Free Republic

A graph contends the more devout a Muslim is, the more likely he is to be violent. An instructional document saying that in Islam, "war is the rule and peace is only temporary." The paperwork sounds like propaganda produced by Joe Kaufman or U.S. Rep. Allen West. But the documents were used to train FBI agents in counterterrorism. Prompted by an investigation by Wired.com, the FBI this week purged hundreds of pages of similar training documents, saying they contained "factual errors," promoted stereotypes, or were in "poor taste." And the bureau is continuing to review its training materials, with more...

LONDON (Reuters)—A radical cleric once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" was freed from a British prison to live under virtual house arrest on Monday after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful. The Jordanian preacher known as Abu Qatada must wear an electronic tag to allow the police to keep track of him, spend 22 hours a day at his family home and is banned from using the Internet and mobile phones. Twice convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement in terrorist plots, Britain says he is still a national security risk...

Anonymous hackers threaten "crusade" against Israeli websites10 Feb 2012 The world-wide internet hacker network ‘Anonymous’ has released a video threatening a cyber war against Israel.. urging hackers from across the Arab and Muslim world to target the websites of the Jewish state.http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/11308/anonymous_hackers_threaten_crusade_against_israeli_websites

(AFP) — At the Maldives’ National Museum, smashed Buddhist statues are testament to the rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in a country famous as a laid-back holiday destination. On Tuesday, as protesters backed by mutinous police toppled president Mohamed Nasheed, a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artifacts from the nation’s pre-Islamic era. “They have effectively erased all evidence of our Buddhist past,” a senior museum official told AFP at the now shuttered building in the capital Male, asking not to be named out of fear for his own safety. “We...

The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism. Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other -- for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public invoking of God. The Islamists impose Sharia law; the American Civil Liberties Union and the left generally impose secular law. The Taliban wiped out public vestiges of Buddhism in Afghanistan; the ACLU and its allies seek to wipe out public vestiges of Christianity in America...

A Dutch Muslim politician has called for a ban on dogs in The Hague, the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Islamic legal tradition holds that dogs are "unclean" animals, and some say the call to ban them in Holland and elsewhere represents an attempted encroachment of Islamic Sharia law in Europe. This latest canine controversy -- which the Dutch public has greeted with a mix of amusement and outrage -- follows dozens of other Muslim-vs-dog-related incidents in Europe. Critics say it reflects the growing assertiveness of Muslims in Europe as they attempt to impose Islamic legal and religious norms on...

It was long argued that bringing democratic freedom to the Middle East would greatly lessen or even eliminate regional Muslim hatred for the democratic West, and in particular for Israel and the Jews. That theory was put to the test over the past year as dictatorships were toppled from Libya to Egypt to (almost) Syria. It did not receive a passing grade. Instead of softening their attitude toward Israel and the Jews, democratic freedom has led to the rise of Islamist forces and a seeming explosion of anti-Semitic discourse in the newly free nations. That was the conclusion of a...

DAVOS, Switzerland - US President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt, a top State Department official said on Wednesday, as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from autocratic rule. Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats, part of a US delegation that held unprecedented talks last week with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said Washington wanted to provide "more immediate benefits" to Egyptians, who earlier this month conducted their first democratic elections in decades. "During this period, we want to be as supportive as we can. This is an historic...

CAIRO—Egypt's first free parliament in six decades got to work Monday with Islamists holding by far the most seats and opponents comparing their grip on the chamber to that enjoyed by the now defunct party of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. With almost half the seats in the assembly, the Muslim Brotherhood is promising to cooperate with the military generals, who took power last February when Mubarak was overthrown, in their transition to civilian rule. Thousands of protesters who fear a deal between the Islamists and the army to carve up power cried "down with the military government" behind a police...

CAIRO (AP) – Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, ... A coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats. The Salafi Al-Nour, which was initially the biggest surprise of the vote, wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt ... A White House statement said that President Barack Obama called Egypt's ruling military leader, Field Marshal Hussein...

Islamist parties won a large majority of the votes in Egypt's election to parliament, held Saturday. The Head of the Election Committee said that the Freedom and Justice party, which represents the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, received 47% of the total vote, and Al Nour, a hard-line Salafist party, has another 25%. The Muslim Brotherhood is expected to receive 235 seats out of the 498 seats in Parliament. Al Nour will receive 121 seats. Muhammad Badi', leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, announced Saturday that his movement would not endorse any of the Islamist candidates for the presidency, "so as not...

