Free Republic

Saudi Arabia's crown prince arrived in Egypt as he begins his first official trip overseas since assuming the powerful role last June. Mohammed bin Salman, 33, was greeted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as he disembarked from the plane on Sunday. After meeting with Egyptian officials during his three-day visit, Prince Mohammed - known as MBS - will head to the United Kingdom before making a final stop in Washington DC. His visit comes a day after Egypt's top court upheld a deal to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The agreement was first announced during a...

Two Indonesian Christians were publicly flogged in Banda Aceh province on Tuesday for playing a children's entertainment game. The game is seen by authorities in the conservative Muslim province as 'gambling' and therefore it violates Islamic Sharia law. Some 300 people jeered and held up their mobile phones to record when Dahlan Silitonga, 61, and Tjia Nyuk Hwa, 45, were flogged six and seven times respectively.

Israel obliterates Syrian and Iranian targets following brazen UAV intrusion. The shadow war between Israel and Iran burst into open warfare over the weekend with a brazen and reckless Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intrusion into Israeli airspace. The drama unfolded on Saturday at 4:25 a.m. when an Iranian reconnaissance drone, believed to be a knockoff of the American RQ-170 Sentinel UAV, penetrated into Israeli airspace for approximately 90 seconds before being shot down by an Israeli Apache attack helicopter of the 113th Squadron near the Israeli town of Bet Shean in the Jordan Valley. Israeli intelligence had been monitoring...

Macy's is launching a women's clothing line aimed at Muslim shoppers. The department store chain says it teamed up with a boutique called Verona Collection and plans to sell the collection of modest dresses, tops, cardigans and hijabs online. The clothing will launch on Macy's website on Feb. 15. The brand was developed by Lisa Vogl, a graduate of Macy's minority- and women-owned business development program, which aims to offer more fashion diversity.

This is the real women’s rights movement, while feminists in the West actively support the oppressors and name sharia-enforcers such as Linda Sarsour to their leadership. The left is evil. Posted online with the hashtag #NoHijabDay, a response to last week’s World Hijab Day event, the videos show women removing their headscarves and setting them on fire in front of the camera. For the millions of women and girls forced to wear the cover-up, such a tribute is ghastly.

A solemn group of Christians held their first prayer service in years on Saturday in the ravaged church of St. Mary in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor city. Stones, strips of wire, papers and remnants of rockets were strewn across the church floor, and bright sunlight streamed in from the blown-out windows. Holding thin white candles under pockmarked archways, the congregation of less than two dozen worshippers relished their first service in nearly six years. Fighting has gripped Deir Ezzor since rebels captured part of the city in 2012, and grew worse when the Islamic State jihadist group shot to prominence...

Gay sex, cohabitation, and sex outside marriage would become illegal and punishable with prison terms under proposals from Islamic parties that could soon become law in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. Critics say the moves, which are being negotiated among Indonesia’s political parties and government legislative drafters, would, if enacted, be a major blow to democracy in this Southeast Asian nation of 250 million.

Turkey opened a new front in Syria's nearly seven-year-old war on Saturday, launching airstrikes against a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Afrin province that raise the prospect of a further strain on relations between Ankara and Washington.The operation, dubbed "Operation Olive Branch" by Ankara, pits Turkey against Kurdish fighters allied to the United States at a time when ties between Turkey and Washington - NATO allies and members of the coalition against Islamic State - appear dangerously close to a breaking point.The strikes on the Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia hit some 108 targets, the Turkish military said. On land, the Turkey-backed Free...

Speaking at Stanford University after being introduced by former top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, Tillerson said the Trump administration was determined not to repeat President Barack Obama's "mistake" when he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Republicans for years have argued the withdrawal created the opening for IS' rapid expansion.... Securing a successful U.N. peace process, getting Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, ridding Syria of Iran's influence and eradicating all weapons of mass destruction in the country.

A recent article in the Scientific American titled “Climate Change May Have Helped Spark Iran’s Protests” suggests climate – not Iran’s active export of terrorism and neglect of its civilian population – is responsible for the second consecutive week of protests in the Islamic Republic. “The impacts of climate change are among the environmental challenges facing Iran that helped spark protests in dozens of cities across the Islamic republic,” the publication wrote. At least 22 people have died during the protests, which began on December 28. One young man, 23-year-old Sina Ghanbari, reportedly died while in custody at Iran’s notorious...

