Free Republic

Iranians Turn Away from Their Own Ruler, and to the US -- On a recent afternoon, while riding a rickety bus down Vali Asr Avenue, Tehran's main thoroughfare, I overheard two women discussing the grim state of Iranian politics. One of them had reached a rather desperate conclusion. "Let the Americans come," she said loudly. "Let them sort things out for us once and for all." Everyone in the women's section of the bus absorbed this casually, and her friend nodded in assent. Although their leaders still call America the "Great Satan," ordinary Iranians' affection for the United States seems...

New York Times VideoIn Sadr City, Hashem Hadi Obaid translates sermons by preachers loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, into sign language.Iraq's most anti-western demagogue is determined to bring the message to those who can't hear it. In Sadr City, Hashem Hadi Obaid translates sermons by preachers loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, into sign language.

Provisional Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said here Friday in his second sermon confessions of three US agents proved Washington is after launching "soft and velvet coups' not only in Iran, but also in many other countries. According to IRNA Political Desk reporter from central campus of Tehran University, addressing thousands of Tehrani worshipers, this week's Friday preacher of Tehran added, "This policy has worked in some countries, but in Iran, it has faced defeat, just like the other failed US policies on Iran." Khatami reiterated, "In order to pursue its interferences in independent countries of...

Even though I live near and enjoy the friendship of several Muslims, I do not understand the Muslim intolerance for almost all things not their own. More fairly, I do not understand the extreme intolerance of the radicalized textbooks and teaching aids used in several Muslim nation; Iran chief among them. The Israel-based Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace just completed a study that reports on the lack of tolerance in Iran’s school textbooks. The study analyzed 95 textbooks and 20 teacher’s guides used at Iran’s state-run schools. The study found a systematic effort to denigrate western culture, traditions...

On the radio a couple of weeks ago, Hugh Hewitt suggested to me the terrorists might try to pull a Spain on the U.S. elections. You'll recall (though evidently many Americans don't) that in 2004 hundreds of commuters were slaughtered in multiple train bombings in Madrid. The Spaniards responded with a huge street demonstration of supposed solidarity with the dead, all teary passivity and signs saying "Basta!" -- "Enough!" By which they meant not "enough!" of these murderers but "enough!" of the government of Prime Minister Aznar, and of Bush and Blair, and troops in Iraq. A couple of days...

Breaking with a long tradition, Jimmy Carter runs around the world bad-mouthing President Bush and the USA. He seems to think that those of us who were alive and conscious during his failed presidency have forgotten. I haven’t. I remember 15 to 20% interest rates at the same time that unemployment stood at 7%. I remember inflation at 12%.

In addition to coming under vituperation and threats against his life from the left for waging pre-emptive war in Iraq in order to save our children from death and destruction from Islamic terrorists, President Bush is also being criticized for relative inaction with regard to the threats from North Korea and Iran. These critics have the advantage of not knowing anything. It is always easy to criticize and offer simplistic solutions when one is essentially ignorant of the facts, some of which I have set out below:

Tourists and thrillseekers in Iran could have a new attraction in downtown Tehran: the former United States Embassy being converted into a "Great Satan Park." A gruesome image of the Statue of Liberty on the outside of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran A top Iranian commander is calling for the creation of such a theme park at the one-time location U.S. facility, which has seen a troubled history dating back to the Carter administration of the 1970s. "We would be able to nicely show off the American crimes to citizens strolling in the park," General Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh told...

PREPARED TESTIMONY OF DR. MICHAEL A. LEDEEN, RESIDENT SCHOLAR IN THE FREEDOM CHAIR AT THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS I am delighted and honored by your invitation to discuss American policy toward Iran, but before I do that, I hope I will be permitted a few personal words in appreciation of the welcome contribution that you, Chairman Hyde, have made to our country and to the tenor of life in Washington. Our national political debate has long been very fractious, and this moment is especially nasty. But you are a rare man, Mr. Chairman....

Some other Americans expressed concern that perhaps this means America is losing its edge. Does this mean that we are NOT the Great Satan this week? Now Denmark is the Great Satan? Is America losing its greatness? Can we get it back? Is this a result of our failing competitiveness in the maths and sciences? (sigh) Americans, Americans, Americans. You have nothing to fear. Being "The Great Satan" -- just like being the original Satan -- is not a position you can apply for. Either you are the Great Satan or you aren't. You want proof? Who was the Great...

Fresh protests are expected on Friday by Muslims angered by the publication of newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Iraqi, Egyptian and Palestinian Islamic groups have called for demonstrations as Muslims attend prayers on Friday. The cartoons - first seen in Denmark and then reprinted in European papers - have provoked protests and a debate over the limits of freedom of speech. Denmark's prime minister has appeared on Arabic TV to appeal for calm. Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya channel he was sorry for any offence caused but insisted his government was not responsible for newspaper articles. Sackings...

A busy time in the U.S. Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body." Judging from the 2006 conference report, the Senate subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education -- Chairman Arlen Specter (R), ranking member Tom Harkin (D) -- has been deliberating especially hard: "Sec. 221. (a) The Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building (Building 21) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center. (b) The Global Communications Center Building (Building 19) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Thomas R....

When American bombs were raining down on what is left of Afghanistan, fellow Muslims in the neighbouring Islamic republic of Iran took out to the Streets. Contrary to our expectations in the West, they did not rally to denounce the 'Great Satan' - the name given to America by the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Instead, ordinary Iranians, in one of the most extraordinary shifts in the geopolitical landscape since September 11, challenged their own hard-line Islamic clerics who swept Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from power in 1979. Tens of thousands of men and women also demonstrated, in several cities, after World...

