Free Republic

Iran (MNN) ― It is with great joy that Open Doors confirms the release of Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, today. For around nine months, the two Iranian Christian women have been held in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, two Christian converts from Islam, were released from Evin Prison in Tehran on Wednesday. Iran (MNN) ― It is with great joy that Open Doors confirms the release of Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, today. For around nine months, the two Iranian Christian women have been held in the notorious...

FBI agents hoping to break up an alleged interstate crime ring dealing in arson, fraud and possibly stolen vehicles, ended up in a gunfight at a Detroit-area warehouse, after which a suspect lay dead. The FBI sought to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a. Christopher Thomas, 53, who a criminal complaint said was the imam of a radical fundamentalist Sunni group called Masjid Al-Haqq that seeks to establish a sovereign Islamic state inside the United States... Abdullah and 10 others were charged today in a criminal complaint with conspiracy and theft of interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of...

DETROIT–A man described as a leader of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S. was fatally shot this afternoon while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire with federal agents, authorities said. Agents at a warehouse in Dearborn were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Ten followers listed in a criminal complaint were also being rounded up in the area. Three – Mujahid Carswell, 30, Mohammad Alsahi, 33, and Yassir Ali Khan, 30 – are Ontario residents, the FBI said in a release. Abdullah...

Catholic Spain Has a New Herald: Juan Manuel de Prada From acclaimed author to staunch apologist for the Church and the pope, including in "L'Osservatore Romano." His is one of the many stories of conversion from unbelief to the Christian faith, in Europe. Against progressive "tyranny" by Sandro Magister ROME, October 12, 2009 – For a few days now, Italian bookstores have been selling a collection of interviews with converts to the Catholic faith, some of whom are very prominent: from Jean-Claude Guillebaud of France to Janne Haaland Matlary of Norway, former deputy foreign minister of her country and an...

SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has been arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said Thursday. Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connections with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York. "This alleged plot drives home...

A spiritual journey that began seven years ago ended in the sanctuary of a Catonsville convent Sept. 3 when 10 Episcopal nuns and their priest chaplain were received into full communion with the Catholic Church. In administering the sacrament of confirmation, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien traced a cross on the foreheads of each candidate as he anointed them with sacred chrism oil and called on them to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. The sisters then renewed their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as some 120 worshipers looked on.

Churches and whole dioceses have left the Episcopal Church since the 2003 consecretation of an openly gay bishop brought a lonstanding divide over homosexuality within the nation's sixth-largest Protestant denomination out into the open. But on Thursday, 10 Episcopal nuns from a Catonsville convent took what scholars say is the unprecedented step of joining the Catholic Church. At a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, each vowed to continue their tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. "We know our beliefs and where we are," Mother Christina Christie, superior of All Saints...

Where To Begin   Now that you have decided to learn more about your Catholic Faith, where do you begin? Rather than point you to a text book or a list of facts, our unique 10-step plan uses a more "holistic" approach to teaching the Catholic Faith.  In addition to presenting the teachings of the Catholic Church, our method also makes use of the Sacraments, prayer, Sacred Scripture and the intercession of The Blessed Mother.  You will also have the ability to ask us questions and receive prompt responses.    The benefit of this approach is that, in addition...

I grew up in the era of headlong evangelism by the LDS church. We were out to convert the world. Back then, it was "every young man on a mission" and "every member a missionary." The church didn't just leave it to our imagination how to accomplish this. Full-time missionaries were expected to memorize verbatim an entire series of official gospel "discussions." Regular members were exhorted to ask acquaintances, complete strangers, or anyone who held still for five seconds, "What do you know about the Mormon Church, and would you like to know more?" I did the first one on...

our America before Obama - a true American judge...BEAUTIFUL! MUST READ and Pass it on, just to remind everybody what we are loosing because of IDIOTS!!! Remember the shoe bomber? When America was "a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere"? Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it? Did you know his trial is over? Did you know he was sentenced? Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio? Didn't think so.!!! Everyone should hear what the judge...

