Free Republic

Immigration bill concerns state clerics Oklahoma clerics denounced immigration legislation Monday they described as "unduly severe" that may stop legal immigrants and their families from seeking government services they are entitled to "because of fear and confusion." In a joint statement, the heads of the Roman Catholic Church in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma and the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oklahoma and Arkansas expressed support for immigrants, "whether documented or undocumented." "As people of faith, we are challenged to respond to the most vulnerable among us," the statement read. The...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Pakistani cleric facing deportation was accused Friday during an immigration hearing of trying to incite followers to defend Osama bin Laden and kill Americans. Shabbir Ahmed, 39, seeking bail on a charge of overstaying his visa to head a Lodi mosque in the Central Valley, denied that he had made any speech against the United States. During the same hearing, a government attorney said another Lodi imam being held on immigration charges once had close ties to the Taliban. Justice Department attorney Paul Nishiie argued against releasing Ahmed on bail, saying he was linked to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A lead FBI agent on Tuesday linked two local Muslim clerics to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, contending the two were planning to set up a school near Lodi that would breed anti-American terrorism. The agent testified that Lodi clerics Shabbir Ahmed and Mohammed Adil Khan were prepared to relay information on terrorist plots from sources close to bin Laden. The allegations were dismissed by Ahmed's lawyer, who said the FBI and federal prosecutors have "made the whole thing up." The striking allegations came during an immigration hearing for Ahmed at which Immigration Judge Anthony Murry...

Guantanamo Inmates Despair of Ever Leaving Sunday, March 5, 2006 9:13 PM EST The Associated Press By MIRANDA LEITSINGER GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Ahamed Abdul Aziz has been in the Guantanamo Bay prison for more than three years and, by his account, has been interrogated 50 times without being charged with any crime. He waits with anguish for freedom but fears it will never come. "We are in a grave here," he told his lawyers, echoing the despair felt by many of the roughly 490 prisoners held as suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in eastern...

Iran's hardline Interior Ministry has decided to control and crackdown the NGOs by preparing a list of groups that it claims are planning to overthrow the Islamic regime. Conservative Qods daily has exposed a plan by the ministry to deal with Iranian NGOs. Based on Qod’s report, the Interior Ministry has accused some NGOs of misusing money, supporting members of the former government of Khatami and secretly communicating with foreign agents. During the last days of President Mohammad Khatami's reform government, Ashraf Boroujerdi, social affairs deputy at the Interior Ministry had stressed the existence of plans to fight NGOs and...

Philly Cleric Sentenced for Corruption By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 19, 2:12 PM ET A prominent Muslim cleric on Monday was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on racketeering and other charges, the latest in a string of convictions stemming from the FBI's sweeping probe of municipal corruption. Prosecutors said that Shamsud-din Ali, 67, used his political connections to obtain dubious loans, donations and city contracts. In addition to his 87-month sentence, Ali was ordered to pay restitution. He was released pending an appeal. The investigation of the so-called "pay to play" culture in Philadelphia's...

DETROIT - A Cleveland imam convicted of hiding terrorist ties has agreed to leave the United States, ending his deportation case, his attorney and government officials said Thursday. The agreement allows Fawaz Damra to resettle in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. A judge has approved the agreement with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will decide his destination. Damra is still in federal custody, said Robert Birach, a Detroit lawyer who negotiated for him. He declined to discuss more...

BRITAIN has failed to expel a single Muslim hate cleric since the 7/7 bombings, figures reveal. The news is a huge embarrassment to PM Tony Blair, who promised a crackdown. Britain is bottom of a European league for the number of extremist preachers expelled. Germany is top with more than 20 imams forcibly removed. Spain, Italy and France have each deported four and Holland three. Yet only Omar Bakri Mohammed has gone from Britain — and he went abroad of his own accord. He has merely been banned from returning. Mr Blair claimed “the rules of the game were changing”...

SO it wasn't a political stunt. It isn't about Iraq. And the threat of Islamist terror right here is more real than many pretend. How real? If the police are right, they have saved scores of you from being blown up -- as people in Madrid and London were blown up. As NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney put it, the arrest yesterday of 17 Muslim men disrupted "the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack". He said explosive material had already been collected. Yet only last week, Prime Minister John Howard was pilloried by many for having warned of an...

Racial Violence explode again Groups of Middle-Eastern men descended on Cronulla seeking revenge for Sunday's attacks, smashing cars with baseball bats.

