Free Republic

“A New World Order With European Values.” Emblazoned across banners and signs, those words met the participants at this week’s meeting of the World Forum in Berlin. Each year, leaders, executives, journalists and academics gather to address the greatest threats facing humanity. This year, there was little doubt about what they view as the current threat: the resurgence of populism and free speech. In fairness to the Forum, “a New World Order” likely sounds more ominous for some civil libertarians than intended. While the European Union is a transnational government stretching across 27 nations, the organizers were referring to a...

"The best argument against a true democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." -- Winston Churchill In the Obama Administration’s continuing effort to embrace Muslims and their culture, the United States government will for the first time host an international Islamic forum held annually in the Middle East and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will headline the three-day event which begins today, according to a public-interest watchdog group that investigates and prosecutes government and political corruption. Created to address issues critical to Arabs and Muslims, the U.S.-Islamic World Forum will come to Washington D.C. this week after eight...

DOHA (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a special envoy to a top Islamic body to further Washington's cooperation with the Muslim world. Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. "As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo," Obama said. In a speech...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Former President Clinton said Monday that many Muslims have a distorted view of the United States because they often judge America solely on the basis of the Mideast peace process. Clinton told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum that Americans also had problems understanding the Islamic world because their judgments were based on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Too many Americans know too little about the Islamic world, and much of what they know they learned after Sept. 11 through the narrow lens of terror," Clinton told the forum, organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "What people...