Free Republic

When I wrote the other week about why I am opposed to national health care, a number of people angrily demanded to know why I was writing about something that "no one is proposing". Now, this is clearly a lunatic statement. I was writing about something that many people were proposing. I just wasn't writing about the nebulous bills currently wending their way through various committees. I hadn't intended to. I was writing about my deeper opposition to the entire project of providing, paying for, or otherwise guaranteeing health care. Since for most people on the left, this is akin...

A convert to Islam stands an election victory away from becoming the second Muslim elected to Congress and a role model for a faith community seeking to make its mark in national politics. Political newcomer Andre Carson is the Democratic nominee in a March 11 special election to succeed his late grandmother, Julia Carson, representing Indiana's 7th District. She died in December of lung cancer, and her grandson is seeking to fill out the rest of her sixth term, which expires at year's end. If Andre Carson wins the Democratic-leaning Indianapolis district over a freshman Republican legislator and a long...

Navy imam Chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam lifted his voice to God as he called to prayer more than 100 Department of Defense employees Monday at a celebration of Ramadan at the Pentagon....Uniformed military personnel, civilians and family members faced Mecca and knelt on adorned prayer rugs chanting their prayers in quiet invocation to Allah. “We do all we can to help meet the religious needs of our soldiers,” said Deputy Pentagon Chaplain Army Maj. Alan Pomaville, a Christian, who attended the iftar alongside the Muslim chaplains... As the Pentagon celebrated Ramadan, the White House is in preparations for an iftar...

A website designer was convicted yesterday of stirring up racial hatred during a protest by Muslims over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Mizanur Rahman, of Palmers Green, North London, carried placards that called for non-Muslims to be “annihilated” and “beheaded” as he addressed more than 300 protesters outside the Danish Embassy in London on February 3. Rahman, 23, who wore white robes and a cap throughout the five-day trial, claimed that he had got “carried away” in front of the crowd and said he was a “nobody” whose words no one would take seriously, the Old Bailey was told. The...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FIRST MUSLIM IN CONGRESS TO SPEAK AT CAIR EVENT IN VA Keith Ellison will join other elected officials at annual banquet (WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/9/06) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, will join other elected officials as a keynote speaker November 18th at the Washington-based civil rights group’s 12th Annual Banquet in Arlington, Va. CAIR’s dinner, which in past years had sold-out crowds of more than 1,000, will feature addresses by Representative-elect Ellison (D-MN) and Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Albert Wynn (D-MD)....

By Gordon Corera BBC security correspondent Eliza Manningham-Buller rarely speaks in public MI5 knows of 30 terror plots and is keeping 1,600 individuals under surveillance, the security service's head has said. In a speech to academics Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said the terror threat was "serious" and "growing" and would be "with us for a generation". She warned future terrorists could mount chemical or nuclear attacks. Tory security spokesman Patrick Mercer said the UK needed more "spooks and secret agents" to tackle the problem. Hard choices MI5 has increased in size by nearly 50% since 9/11 and now stands at...

More Britons are turning to terror, says MI5 director By Michael Evans # 1,600 suspects under surveillance # 30 plots to kill, maim, damage # 200 terror groups or networks Hundreds of young British Muslims are being radicalised, groomed and set on a path to mass murder, the head of MI5 said yesterday. In a stark public warning, Dame Eliza ManninghamBuller, the Director-General of MI5, revealed that the Security Service’s caseload had risen by 80 per cent since January and now involved about 30 “Priority 1” plots. It has identified 200 terrorist networks involving at least 1,600 people, many under...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's intelligence agency head was quoted on Friday as saying up to about 30 major terrorist plots were being planned in the country and that future threats could involve chemicals and nuclear technology. Eliza Manningham-Buller, director general of MI5, said young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and that her agents were tracking some 1,600 suspects, most of whom were British-born and linked to al Qaeda. "We are aware of numerous plots to kill people and damage our economy. What do I mean by numerous? Five? Ten? No, nearer 30 ... that we know...

