ayatollah urged Obama to rethink policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trying to repair America's damaged image abroad, Obama said on a visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey this week that the United States was not at war with Islam.

In May, Americans United (AU) for the Separation of Church and State highlighted a poll conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in partnership with the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University. They used the survey to argue that people on the Religious Right were a threat to America because they are the people most “eager to base U.S. law on their understanding of religion.”They noted that the poll found seventeen percent of white evangelicals “want their faith to be the main source of U.S. law, and a whopping 54 percent want it to provide the source of some...

"Theocracy" is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot, and most of the people using it these days don't appear to have the foggiest idea what it means.Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines theocracy as "government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided." A Google search provides a similar definition: "A system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god." (Bill Murray, call your office.)In contemporary American parlance, "theocracy" is inevitably used in the context of a threat -- as in "So-and-so wants us to...

Two decades ago, Omar M. Ahmad, then the chairman of the terror-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations, was reported to have told a gathering of Muslims that their purpose for being in America was to help make the Quran the highest authority in the nation. Omar and other CAIR leaders have denied he made the statement, but WND found the reporter and her editors stood by the story, refuting CAIR’s claim that they had retracted it.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Republicans in Congress of trying to turn the United States into a “far-right Christian theocracy.” The lawmaker from New York fired off a series of angry tweets directed at the “GOP extremists trying to invoke ‘the unborn’ to jail people for abortion,” accusing them of hypocrisy. “If they were truthful about their motives, they’d be consistent in their principles,” she wrote. “They’re not

Saudi Arabia has ordered Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak to leave the kingdom within 24 hours (David Kawai/The Canadian Press via AP) Saudi Arabia has ordered the Canadian ambassador to leave the ultraconservative kingdom within 24 hours after his nation criticised the recent arrest of women’s rights activists. The Saudi Foreign Ministry also said it would freeze “all new business” between the kingdom and Canada. Some 10% of Canadian crude oil imports come from Saudi Arabia. Canadian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear if Ambassador Dennis Horak was in the kingdom. “Any...

After 42 years, it is time Utah changes up senators. When incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch was elected to his seventh term in 2012, he vowed it would be his last. Recently, however, the 83-year-old told KUTV he will run again—unless his friend Mitt Romney calls him and says he would like to run. Then Hatch would step aside. Here are seven reasons Romney should take Hatch up on that offer. 1. Gives Utah Time to Find a Long-term Solution According to The Salt Lake Tribune, 75 percent of voters said Hatch should not run again. By 2024, he would be...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Wednesday called for a "serious criminal investigation" into the dozens of White House visits that Robert Creamer made to the White House since 2009. "Voter fraud operative: 45 meetings w/Obama — this merits a serious criminal investigation," Cruz said on Twitter. Robert Creamer is a co-founder of Democratic political consulting group, and was an adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign. However, he surfaced in a new undercover video from Project Veritas, in which he appears to be supporting the idea of voter fraud. Creamer quickly resigned, and followup reports said Creamer spent time in prison for...