Free Republic

<p>Some Houston residents are upset after Korans were left on the doorsteps of hundreds of homes in their neighborhood as part of a campaign to educate people about Islam.</p> <p>Residents of Braes Timbers in southwest Houston began finding the holy books two weeks ago, MyFOXHouston.com reported. The Korans came with a note saying they had been left by the Book of Signs Foundation, which claims to have distributed 30,000 free copies of the texts to residents throughout the city.</p>

TORONTO - A Mississauga, Ont. man will be formally charged on Tuesday with murder in connection with the death of his 16-year-old daughter. The girl, Aqsa Parvez, was in critical condition on Monday after being strangled, apparently after a dispute with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

MALIBU, California (CNN) -- "Hey, that's the boy I just saw on TV!" a voice shouted out from the beach. Unaware, Youssif streaked past, little legs pumping as fast as they could across the sand, coming to a screeching halt a few feet away from the waves breaking at the shore. Frightened and excited, the 5-year-old Iraqi boy shrieked and laughed as his father lifted him to safety as each wave crashed around their legs. It was the first time either of them had seen the ocean. The "voice" belonged to a member of the Valley Peak church group from...

Christians in Charsadda, a town in North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan, have been warned that if they do not convert to Islam by 17 May they will face “dire consequences and bomb explosions”, Christian Today has learned. The threats were made in a letter circulated last week to the town’s Christian population, according to the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. They come as Pakistan’s National Assembly overwhelmingly rejected proposed amendments to the blasphemy laws, which were tabled by a minority representative Member of Parliament, Mr Bhandara. On 8 May, the Government led the movement in the National Assembly to defeat the...

Iran is seeking to create a paradise for female tourists by turning an island on a northwestern lake into male-free zone, the press reported on Wednesday. All public transport, restaurants and facilities on the island -- on the gigantic Oroumiyeh lake close to the Turkish border -- will be staffed only by women, officials said. "The island of Arezou (Wish), one of the 102 islands in the Oroumiyeh Lake, will be equipped especially for women," a municipal official in the West Azerbaijan province, identified only as Aghai, was quoted as saying by the Tehran Emrouz newspaper. "There will be no...

An influential Malaysian mufti has said men can watch women athletes if they are decently clad after a northern state banned male spectators from a female sporting event, according to a report. Kelantan, the sole state ruled by the hardline Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party, will hold the first Malaysian All-Women Games from Saturday and plans to only allow men to attend the opening ceremony, the Star daily reported. However, the mufti of northern Perlis state, Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin, said men could watch all the events if certain conditions were observed. "During Prophet Mohammed's days, even his wife Aishah participated in...

Celebrating Valentine's Day is sinful and forbidden for Muslims, an Indonesian Islamic leader warned. "This celebration comes from another religion and has no legal basis in the Islamic Sharia law," said Muslim Ibrahim, who is chairman of the highest authority on Islamic affairs in Aceh province. "Therefore, taking part in celebrating the day of love is haram (forbidden) for Muslims," Ibrahim told the state Antara news agency. St Valentine's Day is named after a Christian martyr and over the years has become the day on which lovers traditionally express their feelings for each other. Ibrahim said Valentine's Day went against...

Meet Daniel P. and Allison B. and their children, Mujahid Daniel and Mujahid David, ages 13 and 11. Not your typical American family, but their situation may affect your right to speak to your children. During their marriage, according to court documents, Daniel and Allison followed a "quasi-Muslim philosophy." They also "amassed a large quantity of weapons," and Daniel was imprisoned for illegal weapons possession and making threats. The couple divorced in 1997, when Daniel was in prison. Daniel, now out on parole and living in Hawaii, wants to see his children, who live with their mother in New York....

Textbooks used in Iran's schools are instilling students with hatred toward the West, especially the United States, and urging them to become "martyrs" in a global holy war against countries perceived to be enemies of Islam, a new study says. An Iranian human rights activist, Ghazal Omid, praised the findings, saying they prove hard-liners in Iran are using the books to turn children into "ticking bombs." However, a U.S. academic who specializes in Iran and Islam, and a former Iranian teacher said they believe the textbooks are a reflection of Iran's history and its deep suspicions of the West, not...

An Indonesian clinic is keeping a baby until her impoverished parents pay the escalating bill for her delivery and care. Her father Sutrisno, who pedals a bicyle-taxi, is 2.2 million rupiah (about 250 dollars) short of the 3.5 million rupiah owed to the clinic, The Jakarta Post reported Thursday. The 33-year-old has so far paid 1.3 million rupiah to the Murni Asih clinic near Jakarta after borrowing from friends to cover the birth of his baby girl, earlier reported as a boy. "I don't know where I'll get another 2.2 million rupiah from," said Sutrisno, who earns between 10,000 (just...

