Free Republic

A mother murdered her young son and set his body on fire when he struggled to learn the Koran off by heart, a court has heard. Sara Ege used a stick to beat seven-year-old Yaseen “like a dog” if he couldn’t recite passages from the Islamic text. The beatings were so brutal that the boy died from his injuries, and his mother tried to burn the body to destroy the evidence, Cardiff Crown Court was told. …

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, has made a strong condemnation of Egypt’s new President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, after he attended a sermon where the preacher called for the “destruction and dispersal of the Jews.” A video emailed by the center showed Morsi at a mosque in the Mediterranean town of Marsa Matruh, where the congregation answers “Amen” to a cleric who recites a list of prayers in a traditional ritual. In one of the prayers, the cleric asked God to “destroy the Jews and their supporters and disperse them, rend them asunder.” Morsi...

A Middle Eastern man tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan this morning, law-enforcement sources told the Post. The terrorist parked a van filled with what he thought were explosives outside of the Liberty Street building, sources said, then tried to set them off using a cell phone detonator. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was provided the explosives from an undercover FBI agent that he met on the Internet and believed to be an accomplice, the sources said. …

Pakistani politicians, media, and civil society are pushing for a robust offensive to finish off the Taliban in the aftermath of the militants' shooting of a girl peace campaigner. The October 9 shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in northwestern Swat Valley has led to a groundswell of calls for Islamabad to abandon its long reluctance to take on extremist sanctuaries in the North Waziristan tribal region, on Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan. The region is home to Pakistani and Afghan Taliban factions and allied international jihadists. For years, Islamabad resisted considerable pressure from Western capitals to launch an offensive in...

A ruling handed down on September 13th by the D.C. District Federal Court has finally made clear what many have known for years–that the Obama Administration’s Iran policy was initiated and advanced by a group with illicit, hidden ties to the Iranian Regime and financed by the U.S./Israel- hating George Soros. In 2009, Barack Obama turned over virtually all responsibility and authority for foreign policy negotiations with Iran to Trita Parsi and his National Iranian American Council (NIAC). Founded by Parsi in 2003, the Washington-based NIAC is a powerful lobbying group that is “…widely considered the de facto lobby for...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would seek to have the Palestinians' U.N. status upgraded to a sovereign country and cautioned that Israeli settlement expansion meant time was running out for a two-state solution. "Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community there is still a chance—maybe the last—to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace," Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly. But he warned the 193-nation assembly that Israel was "promising the Palestinian people a new catastrophe" if it continues with its current Jewish...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Egypt's new President Mohammed Morsi assigned himself the heavyweight's role in the Middle East on Wednesday, declaring in his first speech to the United Nations that the civil war raging in Syria is the "tragedy of the age" and must be brought to an end. In a wide-ranging address that touched on all major issues confronting the region, Morsi also decried Israeli settlement-building on territory Palestinians claim for a future state and condemned a film produced in the United States that denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad. He urged all U.N. member nations to join in an effort...

Editor's note: President Barack Obama will address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at around 10:00 a.m. You can follow along here as we live blog his speech or watch it live on CNN.com. [Updated at 10:22 a.m. ET] President Barack Obama began his address to the U.N. General Assembly by speaking about Ambassador Chris Stevens who was killed in the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. "He came to love and respect the people of North Africa and the Middle East, and he would carry that commitment throughout his life," Obama said. "As a diplomat, he worked...

American national wanted by US government among alleged terror group members detained in Merida. An alleged terrorist belonging to the radical Islamic movement Hezbollah has been arrested in Mexico and handed over to US authorities, Mexican media reported Sunday...

Iran could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities even if American forces played no role in the attack, the leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Monday. "A decision has been taken to respond and the response will be very great," Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen television. "The response will not be just inside the Israeli entity—American bases in the whole region could be Iranian targets," he said, citing information he said was from Iranian officials. "If Israel...

