Free Republic

It all my Freeper friends. I am asking a small favor. Here's the back-story My kids go to a small Christian school in a suburb of Los Angeles. The school has been under attack by a very liberal city council and a community group that picketed the school with anti Christian signs. They want to limit the schools operating hours and reduce the number of students it currently has. (Only in LA) The people who run this school are someone of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege to know. When my youngest son had a very serious...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

India is bracing itself for a rise in social unrest ahead of general elections next year after some of the worst violence against Christians in nine years left at least 13 dead over the past week. The violence in Orissa state, which prompted protests from the Pope, follows two months of clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the disputed territory of Jammu-Kashmir, and mass protests over farmers’ land rights near Kolkata, in West Bengal. “Today it is Kandhamal in Orissa, tomorrow, who knows, it may be our town, our church, our convent or our own life,” said the Catholic Bishops’...

Bubaneshwar (AsiaNews) – A Catholic nun was burnt alive by a group of Hindu fundamentalists who stormed the orphanage she ran in the district of Bargarh (Orissa), this according to Police Superintendent Ashok Biswall. A priest who was at the orphanage was also badly hurt and is now being treated in hospital for multiple burns. Another nun from Bubaneshwar’s Social Centre was gang raped by groups of Hindu extremists before the building housing the facility was set on fire. Sources also told AsiaNews that elsewhere one priest was wounded and two other were abducted. The list of violent anti-Christian...

A Catholic nun was burnt alive by a group of Hindu fundamentalists who stormed the orphanage she ran in the district of Bargarh (Orissa), this according to Police Superintendent Ashok Biswall. A priest who was at the orphanage was also badly hurt and is now being treated in hospital for multiple burns. Another nun from Bubaneshwar’s Social Centre was gang raped by groups of Hindu extremists before the building housing the facility was set on fire. Sources also told AsiaNews that elsewhere one priest was wounded and two other were abducted. The list of violent anti-Christian acts is thus getting...

A 45-year-old woman, employed as a cook in a missionary school in Orissa’s Bargarh district, was burnt to death on Monday when the school was set on fire allegedly by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) protesters. The pastor running the school was also injured. The VHP-sponsored bandh, to protest the killing of their leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four disciples, witnessed attacks on churches and missionary schools across the state, reminiscent of the Graham Staines case in January 1999.In state capital Bhubaneswar, protesters stoned a church; churches in Kandhamal, Bargarh, Koraput Deogarh districts were also attacked. "We are afraid to move...

On Sunday (August 17) a Muslim mob stormed a church service in Cipayung, East Jakarta, forcing Christians to flee and then erecting banners in the street declaring a ban on “churches and religious services.” As about 20 church members were celebrating the nation’s Independence Day at the service, the angry assailants arrived at the Pentecostal Church of Indonesia in Pondok Rangon village, Cipayung, at 9:30 a.m. shouting “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is greater!” Some in the mob were neighbors, but the majority were not local residents, according to pastor Chris Ambessa. Church members tried to close the gate leading into...

Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said. --snip-- "I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."

Her crime? Converting to Christianity. "Saudi man kills daughter for converting to Christianity," by Mariam Al Hakeem for Zawya, August 13:Riyadh: A Saudi man working with the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently killed his daughter for converting to Christianity. According to sources close to the victim, the religious police member had cut the tongue of the girl and burned her to death following a heated debate on religion. The death of the girl sent shockwaves and websites where the victim used to write with various nick names have allocated special space to mourn her, while...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking. Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no...

More than a dozen Christians in Saudi Arabia who were accused by government officials of worshipping in their homes have been ordered deported. According to a report from International Christian Concern, the Christians will be expelled tomorrow for one specific home worship service in Taif in April.

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that Saudi Arabia is deporting 15 Christians on Tuesday, August 5th, for holding private worship meetings in a house in the city of Taif. On Friday, April 25, twelve Saudi Arabian police raided a house where 16 Christians were holding a prayer meeting. The first officer to enter the house after breaking down the main gate pointed a pistol at the Christians and ordered them to hand over their resident permits and mobile phones. The other 11 police followed quickly and started searching the entire house. They...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

CAIRO — A monastery was ransacked in January. In May, monks there were kidnapped, whipped and beaten and ordered to spit on the cross. Christian-owned jewelry stores were robbed over the summer. The rash of violence was so bad that one prominent Egyptian writer worried it had become “open season” on the nation’s Christians. Does Egypt face a sectarian problem? Not according to its security officials, who insist that each dispute represents a “singular incident” tied to something other than faith. In the case of the monastery and the monks, officials said the conflict was essentially a land dispute between...