Syria's religious and ethnic minorities need to work together with liberal Sunni Muslims to counter the influence of Islamists in the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, a prominent Sunni Muslim opposition figure said. Kamal al-Labwani said Islam was being used to galvanize street protests against Assad and the population had grown more devout, but most Syrians still want Islam to "remain a religion, not a political party."

As I watch the media circus surrounding Marianne Gingrich's interview regarding her relationship with her ex-husband and GOP candidate, Newt Gingrich, I am once again reminded of the double standard afforded to the Democrats and Barack Obama in particular. Coming on the heels of the Herman Cain melee in which the press had a field day parading one accuser after another before video cameras, it is difficult not to repeat the question of why the Democrats get a free pass. Why are calls for Mitt Romney to release his tax return not met with calls for Barack Obama to release...

  One of the mistakes that the West makes is that it doesn’t listen to what the Islamists are saying. If only we listened, we could hear their strategy. On November 20, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the top Muslim Brotherhood theologian and arguably the most influential Sunni cleric in the world, called on Muslims to embrace “gradualism.”    The doctrine of gradualism is successful because we fail to appreciate the ability of the Islamists to be skillful political strategists. Gradualism is an intelligent form of jihad based on pragmatism, patience, long-term planning and self-evaluation. The Islamists evaluate their performance and recalibrate...

CAIRO—Leading Egyptian political parties will back a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) for the assembly's speaker, with another Islamist group and a liberal party taking the deputy posts, an FJP official said on Monday. The prime task of the new parliament, the first elected since an uprising swept Hosni Mubarak from power last year, will be to pick a 100-strong assembly to write a new constitution. Liberals fear that sweeping gains by Islamists in elections will put faith-based parties in the driving seat and lead to more religious strictures. Islamists insist they want an...

CAIRO (SANA): Egypt’s two main Islamist parties have scored a crushing victory in the seats declared so far. Egyptians were voting on Tuesday in second-round run-offs for the third and final phase of staggered elections to choose the first parliament since mass protests ousted Hosni Mubarak in February last year. Egypt’s two main Islamist parties have scored a crushing victory in the seats declared so far, reflecting a regional trend since Arab Spring uprisings overthrew authoritarian secular regimes. Under the complex electoral system, voters have been asked to cast three ballots — two for individual candidates and one for a...

A reliable Pentagon source confirmed that the U.S. is selling a huge $60 billion arms package to Serbia.The source spoke on condition of anonymity because minor details are still being hammered out. Afterwards there will be an official announcement made by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.The Pentagon source said the huge $60 billion arms package sale to Serbia is being made to counter the increasing dangerous militant Islamist threat in the region.The source noted Turkey's shift away from the secularism of Attaturk to fundamentalist Islam reflected by the ascension to power of Erdogan's AKP Islamist party.That is reflected in Turkey's closer ties with the Iranian regime and increasing hostility towards Israel and the West. The...

I got myself a Twitter account just four weeks ago. It seems that my fortunes have taken a turn for the worse, having me barely edge out al-Shabaab, Islamist terrorists’ recent cause célèbre, which logged its first tweet on December 7. Al-Shabaab, or “The Youth,” is a militant Islamist group with ties to al-Qaeda that has laid siege to much of southern Somalia since 2006. The group is persistently fighting (and winning) an insurgency against the United Nations-backed Transitional Federal Government, which is contained in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Still more pressingly, al-Shabaab has mounted attacks against African Union Mission in...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reserves some of its harshest words for Muslims who contribute to combating radicalism and terror. This was true a decade ago, when CAIR's rhetoric endangered reform-minded Muslim Khalid Durán, and it is just as true today. Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-Michigan, is the latest to carry on the trend. The Investigative Project (IPT) reports that Walid, while appearing at a November 18 rally in New York to protest the NYPD's counterterrorism tactics inside the city's Islamic community, offered this unflattering portrayal of imams and other Muslims who assist law enforcement: These days we...

Amid the Islamic tsunami sweeping Egypt's parliamentary elections the ultra-conservative Salafist Nour party says it is willing to hold talks with Israel. Salafi al-Nour Party spokesman Yousri Hammad told Egypt's daily al-Arabia that reports party chairman Emad Abdul Ghafour was willing to maintain contacts with Israel were true - and added doing so did not violate Islamic principles. “We have not received an official request from Israel yet, but if we sit with Israel, it has to be through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry,” he said. The Salafi al-Nour Party garnered about 25 percent of the votes in the first and...

