Free Republic

PM facing embarrassment over links between adviser and Islamist group. Adviser Tariq Ramadan is grandson of Muslim Brotherhood's founder . ... Tariq Ramadan is one of 14 members of the Foreign Office’s Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, chaired by Tory peer Baroness Warsi. He is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and was a member of a taskforce set up by Tony Blair after 7/7. But Prof Ramadan, 51, is grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder Hassan al-Banna and his father Said Ramadan was a leading light. ... He was kept out of France in...

David Cameron has ordered an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood....to examine allegations that the M/B was behind the murder of three British tourists in Egypt in and that it planned extremist activities from Britain. Sir John Jenkins, the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia is to draw up a report on the group's "philosophy and values and alleged connections with extremism and violence". Cameron faces pressure to follow the example of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which claim that London is the M/B's crucial centre for its activities. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi played a leading role in the overthrow of Pres Morsi,...

Two Christian women were publicly beheaded by Islamist terrorists in southeastern Somalia, as part of a campaign to “wipe out” any Christian presence in the east African country. The Morning Star reported Friday that the two women—identified as mother-of-two Sadia Ali Omar, 41, and her 35-year-old cousin Osman Mohamoud Moge—were executed by the Al Qaeda-aligned Al Shabaab militia in the port town of Barawa in the Lower Shebelle Region after their Christian identities were discovered. Villagers were reportedly forced to witness the murder, including Omar’s eight and 15-year-old daughters. Locals described the harrowing scenes as the younger daughter screamed in...

Delaying the so-called “two-state solution” is an historical mistake, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni claimed on Monday. Livni, who is in charge of the peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, spoke at the American Jewish Committee 2013 Global Forum in Washington, D.C. She warned in her speech of “devastating consequences” for Israel in case U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest attempt to renew peace talks fails. “Time is working against those who believe that two states is the only Zionist way to maintain our identity,” Livni said. “There are those who want to postpone this decision, but it would be...

AFP - Al-Qaeda's military chief in Yemen warned Americans in an audio message posted online Sunday that the Boston bombings revealed a fragile security as he urged Muslims to defend their religion.

BBC News political editor Nick Robinson apologized last week for originally identifying the London stabbing as having a “Muslim appearance” based on quotes given to him by law enforcement. Appearing on the News at Six the day of the Woolwich attack, Robinson explained that his law enforcement sources told him the perpetrator was of “Muslim appearance” and had reportedly been shouting “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” The report apparently generated controversy, especially within the United Kingdom’s Muslim community, who felt the comment represented an unfair “racist generalization.” Several days later, Robinson took to the BBC website...

As Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said that virulent anti-Semitic comments which he reportedly said prior to his election were taken out of context, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released another video which depicts him making similar comments. The latest video is an address delivered by Morsi, which was posted on the Internet on January 10, 2010. It was translated by MEMRI and published on Wednesday. In the newly exposed remarks, Morsi calls U.S. President Barack Obama “insincere” and calls for Arabs to raise their children on hatred of Jews.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won't testify to Congress next week on Benghazi, after fainting and suffering a concussion Saturday and due to her ongoing stomach ailment. "While suffering from a stomach virus, Secretary Clinton became dehydrated and fainted, sustaining a concussion," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said in a statement. "She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office...

Hamas has set the destruction of Israel as its goal. Between September 2000 and April 2004, Hamas perpetrated 425 terrorist attacks against Israel and murdered 377 Israelis - nine every month. Hamas was founded by Islamic militant extremists in the Gaza Strip in 1988, shortly after the first intifada broke out. The word Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic words for "Islamic Resistance Movement." Though it is also involved in social and welfare programs, the organization is devoted chiefly to the obliteration of Israel. Its charter states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate...

The United States and Germany won a closely contested race Monday among western nations for UN Human Rights Council seats, while the likes of Venezuela and Pakistan secured places without a competitive vote. Rights groups condemned the “pre-cooked” arrangements by most continental groups at the 193-member UN General Assembly which gave council seats to countries whose records have been widely questioned. The United States, Germany and Ireland won the only open election among western nations. …

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. …

Syria is only going into the hands of the Turks, and before that happens its only going to be transformed into another Afghanistan or another Mogadishu. If you remember, the Syrian Rebels shot down a helicopter recently:.....

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...