Is it a revolution? Can it succeed? Should we support it, and if so, how? Surely this tumult is very different from the protests of 2009. It’s different in at least two ways, geographical and demographical. Geographically, whereas the 2009 protests were mainly limited to Tehran, today’s phenomenon covers the whole country, from major cities to smaller towns and even rural villages. That’s significant, because those who do not believe in the prospects of an Iranian revolution invariably argue that opposition to the regime is restricted to the elites of the big cities, and that rural populations are pro-regime. It’s...

President Trump blasted Pakistan in his first tweet of 2018, saying its leaders have given the U.S. “nothing by lies & deceit.” “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he said Monday morning. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he added. The New York Times reported late last week that the Trump administration might withhold $225 million in aid over frustration with...

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Police in Iran’s capital said Thursday they will no longer arrest women for failing to observe the Islamic dress code in place since the 1979 revolution. The announcement signaled an easing of punishments for violating the country’s conservative dress code, as called for by the young and reform-minded Iranians who helped re-elect President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, earlier this year. But hard-liners opposed to easing such rules still dominate Iran’s security forces and judiciary, so it was unclear whether the change would be fully implemented.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar says the group will shut down the U.S. embassy in Israel once it “liberates Palestine”. Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar recently threatened that the terrorist group will shut down the U.S. embassy in Israel once it “liberates Palestine”. In an interview on Al-Jazeera on December 17, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the Hamas leader also made clear that the group "would not relinquish a single gun, not even a single bullet." “Annihilation will be the fate not only of the Jews, but also of their helpers and of the people...

Boris Niehaus / Görlitzer Park, Sputnik News, November 12, 2017: Police have arrested a 23-year-old Syrian for allegedly raping a pony at a children’s zoo in Berlin; the man’s crime was witnessed by shocked visitors who took a photo of the incident and handed it over to the authorities. The incident occurred at around 3pm on Friday, November 3 at the Kinderbauernhof (children’s farm) area of the German capital‘s Goelitzer Park. The man was spotted by a babysitter, who was visiting the zoo with a child. “My babysitter was at Goerlitzer Park with our son when they witnessed the man...

To understand any phenomenon, its roots must first be understood. Unfortunately, not only do all discussions on the conflict between Islam and the West tend to be limited to the modern era, but when the past, the origins, are alluded to, the antithesis of reality is proffered. We hear that the West -- itself an anachronism for Europe, or better yet, Christendom -- began the conflict by intentionally demonizing otherwise peaceful and tolerant Muslims and their prophet in order to justify their “colonial” aspirations in the East, which supposedly began with the Crusades. Bestselling author on Islam and Christianity Karen...

Beardless men sow confusion in pious Muslim society because clean-shaven men sometimes “cannot be distinguished from women” and can cause “indecent thoughts”, according to a Turkish Islamic preacher. Speaking on the private religious station Fatih Medreseleri (Madrasahs) TV on Dec. 16, preacher Murat Bayaral blasted men who shave, saying they cause confusion for other men who might consider them to be feminine.(Don't they have the same problem with sheep and camels?) His advice consists of the simple mantra: Grow a beard and be a man. Bayaral said: “Men should grow beards. One of the two body parts that separate men...

Iran is risking war with Saudi Arabia in order to assess the strategic philosophy of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That's my read of Tuesday's missile attack by Yemen-based Houthi rebels targeting Riyadh. While the missile either crashed or was shot down over Riyadh, the Houthis say they were targeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other top Saudi leaders in the strike. I have a number of takeaways. First, we should be confident that the missile employed was provided to the Houthis by Iran and that Iran directed its use in this attack. That isn't simply because the...

Yemen's Houthi movement fired a ballistic missile towards the Saudi capital Riyadh targeting a meeting of Saudi leaders at a royal palace on Tuesday, its spokesman said. Mohammed Abdussalam said on Twitter that a Volcano 2-H ballistic missile was fired towards al-Yamama royal palace.  Saudi air defences intercepted the missile, Saudi-owned channel al-Arabiya reported in a news flash quoting a Saudi-led military coalition.