Free Republic

A poll published on Sunday by Germany’s biggest tabloid, Bild, found that just a little over half of Germans believe there are neighborhoods in the country so dangerous that even police fear to tread there. About 51 percent of participants said that they believed lawless “no-go” zones existed, whereas 41 percent said there were no such areas in Germany. About 77 percent said they wished police would crack down harder on crime syndicates. The somewhat dubious concept of lawless areas in Germany has been promoted in no small part by disproportionate reporting of crimes committed by migrants and foreigners in...

U.S. Democrats elected former Labor Secretary Tom Perez as chairman on Saturday, choosing a veteran of the Obama administration to lead the daunting task of rebuilding the party and heading the opposition to Republican President Donald Trump. Members of the Democratic National Committee, the administrative and fundraising arm of the party, picked Perez on the second round of voting after one of the most crowded and competitive party leadership elections in decades.

Nearly 1,800 signatures were collected for a petition against the building of a mosque next to Italy's Leaning Tower of

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Ilhan Omar spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp as a young girl, fleeing with her family from civil war in Somalia. Two decades later, after forging a new life in Minnesota, she appears on the brink of becoming the nation's first Somali-American state legislator. Omar, a 33-year-old community activist, cried as she delivered victory speeches in English and Somali after defeating a 44-year incumbent in the latest sign of the Somali community's growing influence in the city and state. Her victory in a heavily Democratic Minneapolis district makes her a strong favorite in the general...

The assembled Presbyterians no doubt thought they were being wonderfully open-minded and ecumenical; they did not realize that Wajidi Said was openly proselytizing for Islam. “Lead us on the straight path” is straight from the Fatihah, the Opening, the Qur’an’s first chapter and the most common and oft-repeated prayer in Islam. Islamic scholars identify the straight path with Islam itself. And in invoking “Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad,” Said sounded beautifully ecumenical himself to the ranked Presbyterians, aglow in their bloomin’ primness, but in reality he was reflecting the Islamic belief that those figures and the other Biblical...

The Douglas County School District in Colorado, under fire for saying that schoolgirls might have to cover up from head to ankle for a field trip to a Muslim mosque, has confirmed that such Shariah requirements will be enforced on the outing. “Students who choose to attend the [Rocky Heights Middle School] world religion field trip are expected to respect the dress code of the host facility,” the school said in a statement posted online. The explanation followed a firestorm of criticism of the school for announcing the field trip for seventh-grade students and including a note that the Shariah...

My daughter wanted Spam and eggs. She fetched a can of Spam from the pantry and told me there's a warning label that reads "Pork. Not for muslims." I thought she was trolling me, but it really is there.

Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker has drawn ridicule online for proposing a "code of conduct" for women to prevent sexual assault, advising them to remain at "an arm's length" from strangers.Her proposed guidelines included sticking to a group of trusted acquaintances, asking for help from others and informing the police....The main charge being made against her online was that Reker was blaming the victims for their behaviour, rather than the attackers themselves.

One more data point on the “When does your religion legally excuse you from doing part of your job?” question — like it or not, under American law, employers sometimes do have to excuse employees from tasks that the employees find religiously objectionable. Tuesday, two Muslim truck drivers who were fired for refusing to deliver shipments containing alcohol were awarded $40,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages by the jury in their discrimination claim. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit on their behalf (EEOC v. Star Transport Co., Inc. (N.D. Ill.)), arguing that the employer had failed...

The federal Bureau of Prisons, a subdivision of President Barack Obama's Justice Department, has banished all pork products from the menus in all federal prisons ... The government says it made the decision to do this because a survey showed that inmates do not like eating pork products. The Council on American-Islamic relations said “we welcome” the move by the government to deny pork to prisoners, but warned that it might spark “Islamophobia.” ... They just don’t like the taste of pork…. “The National Pork Producers Council isn’t buying it. 'I find it hard to believe that a survey would...

A reporter for a Detroit TV station got in hot water earlier this week when she mentioned that, given the substantial Muslim population in the state, “it should not come as a real surprise” if there was a Michigan connection to Islamic State.The reporter was roundly criticized. Not for stating the obvious, but because she said the words “Muslim” and “ISIS” in the same sentence.Mediaite: During a Wednesday broadcast on NBC-affiliated WDIV-TV Local 4, anchor Carmen Harlan discussed a possible ISIS-connected threat in the state. “Given the fact that we have the largest Arab population outside of the Middle...