Three people were killed as troops fought daylong battles with protesters, showing the tensions seething in Egypt nine months after Hosni Mubarak's fall, even in the midst of polls meant to herald a promised transfer to civilian rule. Egypt's Dar al-Iftah, the body that issues Islamic fatwas (edicts), said one of its top officials, Emad Effat, was among the dead, the state news agency MENA said. The violence has sharpened tensions between the ruling army and its opponents, and clouded a parliamentary vote set to bring Islamists, long repressed by Mubarak, to the verge of power.

Syrian security forces have reportedly opened fire on anti-government protesters after hundreds of thousands took to the streets across the country. Activists said at least six people had been killed in the restive central city of Homs, where 200,000 joined marches following Friday prayers. There were also clashes in Hama, Deraa and Deir al-Zour. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 200,000 demonstrators came out in several districts of Homs on Friday, demanding that the Arab League stop extending a deadline is has given Damascus to end the crackdown and agree to an observer mission. The Local...

Why Islamists Are Better DemocratsBy BOBBY GHOSH | Time.com – 3 hrs ago **SNIP** And to argue that voters were hoodwinked by the Islamists is to suggest that the majority of the electorate are gullible fools. This tells you something about the attitude of liberal politicians toward their constituency. And that in turn may hold the key to why they fared so badly. The Islamists, it turns out, understand democracy much better than the liberals do. The Ennahda and the FJP were not just better organized, they also campaigned harder and smarter. Anticipating allegations that they would seek to impose...

(CNN) -- Islamist parties that appeared to make significant inroads in Egypt's first round of parliamentary elections last week should "embrace democratic norms and rules" by creating a government that respects the full range of human rights, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. "Transitions require fair and inclusive elections, but they also demand that those who are elected embrace democratic norms and rules," Clinton said in a speech to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, meeting in Lithuania. "We therefore expect all democratic actors and elected officials to uphold universal human rights, including women's rights, to...

Although the indigenous uprising following American victory in the Philippine Islands (conducted by our former allies in the fight against the Spanish) ended formally in July 1902, various insurgent groups were determined to fight on. A great number of these were Moro terrorists, ancestors of today's MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), a bloodthirsty group of Islamic seperatists funded by nice people like Iran and -until recently- Muommar Gaddafi. The legend goes that after continued terrorist attacks on US troops and installations -in addition to the massacre of captured American soldiers- General Pershing ordered his Marines to go out and round-up 50 adult male perps.  Back...

The stunning showing by Salafist parties in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections surprised Israeli officials as much as the rest of the world. The estimated 40 percent of the vote that went to the Muslim Brotherhood, the party that founded modern political Islam, was about in line with pre-election polls. But the unexpectedly strong showing by the Salafis -- fundamentalist Sunni Muslims who hold that the only true Islam was practiced around the time of the Prophet Mohammad, 1,300 years ago -- could put a group that rejects modernism in a pivotal position in Egypt's new democracy. “This...

Would Angeline Jolie make a movie about the rape, murder, and genocide of Armenian Chrisians perpetrated by Turkish Muslim Jihadists? Most likely not.Such a movie would not fit in with the propaganda agenda of the MSM/Leftist/Islamist alliance that is always happy to demonise and attack Serb Christians and Israelis.In fact it is an absolutely factual observation that the two countries in the world that are politically, [and wrongly] ,demonised and attacked the most are Israel and Serbia.Why?Because for the last 63 years since their re-establishment as a sovereign nation in their own land, Israel has been at the forefront standing against jihad terrorism.Israel is...

Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, setting up a power struggle with the much weaker liberals behind the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago. A hardline religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday. The tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look. There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country's 27 provinces over the coming month and runoff elections on...

LONDON (Reuters) - Police said they had made more than 20 arrests at a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in London on Friday. Twenty people had been held on suspicion of being members of a banned group while another two were detained for obstruction and violent disorder.

(AINA) -- Thousands of Muslims attacked and besieged Copts in elGhorayzat village, population 80,000, killing two Copts and severely wounding others, as well as looting and torching homes and businesses. A quarrel between a Copt, John Hosni, and Mahmoud Abdel-Nazeer, who later died in hospital, turned into collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village of elGhorayzat, in the Maragha district of Sohag province. Muslims vowed not to bury Abdel-Nazeer until John Hosni is punished. Mr. Hosni fled from the village with his family, "fearing a wholesale massacre of Copts," reported activist Mariam Ragy. The events started on...