Venerable white-bearded dervishes and high-heeled girls with garish lipstick found rare common ground before dawn on Tuesday, celebrating an Iranian holiday with the mystical chants of the Sufis. Sufi Muslim spirituality is largely tolerated under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, although senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites. Under an almost full moon, several hundred Iranians came to celebrate the birthday of the ‘Mahdi’ at the Zahir-od-dowleh cemetery in northern Tehran, a dervish hub where many writers and artists are buried. The Mahdi is a key figure of Shi’ite Islam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad whose...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday unveiled the criteria it will use to bar foreigners it believes inspire terrorism as part of a broad crackdown on Islamist preachers after last month's bombings in London. Interior Minister Charles Clarke published a list of "unacceptable behaviors" which would prompt deportation or a ban on entry.

Britain's promised crackdown on the "preachers of hate" began this morning as ten foreign nationals were detained. Among them, Times Online has learned, is Abu Qatada, described as al-Qaeda’s spiritual ambassador in Europe. Abu Qatada, whose is also known as Sheikh Omar Abu Omar, and the other nine foreign nationals are being held by four police forces, working with the Immigration Service. They are in a prison service facility while the Home Office prepares to deport them. The Home Office has not confirmed that Abu Qatada is among the people detained this morning but Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said...

Group Authoring Fatwa Has Links to Bin Laden Ally By Sherrie Gossett July 29, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - Thursday's religious edict condemning terrorism was authored and issued by the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Muslim jurists who interpret Islamic law. The edict was signed by 18 council scholars. The Fiqh Council of North America traces its origins to the early 1960s and the Religious Affairs Committee of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of the United States and Canada, according to the council's website. This Religious Affairs Committee evolved into the Fiqh Committee of the Islamic Society of North...

Can Islamic-fascist terrorism bring an end to American liberty? Can it conquer Christianity, the largest practiced religion in the world? And what of the other major religions of the world? The sane humanity breathing on this planet would respond, “No way!“ But then there are the radical Islamic morons who have a nihilistic ideology that supports their barbaric tactics of terrorism, and so they continue their idiotic Jihad. Apparently, the morons think they can dominate the world! And so the senseless killing continues. While the sane humanity of the world respects freedom to worship without oppression and discrimination, factional followers...

In south Tehran there is a huge walled cemetery dedicated to the martyrs, the young men who died fighting in the 1979 revolution and the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988. This vast city of the dead, complete with its own subway station and shops, does not share Arlington National Cemetery's sublimely stoic aesthetic of identical tombstones, row upon row. In Tehran's war cemetery, each of the fallen is remembered individually with his own martyr's shrine, a sealed glass cabinet on a stand. The cabinets are filled with faded photos of men forever young, some in helmets or red bandannas, some carrying...

Crackdown on Muslim clerics who preach hate By George Jones, John Steele and Catriona Davies (Filed: 12/07/2005) New laws to catch people planning acts of terrorism will be fast-tracked through Parliament if the police and security services investigating the London bombings want extra powers, Tony Blair promised yesterday. As the first of more than 50 victims of the blasts was officially named, Mr Blair said the Government was considering clamping down on radical Muslim clerics who were "inciting hatred". Vanessa Sykes comforts Caroline hall after laying flowers near King's Cross station yesterday He promised one of the most "vigorous and...

We all know who was to blame for Thursday's murders... and it wasn't Bush and Blair The instinctive response of a significant portion of the rich world's intelligentsia to the murder of innocents on 11 September was anything but robust. A few, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, were delighted. The destruction of the World Trade Centre was 'the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos,' declared the composer whose tin ear failed to catch the screams. Others saw it as a blow for justice rather than art. They persuaded themselves that al-Qaeda was made up of anti-imperialist insurgents who...

CLEVELAND -- A federal judge made a decision today involving convicted Islamic leader Imam Fawaz Damra's U.S. citizenship.Judge James Gwin ordered that Damra's citizenship be revoked, with the understanding from the government that he will not be detained while pending appeal.Damra was sentenced Monday to two months in federal prison and four months of house arrest for lying about his connections to terrorist groups when he applied for U.S. citizenship.Damra is expected to begin serving his sentence after the Muslim holiday of Ramadan ends in November.Damra is the leader of Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma.

An Ohio mosque leader may be leaving the country earlier than expected.NewsChannel5 learned that Imam Fawaz Damra's appeal was dropped in the Court of Appeals.That means his citizenship remains revoked and the deportation process could begin soon. A judge revoked his citizenship in September 2004.A jury convicted Damra last year for lying about connections to terrorist organizations on his application for U.S. Citizenship.The 42-year-old spent two months in prison and four months under house arrest.Damra is the leader of Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland, in Parma.