Free Republic

The Decline of Islamic Science, the Rise of Extremism The United Nations Development Program, in a report published last year, described in often painful detail some of the factors that have contributed to the decline of science and the rise of extremism in Arab societies. Among them are: Increases in average income have been lower in the Arab world than anywhere else for 20 years, except for the poorest African countries. "If such trends continue...it will take the average Arab citizen 140 years to double his or her income, whole other regions are set to achieve that level in a...

In the name of Allah, the Most-Merciful, the All-Compassionate   Why Have Muslim Scholars Been Undervalued Throughout Western History? By Bakir Tarabishy   The history books that fill our bookshelves are indispensable recollections of past civilizations’ glories and failures, achievements and abominations. Unfortunately, history can never be completely objective, since it is written by men, and men have a tendency to restrict their thoughts to a single point of view. While history has created in our minds many heroes from murderers, and criminals from saints, one of its greatest crimes is the almost complete omission of the debt the ...

asir al-Din al-Tusi was still a young man when the Assassins made him an offer he couldn't refuse. His hometown had been devastated by Mongol armies, and so, early in the 13th century, al-Tusi, a promising astronomer and philosopher, came to dwell in the legendary fortress city of Alamut in the mountains of northern Persia. He lived among a heretical and secretive sect of Shiite Muslims, whose members practiced political murder as a tactic and were dubbed hashishinn, legend has it, because of their use of hashish. Although al-Tusi later said he had been held in Alamut against his will, ...

In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, President Barack Obama claimed: “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar University — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing.” Obama is not much of a “student of history” if he believes this. Almost every advance he attributes to the Muslims was...

Today in the WSJ, Karen Elliot House reviews a new book from Bernard Lewis entitled What Went Wrong. She begins this way: How has it come to pass that a civilization that for centuries led the world in science, medicine, and the arts ... Does anyone know what contribution the Islamic world made to science besides giving us our number system (admittedly a biggie) and naming a bunch of stars (less big)? Algebra may have Arabic roots linguistically, but I cannot think of a single concept or theorem that we credit to the Arabs. The Greeks are all over geometry. ...

BANNU, Pakistan, Sept 26 (Reuters) - At least five people were killed in a suspected suicide attack at a police station in Pakistan's northwestern Bannu on Saturday, police and witnesses said. The death toll is expected to rise as the police station and several nearby houses collapsed in the explosion. "I myself have seen five dead bodies," Mohammad Zahid, a witness at the scene, told Reuters. Bannu is gateway to North Waziristan, a volatile tribal region on the Afghan border and a major sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Recently in Somalia there were amputations for theft and now in the continued ugliness of Islam, the beheading of those who left Islam. How long will it be until the stone throwing Somalians in Minnesota started killing people here?

Washington has sent weapons to Somalia's government to thwart Islamist insurgents, who cut hands and feet off thieves on Thursday and paraded the severed limbs in the streets of Mogadishu. Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents are seen as a proxy for al Qaeda and Western nations fear they could destabilise the region and provide safe havens for hardline Islamists from abroad. When a moderate Islamist was elected president in January, there was hope he could end nearly two decades of bloodshed in Somalia by reconciling with hardliners who want to impose a strict version of Islamic law across the country.

The death of Jamia Naeemia administrator Dr Sarfaraz Naeemi has deprived the Brelvi school of thought of a sincere leader who always worked for uniting Sunni parties and groups on a single platform. The son of Mufti Muhammad Husain Naeemi, the founder of Jamia Naeemia, Dr Naeemi never showed any ambitions to secure benefits for himself and was often seen riding his old motorbike. A humble, moderate and widely respected scholar, Dr Naeemi never cared about protocol or security. He got his early education from Jamia Naeemi and then did PhD from the Punjab University besides a short course from...

Torture, Al-Qaeda Style Drawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as...

Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:58am EDT KABUL, March 26 (Reuters) - A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said. "The terrorist was on his way to his destination and saying good-bye to his associates and then his suicide vest exploded," a statement from the ministry said. Taliban-led attacks in Afghanistan have escalated in the past year with suicide and roadside bombings insurgents' weapons of choice. The incident happened in Helmand...

PALM BEACH — Anyone who believes that Muslims can be assimilated into Western societies is in for a rude awakening, according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali, who spoke at The Society of the Four Arts Tuesday, has reason to suspect Muslims' good will. She was born in Somalia, suffered genital mutilation as a child and was forced into an arranged marriage, according to her official biography. She rejected her Muslim faith and fled to The Netherlands, where she became a member of the Dutch parliament.