Friday Sermon in Kerman City, Iran: If Jesus Were Alive He Would Not Justify America's Atrocities The following are excerpts from a Friday sermon in the city of Kerman by Hojjat El-Eslam Yahya Ja'fari. The TV channel of the district of Kerman aired this sermon on April 17, 2005 Hojjat Al-Eslam Yahya Ja'fari: As you know, the biggest problem of the Islamic world today is global Zionism and the Great Satan – America. They are our enemies, especially the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They do not understand [the language of] reason, they do not follow international law,...

Iran's press hit back at George W. Bush as Washington increases the pressure on the Islamic Republic, with one hard-line daily accusing the US president of being a war-monger. Jomhouri Eslami, in an editorial alluding to the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq two years ago, said an assault on Iran would be like "falling out of the frying pan into the fire". It said: "Iranians do not seek war, but if Bush Junior fancies invading Iran, they will face him with an iron will to bury him and his remaining superpower government. The editorial called Bush "stupid, wicked, a war-monger"....

A devout Muslim in Indonesia or Sri Lanka, listening to the growl in his empty belly and watching the sky darkening with American rescue helicopters, might offer a prayer of gratitude to Allah for Christians and Jews. The rich and oily Middle Eastern kingdoms, fiefdoms and oligarchies have donated only pittances for tsunami relief, like alms tossed to beggars at the village gate. The greedy rulers are no doubt grateful to the imams who are telling their mosques that most of those who drowned, Muslims as well as vacationing infidels, deserved to die because they were only on the beaches...

The contrast could not have been clearer. The day President Bush recruited former presidents Bill Clinton and G.H.W. Bush to generate private tsunami-relief donations (www.freedomcorps.gov), Osama bin Laden’s comrades detonated three bombs in Baghdad, killing 16 Iraqi cops and soldiers toiling to rebuild their country. Once again, "the Great Satan" rescues endangered Muslims while Islamic zealots blew their co-religionists to bits. As the South Asian recovery unfolds, American public diplomacy should highlight this comparison to Muslims worldwide. Countless Muslims were battered on "Black Sunday." Indonesia, Earth’s most populous Islamic nation, was lashed hardest with 94,200 fatalities by Wednesday. Sri Lanka...

Tragedy is an incredible thing. In the face of disaster, death and destruction it brings out unknown facets and hidden strengths in people, as well as great compassion and, in many, a sense of duty. The quality of great human compassion isn’t derived of any one nation or people. Instead it is innate to the human soul. We saw it in the tears of those laying flowers at the gates of American embassies all over the world after September 11th and we see it again today in the compassionate outreach of individuals and governments from around the world in the...

You were hard-pressed to find the story or to see the images anywhere in the mainstream media – three unarmed Iraqi election officials recently murdered in cold blood on their way to work – dragged from their car and shot in the head, execution style, by spineless terrorists – the entire massacre caught on film. Their crime? – Helping to further the cause of a free and democratic Iraq. Since the end of major combat operations, hundreds upon hundreds of innocent Iraqi men women and children have been deliberately targeted and blown limb from limb by foreign invaders – by...

New Muslim Brotherhood Leader: Resistance in Iraq and Palestine is Legitimate; America is Satan; Islam Will Invade America and Europe Following the recent death of Muslim Brotherhood movement leader Mamoun Al-Hudhaybi, Muhammad Mahdi Othman 'Akef was appointed as his successor. He has since given a number of interviews to the Arab media. The following are excerpts from the interviews: Martyrdom Operations are a Religious Obligation in Palestine and Iraq In an interview with the Egyptian pro-Nasserite weekly Al-Arabi, 'Akef spoke about suicide bombing operations: "The Muslim Brotherhood movement condemns all bombings in the independent Arab and Muslim countries. But the...

TEHRAN (AFP) - More than 10,000 Iranian revolutionary militia chanted "Death to America" outside the former US embassy in Tehran, wishing defeat in Iraq on the "Great Satan." "The region will only see peace and calm when the occupiers get out," Yahya Rahim Safavi, head of both the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Bassij militia, told the crowd of men and women who had been bussed to the city center compound. "We hope that the US is dealt a humiliating defeat in Iraq, so the US warmonger administration won't get re-elected to send US children to the Iraqi quagmire,"...

Breakpoint with Charles Colson Muslim scientists were once the best in the world. A professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma says, "Nothing in Europe could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600." The question of how they achieved it and then lost it is more than of academic interest. Many analysts believe one motive for September 11 was Islamic resentment against the United States for having displaced it in science and technology. The book, THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING OF 2002, contains a thought-provoking article...

The Devil You Say David C. Stolinsky Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 What a blessing to know there's a devil And that I'm not at all to blame. – Frank Loesser, "Greenwillow" Do you believe in the devil? You probably do if you are a practicing Roman Catholic or an Evangelical Protestant. If you are an Orthodox Jew, you may. And if you are a mainstream Protestant, a Reform Jew, a vaguely "spiritual" person, an agnostic or an atheist, you don't. Or do you? What if you're also a committed liberal, an environmentalist, or an animal rights activist? Then you do...

MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 2002 ShopNetDaily Page 1 News Page 2 News LocalNetDaily Commentary Classified Ads Letters People Search SportsNetDaily Health Weather TV Guide Movies Business Stocks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YEARNING FOR FREEDOM Expert: Iran ripe for revolution 'This theocratic regime is in shambles, coming to the end of its rope' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: November 4, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Art Moore © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com Millions of ordinary citizens in an "axis of evil" nation want the U.S. to bring about a regime change in their land, according to a Middle East expert. The late Ayatollah Khomeini While that sentiment may exist...