At least 1600 young British Muslims are under surveillance for plotting terrorist violence against Britain, according to the head of MI5.Eliza Manningham Buller delivered a stark assessment of the threat facing the country from 200 terror networks stretching from the UK to Pakistan, including 30 "Priority 1" plots. In August Home Secretary John Reid claimed to know of 24 "major conspiracies", suggesting the dangers posed by organised terrorists is growing. Delivering the Government's latest assessment of the terror threat, the Director General of the Security Service revealed that her agency's caseload has increased by 80 per cent since January. She...

ATHENS, Greece, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The Greek Parliament has authorized the building of a mosque in Athens to serve the 200,000 Muslims who live in the city. Athens is the only European capital city with no Islamic place of worship. The government had been under pressure from the European Union to allow greater freedom of religion, the Turkish news agency Anadolu reported. The mosque is to be built on a 42,000-square-foot lot in the central neighborhood of Votanikos. The cost is estimated at $19.23 million. The thousands of Muslims in the capital have been worshipping in makeshift prayer rooms...

Turkey was told yesterday to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic within the next month or face the suspension of talks to join the European Union. The ultimatum from the European Commission — the first delivered to a potential EU country — solicited a promise to speed up domestic reforms, but the Turkish Prime Minister insisted that the Cyprus issue could be solved only by Greece and Greek Cypriots. “Don’t expect us to open our ports and airports until the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot state is lifted,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Suspension of accession talks would damage...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Democrat Keith Ellison was elected as the nation's first Muslim member of Congress on Tuesday, easily winning a Minneapolis-area district Republicans had not carried since 1962. Ellison, who is black, is also Minnesota's first nonwhite representative in Washington. He said those things were only of secondary importance. "I think the most important thing about this race is we tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone. We all need peace, and this Iraq policy is dangerous to our country," said Ellison, who has called for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops....

Keith Ellison, a Democrat, has become the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress by winning a Minnesota seat in the House of Representatives.He overcame personal attacks emphasising his past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the radical Nation of Islam group. The 43-year-old lawyer sought to downplay his religion and ran on a populist platform. He has called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. On the campaign trail, he also urged a greater reliance on renewable fuels and the establishment of a government-funded universal healthcare system. "Tonight, we made history," Ellison said in a...

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) — A chain of fitness centers has put up partitions in response to complaints by Muslim women about a lack of privacy while they work out. Fitness USA agreed to the changes at its Lincoln Park gym after meeting with a concerned Muslim member of the gym and Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Some Muslim members of the gym said they need to work out in single-sex rooms to meet Islam's standards of modesty. They said they joined Fitness USA because it accommodated this need. But the...

CHICAGO, Nov. 15 - Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich signed a measure on Tuesday intended to allow all children in Illinois, including those in working-class and middle-class families, to obtain health insurance. National experts on health care said the new law, which will offer discounts on premiums for those who qualify, was the broadest plan to insure children by any state. Political leaders in other states, the experts said, are certain to be watching whether Illinois succeeds in expanding coverage to its 250,000 children who are now uninsured, about half of whom are not from the poorest families but from families...

Shielded by the media glare of presidential politics and daily explosions in Iraq, two crucial issues are about to be decided by the U.S. Senate, without the knowledge of the American people. Issue 1: Should the United States ratify the Law of the Seas Treaty (Treaty Doc. 103-39)? Issue 2: Should any U.N. treaty be ratified without full, open debate and a recorded vote? The answer to both questions should be a resounding "no." Nevertheless, the treaty is very near ratification by unanimous consent, having never been debated, and without a recorded vote. This is the same procedure used to...

<p>It is rare, almost unheard of in fact, for both the United Farm Workers Union and the California Farm Bureau to support the same major piece of immigration and labor legislation. But a new bipartisan bill in Congress has won the backing of the two longtime political foes. It offers an imperfect but pragmatic and politically practicable way to deal with one of the most difficult issues facing the country: the crush of illegal immigrants working in agriculture.</p>

OLYMPIA - State lawmakers know it's a touchy topic, but the idea of a state income tax is resurfacing. However, this new plan would target the money only for education. The challenge school districts face year after year is passing school levies. It's an inconsistent form of funding. Now, the proposal being unveiled at the State Capitol is to pay for education partly with a state income tax with a flat rate of 2 percent. "I have three sons that are still in school," said Parent Linda Schobay. "So if it's for their betterment of their future than I'm willing...