IQUITOS, Peru — If Ronald Reátegui Levy someday finds that he is the last Jew of Iquitos, it may well be of his own doing. His dream, which he has vigorously pursued, is to persuade the descendants of Sephardic merchants who settled in this remote corner of the Amazon basin more than a century ago to reaffirm their ties to Judaism and emigrate to Israel. “It is getting very lonely here,” said Mr. Reátegui Levy, 52, an inspector at Peru’s national oil company, referring to the more than 400 descendants of Jewish pioneers who have formally converted to Judaism this...

The Kurdish Halabja Centre CHAK has submitted new and possibly incriminating evidence in the appeal case against Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat. The documents were reportedly supplied by the Iraqi tribunal that sentenced former dictator Saddam Hussein to death. In December last year, Frans van Anraat was sentenced to 15 years in jail. The court in The Hague found him guilty of supplying materials for chemical weapons to the Saddam Hussein regime in the 1980s. He was acquitted of complicity in genocide because he reportedly did not know that Saddam Hussein intended to use poison gas on the Iraqi population....

Man admits threat to Bush By Jeff Zent The Forum - 05/18/2004 A Nevada man pleaded guilty in Fargo's federal court Monday to threatening the life of President Bush. Joshua Aliwishes Banks was three days away from completing a two-year prison sentence at the James River Correctional Center in Jamestown, N.D., when, on Jan. 10, 2003, he became combative with prison guards and threatened to kill President Bush, court records say. The now-32-year-old inmate became angry after guards conducted a random search of his dorm and confiscated a journal in which he wrote about how to become an effective assassin,...

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman said Tuesday he will enlist dozens of former military chaplains to serve, on a voluntary basis, as dayanim in the state's special conversion courts, to speed up the process for tens of thousands of immigrants who are not Jewish according to religious law. Neeman spoke in Efrat at the end of a conference organized by the Sha'arei Mishpat College-Hod Hasharon and the Efrat local council on "Conversion as a National Mission." "I repeat the concrete proposal I have made, and I will have it approved no matter what," said Neeman. "That is to take dozens of...

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting a soldier outside a recruiting center begged for FBI agents to free him from a Yemeni jail where he was "radicalized" by Islamic terrorists, his lawyer told The Associated Press on Thursday. Lawyer Jim Hensley described Abdulhakim Muhammad as an impressionable youth driven to public service in an impoverished Middle Eastern country. But teachings by "hardened" terrorists in Yemen and experiences with Afghan child refugees who were missing limbs drove him to become someone his parents didn't recognize, Hensley said. "Here comes the FBI, who may be able...

Nuradin Abdi was convicted in 2007 of planning to blow up an Ohio shopping mall. Iyman Faris was convicted in 2003 of planning to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Christopher Paul was convicted in 2008 of conspiring to use explosives against targets in the U.S. and Europe. All three terrorists worshiped and socialized at a small mosque in Columbus, Ohio, and, according to David B. Smith, an attorney for Faris, were part of a larger group of jihadists and extremists who frequented the mosque. The FBI now is investigating reports of links to that same mosque by Muslim-convert Abdulhakim Muhammad...

Freepers: After sleeping on it, I have decided to call you to action! A great injustice is being perpetrated by our main stream media (MSM) and our Commander In Chief (CINC), President Barrack Hussein Obama. The time now is 10:04 CST, 02 JUNE 09, exactly 24 hours after Privates William Long, 23 of Conway, AR, and Private Second Class Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, AR became the first victims of terrorism on American soil since 11 SEP 01 and we have heard no statement from their Commander in Chief, President Barrack Hussein Obama. Almost as egregious as Obama’s silence, we...

Shooter identified himself as a muslim, Mr. Abdul Mohammad, formerly Mr. Bledsoe. previously of Memphis and Nashville. Recently converted to Islam while in Prison.Breaking live on LRPD press conference.

This video was produced by NET TV, a new faith-centered cable TV network based in New York City. It features an Easter Sunday discussion with a couple of this year’s Easter converts to Catholicism, Daniel Robinson and Linda Hoff, speaking about their journey into the Church with Elizabeth Scalia of the Anchoress blog, Grant Gallicho, associate editor for Commonweal magazine, and Gary Arkin, a convert who is director of NET TV and an RCIA sponsor.