Free Republic

MERIDEN - The end of Ramadan, a monthlong period of fasting and reflection, was particularly joyful for members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community this year because they celebrated it at their new mosque in South Meriden.

Ambassadors from Muslim countries have indicated that they intend to present the Swedish prime minister with a list of demands when they meet for talks on Friday. Fredrik Reinfeldt invited the ambassadors from 20 Muslim countries to government offices on Friday following a wave of protests from Muslim countries after the publication of a caricature of Muhammad in local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda. Reinfeldt's press secretary Oscar Hållén was unable to say which countries had confirmed their attendance. Egyptian ambassador Mohamed Sotouhi told news agency TT that he and a group of fellow ambassadors had agreed on a list of measures...

Some Muslims in Baltimore County say lessons involving Islam being taught to seventh- and 10th-graders in public schools are inaccurate. Bash Pharoan, president of the Baltimore chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, says resource sheets, called "Islamic Life," given to seventh-graders studying world cultures and "World Religions" for 10th-graders in world history classes, not only misrepresent Islam, but show disrespect to the prophet Muhammad. For three years, Pharoan says, he has unsuccessfully petitioned the Baltimore County school board to review the way Islam is presented in public school classrooms. Joe Hairston, county school superintendent, said his "teachers do not...

Converts to Islam are now under the microscope. Middle England is in a moral panic at the news that a white middle-class boy from High Wycombe, the son of a Conservative party constituency worker, has been arrested in connection with what might have been our own 9/11. The explanations reached for 7/7, about social unrest or cultural clashes between Muslim elders and youth, clearly don’t apply. In the past, the temptation might have been to explain away conversion to Islam as a manifestation of social or personal discontent: an escape from personal problems, maybe, a decision to embrace the latest...

Local southern leaders yesterday appealed for calm and urged authorities not to take rash action after a monk was hacked to death and two temple boys were killed and their bodies burned yesterday in a raid on a Buddhist temple in Pattani. Elsewhere in the ravaged region, five more people, including two soldiers, were also killed. Nimu Makaje, deputy chairman of Yala Islamic Committee, believes the temple raiders wanted to provoke a violent reaction from the government. ``State authorities must exercise utmost patience and be calm. ``They should stick to peaceful efforts to win the hearts and minds of local...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States must not abandon its mission in Iraq and Americans must realize the consequences of ceding the country to "merciless killers." Rice told students at Princeton University that the Bush administration's focus on the spread of democracy in the Middle East was both a moral obligation and a tough-minded response to global terrorism. "From Cairo and Ramallah to Beirut and Baghdad, they are now finding new spaces of freedom," Rice said. The United States must not be afraid to use all its influence in the world - political, economic, cultural and...

SOMERSET, Pa. -- A Somerset County preacher vowed to fight the design of the Flight 93 National Memorial, insisting that the crescent pathway used in the design is a symbol of Islam. "This is a memorial to the terrorists who killed those people, not a memorial to the folks who died there innocently," said the Rev. Ron McRae, leader of the Bible Anabaptist Church near Jerome, about 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. "The crescent is as much connected to Islam as the cross is to Christianity," said McRae of Conemaugh Township, also listed as director and founder on the Web...

Islam is very similar to Christianity both historically and ideologically. People may find it strange that these two religions share many characteristics, but they do. Both religions are monotheistic and preach about the same God. Christians call Him "God", and Muslims call Him "Allah". Some Christians believe in the Trinity and others believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Muslims reject both notions but believe that Jesus was an important prophet, performed miracles and was a great man. Christians and Muslims, along with Jews believe Abraham was a major prophet, and both Arabs and Jews trace their ancestry back...