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has bestowed “initial accreditation” on Zaytuna College, a Muslim institution in Berkeley, California, making it the first accredited Muslim college in the nation. The association will permit the college to offer an accredited “Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Law and Theology,” according to the College Fix. The president of Zaytuna College, Hamza Yusuf, celebrated the Western Association’s decision, writing on the college’s website: Five years ago, we introduced an undergraduate liberal arts program inspired by the idea of restoring the holistic education that had been offered in the great teaching centers of Islamic...

An Islamic tribunal, launched in Dallas last year to settle civil disputes among the growing Muslim population, is drawing quarrels over its use of Shariah law. Opponents fear it would open the door to extreme practices and corporal punishment linked to Shariah law in certain Muslim-majority countries. Still others argue it would replace the U.S. Constitution. But organizers say the panel of arbitrators issues nonbinding decisions on matters such as business disputes and religious divorces. They note its parallels with Jewish rabbinical courts and Catholic tribunals. The very word “Shariah” invokes backlash from those who don’t understand it and use...

I was so much hoping to get a Q&A lined up with Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano on the subject of Sharia Law in Texas. He’s got a bill that would prohibit family court rulings based on foreign legal codes if that violated our own constitutional protections. These kinds of bills and state constitutional amendments have popped in several states and have been adopted in a bunch. They’re widely accepted as trying to keep the Islamic legal code at bay. A story in the Houston Chronicle mentioned Leach’s bill in its coverage of the anti-Muslim furor at the Capitol last...

An Islamic Tribunal using Sharia law in Texas has been confirmed by Breitbart Texas. The tribunal is operating as a non-profit organization in Dallas. One of the attorneys for the tribunal said participation and acceptance of the tribunal’s decisions are “voluntary.” Breitbart Texas spoke with one of the “judges,” Dr. Taher El-badawi. He said the tribunal operates under Sharia law as a form of “non-binding dispute resolution.” El-badawi said their organization is “a tribunal, not arbitration.” A tribunal is defined by Meriam-Webster’s Dictionary as “a court or forum of justice.” The four Islamic attorneys call themselves “judges” not “arbitrators.” El-badawi...

A commentator for American Thinker is calling on supporters to contact campus officials to protest the fact that a Muslim call to prayer is being broadcast on the campus of UCLA – a “publicly funded institution.” “This in an act of Islamic supremacism,” writes Carol Brown. “If Muslim students at UCLA can’t figure out how to tell time or keep track of when they need to pray, that’s their problem.” Her column provides online links for a long list of UCLA officials, including President Janet Napolitano and many more, specifically including contacts for a list of corporate donors to the...

“Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized.” – Steve Allen The fertile ground of spreading the totalitarian ideology of Islam in the West, and America in particular, can almost always be found in the cesspools of miscreants and anarchists more visible today than ever. And the most popular source are American prisons, a holding pen of hatred, rather than correction…an enclosed island of disaffected individuals. Just the hateful niche needed for Islam to slither into… As a matter of fact, some of the greatest contributors to the growth of Islam in the US looks to be our State, Federal and Local prisons. Dr....

Muslim men in Germany take advantage of the social welfare system by bringing two, three, four women from across the Muslim world and then marrying them in front of an imam. Although polygamous marriages are not officially recognized -- and are technically illegal and punishable by fines and imprisonment -- government agencies are reluctant to take action. Once in Germany, the women request social welfare benefits, including the cost of a separate home for themselves and their children, on the claim of being a "single parent with children." ... Rather than asking Muslims to take responsibility for their "image problem"...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stopped talking once he was prematurely read his Miranda rights. That helps the authorities establish the lone wolf narrative. Whatever else we might have learned from him is probably lost. ... District Court Judge Marianne Bowler arrived at the hospital where he is being treated to preside over his initial hearing Monday, when she read him his Miranda rights. ... Judge Bowler has some interesting international connections. She is a member of the Member of the International Judicial Relations Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Apparently in that capacity, she visited and spoke on legal...

Officials with the Thomas More Law Center say they have filed a formal complaint challenging the accreditation of the National Defense University after officials there disciplined an instructor for teaching an approved course on Islam. ....... more at URL