Free Republic

Two Muslim clerics with outspoken backgrounds are among the speakers at St. Cloud State University's Islam Awareness Week, which starts today. One of them is Siraj Wahhaj, who will speak on "What is Jihad?" at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Atwood Memorial Center Theatre. Wahhaj, an American-born imam of a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., is on the executive committee of the Muslim Alliance in North America, a network of organizations addressing needs in American Muslim communities. In 1991, speaking to an Islamic association of Texas, Wahhaj called Operation Desert Storm "one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals...

Nine people including one foreigner were killed and 45 injured in a suspected bomb blast in the German Bakery at Koregaon Park which also houses a Jewish prayer house and the Osho Ashram here this evening. Pune Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said there were five women among the victims. The blast took place at the German Bakery, an old business establishment, at around 7:15pm. Initial reports have suggested that the Indian Mujahideen is being suspected to be behind the blast. "There was a bomb blast. There have been eight deaths and 33 people were injured", said Pune joint commissioner...

Brief thoughts/quotes from the last 11 years. "Looking away, not caring, or hoping for the best are not viable options in fighting terrorism (in general) and the global jihad (specifically). Terrorism must be fought head on 24/7 and preventing terrorism is far better than just reacting to one terror-related event after another." -Cindy (July 1, 2011) ~ "WHAT DID I LEARN from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001? OPINION: I have learned that more Americans love America than the lame-stream media will ever let on. I have learned that America's military is the finest in the world. I have...

A Wilkinsburg man faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and attempted homicide after police said he shot a man he was attempting to rob in Aliquippa, an encounter that ended with his suspected accomplice being fatally shot. Yasin El Aman Shakir, 19, will also be charged with four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of reckless endangerment and firearms violations in connection with the July 14 incident. He is currently being held in the Allegheny County Jail on unrelated charges. Detective Sgt. Steven Roberts of the Aliquippa police said witnesses relayed to police that Mr. Shakir, 19-year-old Jiwan Bailey of Penn...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "Feiz Muhammad is an Australian citizen now residing in Malaysia. He has been labeled Australia's "most dangerous sheikh" due to the number of connections he has to known and suspected terrorists. Muhammad’s target audience is young Muslims who feel disaffected and disassociated from local Muslim communities, where mosque clerics show "a lack of interest toward the youth." His lectures frame the United States as the enemy of all Muslims, including those living in the United States and Americans living in other Western countries. He emphasizes that Muslims should regard Western culture as corrupt and immoral, and...

SNIPPET: "SINGAPORE — Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin spends several hours a day trawling the Internet, but she is not your typical young surfer, descending into a world of bomb-making, militancy and extremism. From her computer, she enters a world where young Muslims openly volunteer to fight against US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan or learn how to make explosives out of everyday materials. The 24-year-old Singaporean research analyst is constantly on the lookout for attack manuals, video clips of Islamist militants in training and fiery extremist chatter that could hint at an imminent assault somewhere."

Note: Video included. January 21, 2009 For hate speech -- after declining to do so last year, which means that Islamic supremacist groups in the Netherlands have kept up the pressure on lawmakers until they got the outcome they wanted. Hate speech, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and hate speech laws are tools in the hands of the powerful that they can use to silence the powerless and crush dissent. And make no mistake: even though the Muslims in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the West present themselves as embattled victims of racism and "Islamophobia," that...

U.K.: Mosque "committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue" hosts conference featuring "spiritual advisor" to 9/11 jihadists A spokesman for the mosque insists the conference organizers are just using their facilities. But no one seems perturbed enough about this "misunderstanding" and "hijacking" of Islam to cancel the conference or appearances by speakers like Anwar al-Awlaki and others named below. The full schedule of festivities can be found here.

IN A LITTLE-NOTICED DECISION in a New York courtroom on September 25, 2003, a man described as Osama bin Laden's "best friend" got some good news. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts ruled that Mahmdouh Mahmud Salim could not be sentenced to life in prison. Salim--who was present at the founding of al Qaeda in 1989 and who was for years one of bin Laden's most trusted confidants--had been captured in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States for prosecution related to his role in the grand conspiracy that resulted in the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in...

Two Muslim clerics who visited New Zealand at the invitation of local groups have been accused of promoting hate speech against gays, women and other religions. Sheikh Khalid Yasin and Islamic scholar Bilal Phillips were shown in an undercover documentary screened on Britain's Channel 4 last month allegedly inciting hatred at a British mosque. Yasin was invited to speak in Christchurch in May 2005 as a guest of the Muslim Association of Canterbury and Phillips toured the country last year giving lectures as a guest of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (Fianz). He also spoke in Christchurch....