An explosive device strapped to a woman suicide bomber was activated Thursday afternoon near IDF soldiers operating in the Jabalya area in north Gaza. The terrorist was killed, and three soldiers sustained light injuries in the incident, bringing the number of troops injured in the Strip throughout the day to seven. Palestinian sources said the terrorist was identified as 57-year-old Fatma Najar, claiming she was sent on the suicide mission by Hamas. Ceasefire in Works? Her family said she had nine children and nearly 30 grandchildren. She was the first known Palestinian grandmother to attempt a suicide bombing against Israelis....

Sales of a controversial Turkish novel on a conspiracy to kill Pope Benedict XVI are on the rise ahead of the pontiff's historical visit to Turkey beginning next Wednesday - his first to an overwhelmingly Muslim nation. 'The Plot Against The Pope' is a highly speculative potboiler narrating how the conservative Roman Catholic society Opus Dei, a subversive masonic lodge and the CIA collude to make the pontiff's murder a pretext for a US attack against Iran. Yuvel Kaya's book, which features Benedict XVI in front of a burning cross with a bearded gunman aiming a rocket launcher at him,...

Two Turkish men who converted to Christianity went on trial Thursday for allegedly insulting "Turkishness," and of inciting religious hatred against Islam, the Anatolia news agency reported. The trial opened just days before a visit to Turkey by Roman Catholic Pope Benedict, during which the pontiff was expected to discuss improved religious rights for the country's tiny Christian minority who complain of discrimination. Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, are accused of making the insults and of inciting hate while allegedly trying to convert other Turks to Christianity. The men were charged under Turkey's notorious Article 301, which has...

Forget the bloated deficit, forget the fact that Italy's national airlines and train network may go bust; the hottest debate in the country now is whether it is politically correct to make the Pope the butt of comic satire. That was the question on most front pages of Italy's newspapers on Wednesday after the Roman Catholic officials reacted to a spate of Italian television and radio programmes poking fun at Pope Benedict. "The Vatican doesn't like satire," headlined Rome's La Repubblica. L'Unita, the newspaper of the largest party in the centre-left government, even put its banner headline -- "The Vatican...

According to the Iranian media Monday, Iranian President Mahoud Ahmadinejad declared that Israel was destined to ‘disappearance and destruction’ at a council meeting with Iranian ministers. “The western powers created the Zionist regime in order to expand their control of the area. This regime massacres Palestinians everyday, but since this regime is against nature, we will soon witness its disappearance and destruction,” Ahmadinejad said.

Al Qaida?s leader in Iraq today vowed his fighters will never rest until they have blown up the White House and reached Jerusalem. In an audio tape made available on militant websites, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir claimed to be winning the war in Iraq and said the US President was ?stupid?. He praised the Republican defeat in the US midterm elections as ?reasonable?, and claimed the al Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq, ready to die for their cause. Also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Muhajir became the leader of al Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed...

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a new audio tape Friday to be winning the war faster than expected in Iraq, saying it had mobilized 12,000 fighters. The leader meanwhiled vowed his fighters will never rest until they have blown up the White House. The group also said it welcomed the Republican electoral defeat that led to the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also urged the U.S. to stay in Iraq so his group would have more opportunities to kill American troops. "The al-Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq,...

TEHRAN, Iran - A Moroccan won the first prize of $12,000 yesterday in an Iranian contest to draw cartoons about the Holocaust - a vile competition that has sparked outrage worldwide. Iran's best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, launched the "International Holocaust Cartoons Contest" in February to make fun of the murder of 6 million Jews. The contest was a retaliation for caricatures of Mohammad in a Danish newspaper, and was inspired by Iran's fanatical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called the Holocaust a "myth." Abdellah Derkaoui's cartoon shows a crane with a Star of David putting up a wall separating the Muslim shrine,...

Sydney - A cleric who said women who didn't wear a veil were 'uncovered meat' asking to be raped will keep his job as the spiritual leader of Australia's 350,000 Muslims. Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali was confirmed as Mufti of Australia on Friday after the governing body of Sydney's largest mosque rallied behind the Egyptian-born cleric. 'The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted,' Tom Zreika, head of the Lebanese Muslim Association, told local radio. Zreika said that as a sop to public opinion, al-Hilali wouldn't be preaching until he goes on...

Muslim activists called on Pace University yesterday to crack down on hate crimes after a second copy of the Koran was found in a toilet at its Manhattan campus. "This incident meets the legal definition of a hate crime," said Aliya Latif, a member of the Association of Muslim American Lawyers. "Indeed, this is no different from placing a burning cross in front of a house or painting a swastika on a locker." The discovery of the holy book in a toilet at Pace's lower Manhattan campus on Oct. 13 follows a similar act at Pace on Sept. 21. Earlier...