The Muslim Brotherhood held a rally at Cairo’s most important mosque. Demonstrators chanted, “One day we shall kill all Jews." Question 1: How can you tell they are “moderate Islamists?” Answer: They said “one day,” in other words, they aren’t going to do it this week. Question 2: At the rally someone said: "In order to build Egypt, we must be one. Politics is insufficient. Faith in Allah is the basis for everything. The al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews." Who was it? Answer: Ahmed al-Tayeb, the “moderate” president of al-Azhar University and arguably the most...

After making numerous phone calls and speaking to many Christian leaders in Egypt this week, I have learned that what is really happening on the ground is far removed from the television reporters’ happy endorsement of democracy seekers. To describe what is really going on around the country as “barbaric” would be an understatement. While some of the protestors may be true democracy lovers, the widespread terrorism on display defies all human decency. The truth about recent events in Egypt reveals that the country has disintegrated into a total anarchy and barbarianism that would make the Vikings blush. Peaceful Christians...

Iran-inspired Shiite Muslim men beating themselves to pulp in a sick religious display. Coming soon to a shopping mall parking lot close to you in the USA. OUR HERO Translation to English Synposis Provided by Freeper "AmericanInTokyo":(Original Iranian Article: "時期米大統領候補�イスラム教徒�侮辱的�発言" (Next Presidential Candidate, Makes (Insulting Comments to Islamists")(MY SYNOPSIS): "Herman Cain is the Republican candidate for the next U.S. presidential election, and much was made by him of the so-called Muslim extremist presence in the United States. According to Mefuru press reports on communications coming from Candidate Cain, he claimed "(and) what with special attention to trends regarding extremist...

Libyan gunmen broke into the Saif al-Nasr mosque in Tripoli early on Nov. 8, smashed open a wooden sarcophagus and removed the remains of Saif al-Nasr, a scholar who died 155 years ago, and a former imam, Hammad Zwai. “These bodies have been moved to a Muslim cemetery,” announced graffiti on the walls, explaining the disapproval by some Islamists of the Sufi Muslim tradition of burying scholars and teachers in mosques to honor them. Muslims pushing for a strict intepretation of Islamic law are jostling for power in the chaos that has gripped Libya since the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi,...

When it's not explicitly hostile, Western liberals' attitude to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is deeply condescending. One thinks of Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, pondering the author's estrangement from her Somali relatives: I couldn't help thinking that perhaps Hirsi Ali's family is dysfunctional simply because its members never learned to bite their tongues and just say to one another: "I love you." In Somalia, they don't bite their tongues but they do puncture your clitoris. Miss Hirsi Ali was the victim of what Western hospitals already abbreviate to "FGM" ("female genital mutilation") or, ever more fashionably, "FGC" (the less...

A member of Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram sect on Saturday claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks that killed at least 63 people in the northeast of the country the day before. "We are responsible for the attack in Borno (state) and Damaturu," Abul Qaqa told an AFP correspondent by phone. "We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop persecuting our members and vulnerable civilians," Qaqa vowed. The Friday bomb and gun attacks, including two suicide blasts, targeted police stations, an army base and churches in the cities of Damaturu, Maiduguri and two other small towns. "Sixty-three...

Lack of U.S. leadership enables radicalization in the Middle EastWhen the Arab Spring uprisings broke out earlier this year, many foreign-policy experts were alarmed that the revolts took the White House by surprise and concerned by the Obama administration’s lackadaisical response. Washington adopted a hands-off policy toward the sweeping political changes, arguing that the people of the region should be free to chart their own destiny. “There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity,” President Obama said in May. In his typically weak manner, he also cautioned that, “we must...

The administration refuses to utilize a strong opponent of radical Islam. Shortly after 9/11, many thought it was imperative to teach about and promote the heroes of that deadly day. One such hero whose life and example we can never learn enough about was Rick Rescorla. Originally from England, he came to America and distinguished himself as an Army infantry officer in Vietnam. Later he became head of security at Morgan Stanley, and, after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, he knew the terrorists would go after the Twin Towers again. He warned the authorities continually; moreover, he led...

TRIPOLI, Libya—Six weeks after the fall of Tripoli, the palmy days of rebel unity have begun to disintegrate into a spiral of infighting, political jockeying and even the occasional violent flare-up threatening to derail Libya's post-Gadhafi transition. Regional rivalries between fighters from the western mountains and Tripoli have in recent days come perilously close to exploding into open warfare in the capital. In some neighborhoods, multiple leaders claim sovereignty for their groups amid a deepening battle over the makeup of a citywide military council.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Two Minnesota women accused of going door-to-door to raise money for al-Shabab knew the Somali-based group engaged in terrorism and "rejoiced" when they heard about its victories in their war-torn homeland, a prosecutor said Tuesday. However, an attorney for one of the women told jurors during opening statements that Amina Farah Ali, 35, was just trying to help her fellow Somalis and didn't know the U.S. considers al-Shabab a terrorist group. Prosecutors have said Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 64, were part of a "deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to Somalia. The...