Iraq's Christians have taken up arms and formed new militias in a desperate effort to defend their beleaguered communities from an onslaught by Islamic extremists. In the five years since the Anglo-American invasion of 2003, murders and abductions have driven about half of the 800,000 Christians who once lived in Iraq to flee the country. Checkpoints manned by civilians armed with heavy machine guns and assault rifles have received official backing in Christian villages on the Ninevah plain in northern Iraq, where their presence dates back to the missions of St Thomas the apostle. Father Yusuf Yohannes combines the duties...

‘Harassed for being a Christian’- the policeman who objected to gay ribbons and is turning to a tribunal Last updated at 01:08am on 20.07.08    A policeman is taking his force to an employment tribunal, claiming that he has been harassed because of his Christian beliefs.Constable Graham Cogman says he has been persecuted since he objected to wearing ribbons to mark a gay event.The controversy echoes the case of Lillian Ladele, the Christian registrar who successfully took on Islington Council in London over her refusal to conduct civil-partnership ceremonies for gay couples.  Making a stand: PC Graham Cogman says...

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- The body of a Christian teenager has been hauled out of a canal in Pakistan's second largest city Lahore after he was beaten to death there for courting a Muslim girl, BosNewsLife learned Friday, July 18. The 19-year-old boy, whose name was changed into Peter for security reasons, was murdered by the girl's father and two uncles in what they described as an 'honour killing', Christian family members and investigators said. Peter and the 19-year-old girl apparently began their relationship through mobile phone chatting, an increasingly popular way of communicating among youngsters across Asia. Interfaith contacts and...

<p>'Conversion' to Islam means they cannot be 'restored to their family of origin'</p> <p>A Pakistani judge has ruled two young girls from a Christian family who were reported kidnapped cannot be "restored to their family of origin' because they "converted" to Islam.</p>

Here is another one of our Islamic "allies". Muslims can persecute Christians and Jews across the Islamic world and we are not supposed to say a word about it. Because the most important thing in the world as we all know, is not to offend the poor Muslims. Our fearless leader Mr. Bush keeps talking about freedom and freedom of religion. How come it does not apply to his Islamic buddies?

A Christian registrar who refused to carry out gay 'weddings' won a landmark legal battle yesterday. Lillian Ladele, 47, was threatened with the sack, bullied and 'thrown before the lions' after asking to be excused from conducting civil partnerships for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs. But yesterday a tribunal agreed that her faith had been ridden roughshod over by equalities-obsessed Islington Council, which had sought to 'trump one set of rights with another'. The groundbreaking decision could lead to firms facing 'conscience claims' from staff who say their own beliefs prevent them carrying out part of their job....

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Dozens of nations dominated by Islam are pressing the United Nations to adopt an anti-"defamation" plan that would make Christians criminals under international law, according to a United States organization that has launched a campaign to defend freedom of religion worldwide. "Around the world, Christians are being increasingly targeted, and even persecuted, for their religious beliefs. Now, one of the largest organizations in the United Nations is pushing to make a bad situation even worse by promoting anti-Christian bigotry," the American Center for Law & Justice said yesterday in announcing its petition drive.The discrimination is "wrapped in the guise of...

The reaction by the Sangh Parivar Hindu fundamentalist group is caused by the butchery of a cow. Last Christmas the same area saw the destruction of 13 churches and the killing of three people. Local bishop accuses the government of collusion with the attackers. Kandhamal (AsiaNews) – “The fanatical forces of Hindutva want to eliminate Christians from Orissa, especially those in Kandhamal district,” said Raphael Cheenath, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, without mincing words, in response to reports that the Jesuit home and church as well as the Protestant orphanage in Tumudiband (Kandhamal district) were looted and destroyed. About six months,...

Christian publisher Zondervan is facing a $60 million federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims he and other homosexuals have suffered based on what the suit claims is a misinterpretation of the Bible.

An Islamist group has sent threatening letters to Assyrian churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, asking them not to cooperate with US forces. The letter sent by The Batallion of Just Punishment, Jihad Base in Mesopotamia, also opposes the establishment of a sectarian Assyrian-Christian police force, reported the Assyrian International News Agency on Wednesday. "We caution and warn anyone who tries to rob us through dealings with the Americans or through the spreading of American forces and/or police to protect the Holy Shrines in the Islamic Republic of Iraq, that these shrines would remain target of the freedom...

When a Christian pastor in Canada wrote a commentary on the Bible's perspective on homosexuality, a government commission ordered him to renounce his faith and apologize. When a family owned photography studio in New Mexico refused, on religious grounds, to take pictures at a same-sex ceremony, the fine for such "discrimination" was $6,600. Now the experts say Colorado is joining in the repression of the practice of Christianity. "Getting beyond the bathroom and locker room issue, the biggest danger this law poses is to the religious or moral consciences of small business owners who may object to doing business...