Indictment filed against man suspected of convincing 16-year-old son to murder his 21-year-old sister for 'bringing shame on family' due to 'immodest' dress, behavior. Prior to murder, father allegedly attempted to run daughter over with car A 57-year-old man from the Arab town of Qalansuwa was indicted Sunday for allegedly soliciting his 16-year-old son to murder his 21-year-old sister for desecrating the family honor. According to the indictment, the father chose to have his teenage son carry out the murder, believing he would receive a lighter punishment. The teen stabbed his sister 27 times and slit her throat. Advocate Anna...

Stop Using the Word ‘Islam’ in Reports on Terrorism, Islamic Bloc Says Thursday, December 04, 2008 By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor (CNSNews.com) – If the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had its way, media reporting on terrorist activity would exclude “any reference to Islam” – whatever the affiliation, identity or motivation of the perpetrators. The bloc of Islamic nations, which is spearheading a drive at the United Nations to have the “defamation” of Islam outlawed, this week voiced criticism about media coverage of recent terrorist attacks. Without citing any specific attack, the OIC’s Jeddah-based general secretariat said in a...

Doctors shocked at hostages's torture Krishnakumar P and Vicky Nanjappa in Mumbai They said that just one look at the bodies of the dead hostages as well as terrorists showed it was a battle of attrition that was fought over three days at the Oberoi and the Taj hotels in Mumbai. Doctors working in a hospital where all the bodies, including that of the terrorists, were taken said they had not seen anything like this in their lives. "Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb...

Stealth Jihad By Ben Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, November 28, 2008 Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs. Robert Spencer. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2008. 282 pp. The irony of Robert Spencer’s new book, Stealth Jihad, is that he will now have to prove to his opponents that they were partly right about Islam. For years, apologists for the Religion of Peace have argued that the correct understanding of jihad need not imply terrorism or violence; it is merely a quest for justice, according to the dictates of Islamic law. Now that Spencer documents...

Aafia Siddique Had a List of Targets in New York & Chem-Bio Weapons Information in her Possession When she was arrested in Afghanistan last month, Aafia Siddique allegedly had in her possession maps of New York, a list of potential targets that included the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the subway system and the animal disease center on Plum Island, detailed chemical, biological and radiological weapon information that has been seen only in a handful of terrorist cases, as well as a thumb drive packed with emails, ABC News has learned. That haul of information has led multiple government sources...

An eight-year-old girl strapped with explosives has blown up and killed an Iraqi army captain, reports say. The bomb was detonated by remote control, injuring four soldiers in addition to the one who died, an Iraqi Army spokesman said. Local authorities imposed a curfew in the area and American troops launched a search for those responsible. US soldiers have not confirmed that a young girl was involved in the attack, which took place near Youssifiyah, south of the capital, Baghdad.

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser YT Photo by Hamed Thabet SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man. Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse. According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute,...

Hamas exploitation of civilians as human shields: Photographic evidence Ministry of Foreign Affairs 10 March 2008 For full links - please view at www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Hamas+exploitation+of+civilians+as+human+shields+-+Photographic+evidence.htm Deliberate use of civilians as human shields In its fight to defend itself against Hamas attacks against its civilians, Israel is faced with moral challenges unprecedented in their complexity. Hamas, as a basic element of its strategy, exploits the Palestinian population as shields for its terrorist operations and infrastructure. This cynical strategy include the following tactics: - The deliberate launching of rocket from populated areas - The deliberate use of civilian homes to shield Hamas arms...

AMSTERDAM, 28/02/08 - The terrorist network Al-Qaeda has given orders for the assassination of MP Geert Wilders, newspaper De Telegraaf reports. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader must be 'slaughtered', the orders say, because he has insulted Islam and the prophet Mohammed. The newspaper based its report on a recent message on a protected web forum of internet site al-ekhlaas.net, which De Telegraaf claims is affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The internet threat, which was posted on 28 January, was intercepted by the American research institute SITE Intelligence Group, the newspaper reports. "In the name of Allah, we ask you to bring...

War On Terror: Benazir Bhutto gave up a comfortable life in Britain to return to Pakistan where she felt the military regime wasn't doing enough to defeat terrorists. Tragically, she was right.A suicide bomber thought to be tied to al-Qaida managed to murder Bhutto as she was leaving a political rally Thursday in Rawalpindi, the very headquarters of Pakistan's military. Running for prime minister, Bhutto had openly vowed to defeat al-Qaida and deny it the sanctuary it had gained in Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto, assassinated Thursday, votes for the first time in 1988. "I am what the...