DAMAGE BY MEANS OF FIRE OR AN EXPLOSIVE; DAMAGE BY MEANS OF FIRE OR AN EXPLOSIVE TO UNITED STATES PROPERTY; TRANSPORT IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE AN EXPLOSIVE; DESTRUCTION OF MOTOR VEHICLES OR MOTOR VEHICLE FACILITIES; CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT OFFENSE OR DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES; AIDING AND ABETTING; PENALTY OF DEATH OR LIFE IMPRISONMENT WHEN DEATH RESULTS; ASSAULT OF A FEDERAL OFFICER IN THE LINE OF DUTY; COMMISSION OF A CRIME OF VIOLENCE THROUGH THE USE OF A DEADLY WEAPON OR DEVICE ABDUL RAHMAN YASIN (second photograph taken in 2002)Abdul Rahman Yasin is wanted for his alleged participation in the terrorist bombing...

Ahmed Hikmat Shakir is a shadowy figure who provided logistical assistance to one, maybe two, of the 9/11 hijackers. Years before, he had received a phone call from the Jersey City, New Jersey, safehouse of the plotters who would soon, in February 1993, park a truck bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. The safehouse was the apartment of Musab Yasin, brother of Abdul Rahman Yasin, who scorched his own leg while mixing the chemicals for the 1993 bomb. When Shakir was arrested shortly after the 9/11 attacks, his "pocket litter," in the parlance of the investigators, included...

AHMED HIKMAT SHAKIR IS A shadowy figure who provided logistical assistance to one, maybe two, of the 9/11 hijackers. Years before, he had received a phone call from the Jersey City, New Jersey, safehouse of the plotters who would soon, in February 1993, park a truck bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. The safehouse was the apartment of Musab Yasin, brother of Abdul Rahman Yasin, who scorched his own leg while mixing the chemicals for the 1993 bomb.When Shakir was arrested shortly after the 9/11 attacks, his "pocket litter," in the parlance of the investigators, included contact...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. State Department said Monday it was offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture and conviction of the last remaining fugitive wanted for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In a statement released in Baghdad, the State Department said it was looking for Iraqi-American Abdul Rahman Yasin, 45, believed to have helped build the bomb used in the Feb. 26, 1993, attack that killed six people. The statement described Yasin as being 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He is epileptic and "possibly...

WANA, Pakistan - About 1,000 Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships, mortars and artillery Wednesday pounded a mountainous region near the Afghan border where a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers is believed to be hiding. The assault targeted the village of Spinkai Raghzai in South Waziristan, a tribal region where the Pakistani army has been hunting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his al-Qaida associates. But the top military commander in the region said Tuesday it was unlikely bin Laden was hiding in the area, as U.S. authorities suspect. Abdullah Mehsud,...

May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement. Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well...

THE TRUTH BE KNOWN By Edward L. Daley A recent MSNBC news story titled 'Hussein loyalists fade as factor in violence' (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4557892) states that foreign and Iraqi Islamic extremists (terrorists) are the dominant forces responsible for attacks on civilians and security forces in Iraq. Upon reading this story I found myself asking the following question. Why are so many people convinced that the Iraq War is not a part of the war on terrorism? All year long I have been hearing leftists in both the U.S. and abroad reiterating that claim, yet the current situation in Iraq contradicts their assertion....

Follow the link for about 40 pics. This one is particularly good - yes, the IDF did get his sons too (a three-for?) GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP - MARCH 22: EDITOR'S NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT A Palestinian hospital worker shows the bodies of two of Hamas founder Shekh Ahmad Yassin sons Mohammad (below) Abdel Ghani (C) and a body guard (top), in the morgue in the Al-shifa hospital March 22, 2004 in Gaza city in the Gaza Strip. Yassin and his sons were killed in an Israeli helicopter attack March 22, 2004 after leaving a mosque in the Gaza Strip. (Photo...

Hamas spiritual leader Shaykh Ahmad Yasin has indicated Hamas has no plans to discuss prospects for a new truce with Israel at the upcoming inter-Palestinian talks in Cairo despite the fact that Egypt has put the issue on the agenda. "The Egyptian brothers presented us with the dialogue's agenda including the truce and we have not responded to them," Yasin said in an interview published by the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al-Ittihad. "We refuse to speak of a new truce. We will not grant Israel a truce unless the mediators secure guarantees and pledges from the Israeli side and unless Israel...

I don't think Clinton ever made an issue of the fact that Iraq was harboring a man we indicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. I wonder if we will find him now and hopefully alive, so we can question him. Excerpt from Jin Hoagland column of Oct. 12, 2001: http://sixtiessurvivor.org/docs/hoagland101201.html Eight years have passed since Abdul Rahman Yasin bade hasty farewell to New York and flew to Baghdad. There he initially passed the time by fielding telephone calls placed by solicitous FBI agents and finding a niche in Saddam Hussein's police state. By all appearances, Yasin has lived...