An 36 page booklet, so I'm not reproducing any of it. Worthwhile if you're willing to spend the time, and probably available for distribution. Muslim Persecution of Christians

Four years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Thinly Disguised Totalitarianism" for the religious journal First Things, surveying the erosion of Canadian religious liberty under various regulatory bodies, professional associations and human rights tribunals. I wrote then that "there are no restrictions on freedom of worship in Canada today." That's no longer true. As Ezra Levant details below, the Stephen Boissoin case is an egregious assault on religious liberty, press freedom and freedom of speech. And for those of us who previously underestimated the threat to religious liberty, it serves as a rude correction. The judgment of the Alberta Human...

London, Jun 4, 2008 / 07:24 pm (CNA).- British police said they will not apologize to two Christian preachers who were threatened with arrest by a Muslim police officer for preaching Christianity in Muslim communities in the city of Birmingham. According to the Telegraph, the incident occurred last February when Christian ministers Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham were handing out leaflets and speaking with four Muslim youths about Christianity in Birmingham. Naeem Naguthney, a Muslim police community support officer told them to cease-and-desist from preaching to Muslims and threatened to charge them with a “hate crime.” "He said we were...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

Two years after Algeria enacted a troubling religious law, Christians in the North African nation are facing an unprecedented clampdown, with churches being closed, suspected missionaries put on trial, and Muslim figures warning of devious plans to lure Algerians away from Islam. The 2006 law, known as Ordinance 06-03, outlaws anything that "incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction" to influence a Muslim to convert to another religion. It also bans the publication, distribution or storing of printed material that has the goal of "shaking the faith" of a Muslim. Punishments include imprisonment of up to five years and fines...

On May 12, Iranian police arrested 12 known Muslim converts to Christianity and confiscated their books, computers and printers in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. According to Compass Direct News, "The arrests began at 5 a.m. on May 11, when two couples were taken into custody before boarding their flights at the Shiraz International Airport and sent directly to jail. All four were subjected to hours of interrogation, questioning them solely 'just about their faith and house church activities.'"

U.S. soldiers stationed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo may be stunned to find three wooden crosses stripped from the exterior grounds of their chapel in coming weeks – and many never saw it coming. Several high-ranking officers have met behind closed doors to discuss plans for the crosses. They have decided to remove, and perhaps destroy, the Christian symbols located outside Peacekeeper's Chapel in the name of free exercise of religion. Lt. Col. William Jenkins, 35th Infantry Division's Kosovo Force 9 command chaplain, told WND, "The removal of the crosses … is bringing the chapel into line with long-standing regulations...

Converts from Islam to Christianity are increasingly concerned about a number of reports in recent months which have cited astounding statistics on conversion. It is true - and a matter for thankfulness to God - that more Muslims are now coming to Christ than at any other time in history. However, they are not converting on the vast scale alleged in some reports. These false reports, often initiated by non-Christians and then circulated by Christians, are a matter of grave concern, not just for those who love truth and accuracy, but also for the many individuals whose lives are being...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has forced about 1,200 Christian farmers to flee from a village in the southern province of Mindanao. This is confirmed by the local police, who withdrew from the area in order to avoid an armed conflict with the rebels. This situation deteriorated last week, when Malaysia withdrew its mediators from the province, the stronghold of the Muslim Filipinos. Garcia, a local farmer, recounts: "The Islamic Front arrived suddenly and claimed their forefathers owned the land we are farming, and at gunpoint told us to leave. Police were not allowed entry, so they backed off to...

TORIT, Sudan - Bishop Akio Mutek of southern Sudan sees a warning of his people's demise in schoolbooks. As Arab Muslim fundamentalists attempt to take over Sudan and subject its citizens to strict Islamic rule, officials in Khartoum are revising history books that used to describe Arab migration as beginning from Arabia in the 13th century, when the blacks were already in the country. Now they say that Arabs entered Sudan along with the black African population that is predominant in the south. "In 10 or 15 years, they will say that the Arabs were from this area originally," ...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

A memorial service has been scheduled in Istanbul tomorrow for three Christian martyrs who were slain in a vicious attack by Muslims who had agreed to meet them at a Bible publishing house in Turkey one year ago. Compass Direct is reporting the service will be held at St. Esprit Cathedral in honor of the lives of Tilman Geske of Germany and Turkish nationals Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel. According to Forum 18 News, a Turkish Protestant commentator described 2007 as a "dark year" for their community. Some Christians are hiring private security companies and locking their doors during worship...

