Free Republic

THE Howard Government is considering banning Islamic scarfs at Australian airports, senior government sources have revealed. The security measure would see even the most inoffensive Muslim scarf, the hijab, which covers the hair and neck, banned, along with several other types. Security officials were especially concerned by two other types of scarf, the niqab and burka.

World religious leaders should establish close relations since they all advocate global peace, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi says. "Religious leaders can relieve humanity's suffering as they all support a world without war and immorality," Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi told Washington Bishop John Bryson Chane and his delegation in the Iranian city of Qom on Wednesday. Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi said religious leaders can pave the way for religions to converge and play a more significant role in the restoration of global peace through interacting with each other. “Iranian Muslims have peacefully coexisted with Christians and followers of other religions for years,” he stated. “They are...

Islamofascism: In a monumental nod to political correctness, the Empire State Building is to be lit up green in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid. The separation of Islam from terror is officially complete. Six years ago, Islamic terrorists screamed "Allah is Greatest!" as they slammed fuel-laden jumbo jets into two other New York skyscrapers. Six years ago, New Yorkers were worried about the Green Menace. Now, for the first time, New York's remaining famous skyscraper will be aglow in green — the color of Islam — to mark the end of Ramadan, a month of intense Islamic renewal. Officials...

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip -- The militant known as Abu Hamza is constantly on the run from Israel, and his hideout today is a dank room at the back of a nondescript house filled with adults and frolicking children. The room is barren except for a computer hooked up to the Internet, which the Islamic Jihad commander said is used to plan rocket attacks on southern Israel. He pledged to keep up the violence despite the growing likelihood of a major Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. "We must create a balance of terror with the enemy," he told...

Empire State Building to Go Green for Muslim holiday New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said. "This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement. Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in...

George Washington University President Steven Knapp has no plans to take disciplinary action against a group of students involved in an anti-Muslim flier hoax, a university spokeswoman said yesterday. "We have established judicial policies and procedures," university spokeswoman Tracy Schario said. "I am confident that President Knapp will let them take their course." However, Mr. Knapp "reserves the right to intervene" in the university's student-judicial process, she said. Graduate student Adam Kokesh and senior Brian Tierney with five other students took responsibility Tuesday for the fliers, which contained the phrase "Hate Muslims? So Do We!" The students said the posters...

New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said. "This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement. Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending on when the new...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction ruled out talks with Hamas on Thursday as Israel warned any such dialogue with the Islamists could "torpedo" a peace deal with the Jewish state. Palestinian sources familiar with the matter said members of Hamas and Fatah had discussed holding peace talks, but Fatah leaders said they had not backed any meeting and rejected dialogue with Hamas unless it cedes control of the Gaza Strip, which it seized in fighting with Abbas's forces in June... Abbas dismissed the Islamist Hamas-led Palestinian government in June after the violence in Gaza, ushering an easing of U.S....

A row has erupted over a plan to dig up a third of a million bodies from an historic east London cemetery to make way for a new Muslim burial site. Tower Hamlets council in London is considering reopening the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park in Mile End to answer a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area. The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there. It is not yet clear what the Council proposes to do with the...

NEW YORK: For the first time in its history, the world famous Empire State Building here will be lit in green from Friday to Sunday in celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. So far the landmark tower is lighted in traditional colours every year only on the occasion of Christmas and the Jewish festival Hannukah. From this year on, lighting on Eid too will become an annual event. At the end of Ramadan, Muslims throughout the world observe a joyous three-day celebration which marks the end of Ramadan. In Islam, the colour green symbolizes a happy occasion. Soaring 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan,...

NEW YORK (AFP) - New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said. "This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement. Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending...

Prominent Muslim scholars are warning that the "survival of the world" is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other. In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders "to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions." The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Pope Benedict are believed to have been sent copies of the document which calls for greater understanding between the two faiths. The letter also spells out the similarities between passages of the...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

Any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will require the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in all of east Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Adnan Husseini told The Jerusalem Post Monday. The comments by Husseini, who previously served as director of the Wakf (Muslim religious trust) that administers the Temple Mount, highlighted the immense gap between the parties regarding Jerusalem, and cast doubt on whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's longstanding proposal to cede Arab neighborhoods on the city's periphery as part of a final peace agreement could serve as basis for such an accord. "The outline...

Southland school holiday debate blows up into a national controversy (http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/591412,010507xmas.article) October 7, 2007 Angela Caputo, Staff writer News that Christmas celebrations, of all things, might be banned in some Oak Lawn schools was just another example of how the core of American culture is being gutted by outside influences, according to television personalities, radio pundits, bloggers and everyday people who piled on the debate in Ridgeland District 122 last week. "For years now, it seems like the war on Christmas is only getting worse," CNN's Glenn Beck said. "First it was mangers, then it was trees. And then it...

Extremists beat, kill females seen as not sufficiently Muslim, police chief says By JAY PRICE AND ALI OMAR AL BASRI - McClatchy Newspapers BASRA, Iraq — Women in Basra have become the targets of a violent campaign by religious extremists, who leave more than 15 female bodies scattered around the city each month, police officers say. Maj. Gen. Abdel Jalil Khalaf, the commander of Basra’s police, said Thursday that self-styled enforcers of religious law threatened, beat and sometimes shot women who they believed weren’t sufficiently Muslim. “This is a new type of terror that Basra is not familiar with,” he...

Nasrallah terms Iran's stance on Palestine as progressive Beirut, Oct 6, 2007 IRNA Lebanese Hizbollah Chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah here on Friday evening termed Iran's stance on Palestinian issue and liberation of the holy Qods as courageous and progressive. Addressing a gathering held on the occasion of International Qods Day in southern Beirut, he said the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, had attached special importance to the issue of Palestine from the very beginning. Changing the embassy of the Zionist regime in Tehran to the Palestinian embassy was one of Imam's first revolutionary measures following the victory...

Hamas has had its share of difficulties since its terrorists took over Gaza earlier this year. They have had to take responsibility for actually governing territory, and the international sanctions have forced them to sell the office furniture to meet just a fraction of its payroll obligations. Gazans have quickly lost patience with Hamas, and now they face a phenomenon that they would normally endorse, if not directed at them: Over the past two months, Fatah has organized a series of peaceful protests against Hamas in the Gaza Strip; thousands of Fatah supporters participated in open-air prayers to protest against...

MALAYSIA has come up with the world's first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space as its first astronaut prepares to go into orbit next week. The book, Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station, teaches the Muslim astronaut how to perform ablutions, determine the location of Mecca when praying, prayer times, and how to fast in space, the Star newspaper reported. "The reason we formulated guidelines for Muslims in space is because we wanted to ensure our astronaut could fully concentrate on his mission, without having to worry about how he should perform his religious obligations in...

Tens of thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran on Friday proclaiming solidarity with Palestinians and chanting "Death to Israel" in the Islamic republic's annual protest against the Jewish state. Iranians of all ages began the march through the centre of the capital to Tehran University to mark Quds Day, calling for Jerusalem and Israel to be handed to the Palestinians. Coloured bibs were handed out to protestors with the legend "Death to Israel, Death to United States" while "Palestine will only be free with fighting and faith" was the slogan on one banner. Despite the heavily politicised nature of the...