Once again the Demcorats prove that they are the party of the enemy, the traitor, the jihad. Despite public outcry, the jihadist Jumah will tale place at the DNC. The event has in its crosshairs the Patriot Act, the NYPD, the National Defense Authorization Act, and anti-Shariah sentiment. "I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." Barack Hussein Obama, page 261, The Audacity of Hope A couple of weeks back, I posted about the Jumah jihad at the DNC, an event led by an imam who urged the overthrow of the "filthy" U.S. government...

Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered the country's Revolutionary Guards to intensify its campaign of terror attacks against the West and its allies in retaliation for supporting the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. According to Western intelligence officials, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to the elite Quds Force unit following a recent emergency meeting of Iran's National Security Council in Tehran held to discuss a specially-commissioned report into the implications for Iran of the Assad regime's overthrow. Damascus is Iran's most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is regarded as vital to sustaining the...

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's long-time ruler who held tight control over this East African country but was a major U.S counterterrorism ally, died of an undisclosed illness after not being seen in public for weeks, Ethiopian authorities announced Tuesday. He was 57. Meles died Monday just before midnight after contracting an infection, state TV said. Hailemariam Desalegn, who was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in 2010, became acting prime minister and will be sworn in as prime minister after an emergency meeting of parliament, said Bereket Simon, the communications minister. Parliament is controlled by Meles' ruling party...

An 11-year-old Christian girl has been arrested after being accused of desecrating pages of a book containing Islamic text. She was detained for blasphemy after an angry mob demanded her arrest and threatened to burn down Christian homes outside of the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani media say. The girl is known to have learning difficulties, officials say. Police have taken her parents into protective custody following threats. According to Dawn newspaper, police said the girl had been unable to answer questions properly during the interrogation. Dr Paul Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for National Harmony, told the BBC that the girl was known...

The Egyptian army has been deploying large anti-terrorist forces in parts of the Sinai peninsula without informing Israel in advance. The peace treaty between the two countries limits the Egyptian military presence in Sinai. Some of the Egyptian forces in the peninsula were sent there with Israel's consent, but Haaretz has learned that forces have also been deployed without Israel's prior approval. Israeli government officials only learned about it after the fact. Although Israeli defense officials declined to comment on the matter, they did note that there has been good security cooperation between the two countries, adding that there is

Iran is set to host a meeting on promoting "the issue of Palestine and the Intifada" and "liberating the Holy Qods" (Jerusalem), the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Sunday. … It is intended to promote ideas on "the influence of the Islamic Awakening on the issue of Palestine and the Intifada" and "focus on ways to attain the ultimate goal of liberating the Holy Qods which embodies the dignity of the world Muslims." …

Egypt's Islamist president has given himself the right to legislate and control over the drafting of a new constitution. He has installed at the top of the powerful military a defense minister likely to be beholden to him. Under Mohammed Morsi's authority, officials have moved to silence influential critics in the media. And though a civilian, he declared himself in charge of military operations against militants in the Sinai peninsula. Over the weekend, Morsi ordered the retirement of the defense minister and chief of staff and reclaimed key powers the military seized from him days before he took office on...

Security services record Islamist exodus to Egypt Published: 12 Aug 12 10:53 CET German security services have recorded a leap in the number of radical Islamists traveling to Egypt, according to a report due to be published in Monday's Der Spiegel magazine.

Egypt's military has shown no sign of opposing the president's surprise decision to retire the defense minister and chief of staff and seize back the powers the military grabbed from his office. … President Mohammed Morsi's shake-up of the military took the nation by surprise. It has transformed his image overnight from a weak leader to a savvy politician who carefully timed his move against generals who stripped him of significant powers days before he took office on June 30. …

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has sacked the entire leadership of the country's defense establishment. Among the officials and officers fired are Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and Chief of Staff Sami Anan. Morsi appointed Abdul-Fatah al-Sessi as Defense Minister and Lieutenant-General Sidki Sayed Ahmed as Army Chief of Staff. A judge named Mahmoud Mekki was appointed vice president. Morsi also ordered the retirement of the commanders of the navy, air defense and air force. The retired navy commander, Lieutenant-General Mohan Mameesh, was named as chairman of the Suez Canal. Morsi also cancelled all constitutional changes that gave the military enlarged...