Students at the Mount Vernon, Ohio, school district have called a 'take-your-Bible-to-school day" tomorrow in support of a popular teacher who has been ordered to keep his Bible hidden while students are in his classroom. Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass The Salt Ministries and Minutemen United, who is acting as a spokesman for teacher John Freshwater, told WND the campaign has been organized by students using cell phones, text messaging and e-mails. WND reported just one day earlier when the dispute arose, with orders from school officials for Freshwater to hide his Bible from students and Freshwater's decision to not...

court in Wisconsin has been asked to suspend immediately a policy in the Tomah Area School District that bans Christian symbols in students' artwork, but allows Hindu, Buddhist and satanic representations. The motion was filed yesterday by the Alliance Defense Fund, which has taken on the case of a student identified by the initials A.P. The ADF launched a lawsuit on the student's behalf after a teacher refused to give him a grade on a project because his work included "John 3:16" as well as "As sign of love." The school district, however, openly acknowledged and publicized various pieces of...

Chinese man has been taken into custody and faces a possible sentence of death for charges alleging "subversion of the national government and endangering national security." But several Christian organizations that monitor human rights activities in China say Alimujiang Yimiti could face the penalty simply because he is a Christian. While much headline space has been devoted during recent days to China's crackdown on residents of Tibet, such attacks are more-or-less everyday experiences for Christians in the communist nation, according to officials with three of the largest organizations monitoring China: International Christian Concern, China Aid Association, and the Voice of...

Who is Odinga? Odinga is Obama's cousin. Odinga and Obama are from the same Kenyan Luo tribe. Odinga supporters are the people that are burning Christians alive, trapped inside churches ... Most of Odinga's fanatical followers are radical islamists who have pushed for Islamic Sharia Law... ... In 2006, Obama took a trip to Kenya and voiced his support for his fellow tribesman and political ally, Odinga. Obama also directly attacked the sitting Kenyan leadership (Kibaki) calling them 'corrupt'... ... Odinga is the cat that ran on the socialist democrat ticket in Kenya and lost to sitting president Kibaki. ......

The Canadian government has ordered a Christian ministry that teaches doctrine and the differences between Christians and cults shut down because its reference materials were "critical" of the beliefs of those who are not Christian, WND has learned. So what used to be called MacGregor Ministries with offerings in how to recognize and eliminate "faulty fads" in Christian churches has been re-created in the United States, and now operates under the name MM Outreach Media Ministries. Lorri MacGregor, who has dedicated her life to explaining the straight and narrow of Christian beliefs since she found her way out of the...

On March 24, the anniversary of the killing of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, the 16th Day for the Commemoration of Missionary Martyrs is celebrated. The event is observed all over Italy, with vigils of prayer and fasting at which many young people participate. The ecumenical list of martyrs, including Catholics and non-Catholics. Rome (AsiaNews) - This year, the theme selected by the missionary youth movement and by the Pontifical Missionary Works is "…for you and for all". These words are a quotation of the words that the priest says in the Mass, at the consecration of the...

China tells critics to back off ahead of Olympics By Chris Buckley 48 minutes ago China warned foreign groups on Wednesday not to use the Summer Olympics to pressure Beijing, presenting the nation as a "responsible" but poor power eager to end rows over trade, pollution and human rights. China has been buffeted ahead of the Games by worries over dirty air and international protests over human rights, Tibet, Sudan's Darfur and other controversies that often irk Chinese diplomats. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told critics to back off, accusing them of violating the Olympic Games charter keeping politics away from...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As a Christian, Elaine Huguenin is against efforts to legitimize same-sex “marriage.” So, when the Albuquerque photographer was asked via e-mail in September 2006 to photograph a “commitment ceremony” for two women, Huguenin declined. That was the end of the matter, she thought. But Huguenin didn’t take into account New Mexico’s anti-discrimination laws. Instead of hiring another photographer, one of the lesbians, Vanessa Willock, filed a civil complaint against Huguenin’s company, Elane Photography. Now, in one of the first cases of its kind in the state, a three-member tribunal of New Mexico’s Human Rights Commission is considering...

A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal has determined parents in that state have no legal right to home school. A Christian attorney in Sacramento says unless the ruling is reversed, literally thousands of students in the Golden State will be subject to criminal sanctions. (click here for special webcast starting at 2 p.m. CST) California Justice H. Walter Croskey has stated in an opinion that "parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order...

Christian couple told: 'You can't foster if you think it's wrong to be gay'By DAVID WILKES - More by this author » Last updated at 11:24am on 27th February 2008 Eunice Johns: 'I can give love and security' They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 20 vulnerable children.   But Eunice and Owen Johns have been forced to abandon their good work because they refuse to tell children as young as ten that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle. To do so, they say, would go against their Christian beliefs. The devastated couple withdrew an application...

A pair of Albany teenagers suspended for "gang-related behavior" because they were wearing crucifixes say they were only wearing gifts from their mothers. Jaime Salazar, 14, his friend Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School recently after they refused to put away the crucifixes they were wearing around their necks. Salazar said Principal Chris Equinoa saw his necklace and told him to put it away. "I was like, why?" Salazar said. "He says it's related to gangs." Salazar said he argued and was sent to the office. Instead, he went home. Later, he received a note saying...