Our armed forces are becoming ground zero for American Muslims in the ideological struggle between Americanism and Islamism. U.S. Army Pvt. Naser Abdo points to that serious conflict. Pvt. Abdo was arrested recently in possession of weapons and explosive materials. Investigators say he told them he planned to attack the military. The private has publicly complained that he faced discrimination because he is Muslim. How many Islamists gone militant do we need to attack us before our military addresses radicalization among its Muslim members? Political correctness and denial are not working. The vast majority of Muslims serve with honor and...

BEIRUT (AP) — Masked gunmen dragged Syria's best-known political cartoonist from his car before dawn Thursday, beat him severely and broke both his hands as a warning to stop drawing just days after he compared Syria's president to Moammar Gadhafi, a relative and activists said. Hospitalized with serious injuries, 60-year-old Ali Ferzat has become the most famous victim of the repression of Syria's five-month uprising. The attack on him was a stark reminder that no Syrian is immune to the crackdown. "This is just a warning," the gunmen told Ferzat, according to a relative who asked that her name not...

Author Paris Dipersico has been discharged from Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital after he was dragged into a forest and beaten unconscious by two male assailants Wednesday morning. Police said the victim’s hands were bound and Det. Sgt. Anthony Odoardi said they are confident the attack was targeted due to the controversial nature of his book Wake Up Call. Co-author Gabrielle Dipersico’s home was broken into just a day after the assault and they have received death threats by Muslim extremists for insulting Islam. The Police are currently conducting an investigation along with a safety plan for the authors. Wake Up...

The Obama White House published an incomplete list of the invitees to the President's iftar dinner last Wednesday night, omitting representatives of Islamist groups who were invited. The White House also did not invite any representatives of moderate Muslim groups (Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs). “It was a squeaky clean list,” said Durriya Badani, director of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, an annual event organized by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center and the Qatari government. The guests on the published list are “not controversial at all,” said Badani, whose name is on the list the White House provided to reporters. “It was...

Islamists burned down a church on Zanzibar Island Saturday just three days after another church facility there was reduced to ashes.

Ramadan has just begun, and I must admit that it starts with no small amount of dread for me. Fasting, an essential pillar of ritual in Islam, consists of abstaining from food, drink and other sensual pleasures from dawn (before sunrise) until dusk. ...Throughout this month, Americans will see Shariah law, which some want to ban, being practiced by the throngs of Muslims in the United States who are waiting until after sunset to eat, drink and be (very) merry. There is no threat at all in this. By making American Muslims better neighbors, better friends, better coworkers, and better...

LONDON — Abu Sohaib spends most of his time online these days, following the news from his native Libya. He is in constant contact with friends on the ground there, helping them map out strategy to fight the rule of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. “I would like to be there myself; I tried to go,” he said, pausing to look at the car keys in front of him. “But Tunisia and Egypt wouldn’t let me in even after their revolution.” Abu Sohaib, his nom de guerre, is on a watch list for suspected terrorists not only in Libya and its neighboring...

On Friday President Barack Hussein Obama informed the US Congress that he intended to sell 125 M-1A1 Abrams Tanks to the Egyptian Military. With the nation of Egypt in turmoil, and the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to assume total control over Egypt, why would any sane and rational person sell tanks (or any weapon) to a nation bent on not only destroying its neighbor, but who would turn the same weapons on the US to destroy it. From the Jerusalem Post: The US signaled last week that it plans to continue business as usual when it comes...

Newly unsealed court documents reveal new details about a plot to attack a military recruiting center in Seattle. Items seized by federal investigators from the home of accused lead conspirator Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif include plans to attack a U.S. military facility and motivational materials related to alleged atrocities committed by American soldiers overseas. The attack on the Seattle military installation is yet another example of a terrorist plot in which American military personnel in the United States have been targeted by Islamist radicals opposed to U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Was Huma Abedin — wife of Anthony Weiner and deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton — unaware that her mother was reported as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Did Western media miss what has been revealed in several Arab newspapers and left secret in American government circles? Al-Liwa Al-Arabi (translated here) claims to have leaked an extensive list, partially published by Al-Jazeera and several other major Arab newspapers, that includes Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, in the Brotherhood’s secret women’s division — known as the Muslim Sisterhood or International Women’s Organization (IWO).