Little girls in the militancy-hit Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan hate a diktat issued by pro-Taliban rebels to attend school in burqas. Burqas are the only option some girls' schools in northwestern Pakistan have against being shut down or worse, being bombed. "I want to study, but not in a burqa," said Shah Rukh, a 12-year-old girl enrolled at a primary school at Saidu Sharif in Swat. Shah Rukh is just one of many girls who have learnt to speak out against the burqa diktat in the picturesque Valley. "My 11-year-old daughter cries every morning when she has to wear...

A day they expected to include waves of grief ebbed back into bitterness and anger for the friends and peers of Aqsa Parvez as they realized they'd been excluded from her funeral. "They tricked us," said Konnor Williams, 16, who had known Parvez for three years. "I'm very upset and very angry right now. I feel cheated out of my friend's funeral. It's just not right." Many of Parvez's closest friends turned up yesterday at a large mosque in Mississauga, the Islamic Centre of Canada, for Parvez's funeral. But they discovered the funeral had suddenly become "private," held at a...

On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf. “We didn't listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads. This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, 'We asked you yesterday to wear...

Militants kill 14 Iraqi villagers Diyala province has seen some of the highest levels of violence At least 14 Shia civilians have been killed in an attack by al-Qaeda militants on a village near the Iraqi city of Baquba, officials have said.Local residents said 60 gunmen launched the raid on Duwailiya, 18km north of Baquba, shortly after daybreak. The attack came as figures suggested the number of Iraqis killed in bombings and shootings was continuing to fall. Iraqi officials said 606 civilians and security personnel died in November, continuing the trend of recent months. The data, compiled jointly by...

'We can't joke about the Prophet Mohammed' By Blake Evans-Pritchard in Khartoum Last Updated: 12:04am GMT 02/12/2007 You could have cut the air in the classroom with a knife. The students in front of me had frozen, their mouths open. Then one of my favourite students - a lovely, charming girl with a great sense of humour - said in a low, warning voice: “Teacher, we can’t joke about the Prophet Mohammed.” I'd stay in Sudan if I could, says teddy teacher - And at that moment I realised just how easy it would be to cross the boundaries of...

The British teacher who let her pupils call a teddy bear Mohammed appears in court in Sudan today amid a furious diplomatic row between London and Khartoum. Gillian Gibbons faces 40 lashes and a year in jail after after being charged with insulting Islam. She was charged after behind-the-scenes political moves to avoid a court case collapsed amid growing Islamic anger in the east African country. A powerful Sudanese newspaper urged authorities to call a hardline Islamist leader linked to Osama bin Laden to give evidence at her trial, to stress how offensive the case was to Muslims. Extreme Islamic...

See the disturbing video that shows Muslim extremists training at al Qaeda camp in the Lake DistrictBy JAYA NARAIN - More by this author » Last updated at 21:50pm on 21st November 2007A Muslim extremist took part in a campaign to recruit and train "jihadists" after flying to Britain posing as a student. Pakistani-born Abdul Rahman, 25, arrived in the UK on a student visa, but spent just one day at university before dropping out. He then joined up with a gang of radical young Muslims who aimed to scout, recruit and encourage others to take up arms in...

Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said Sunday. The discovery of the bodies came as officials said that recent violence and clashes had left at least 63 other people dead across Afghanistan.

Undermined by IslamWhile Simon Jenkins rightly asks Muslim scholars to pay attention to “blood-curdling mullahs and madrasahs” rather than “writing platitudes to the Pope”, his assertion that Islamic militants do not “undermine western values” ignores reality (Comment, October 14). Freedom of expression is already restricted by Islamist intimidation. In many Islamic states equal rights for men and women are curtailed, and such restrictive attitudes are brought to the West by Muslims. Until the West acknowledges that the conflict with Islamic militancy has deep ideological roots it cannot win the struggle for preserving its freedoms. Hopefully, the Muslim scholars will join...

Last week, the Dutch government announced it would remove the security protection it has provided to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Somali-born Ayaan is perhaps the world's best-known living critic of the maltreatment of women in Islamic culture. First as a parliamentarian, then as a writer and filmmaker, she has spoken out against honour killings, genital mutilation and the degradation of women in traditional Islam. Her close collaborator, Theo van Gogh, was murdered and mutilated on an Amsterdam street in 2004. She herself lives under constant threat of death -- so much so that last year, in order to have any...

Bridgeport (AP) _ A Fairfield man who doused his wife with gasoline and threatened to set her on fire has been sentence to a year in prison. Zahid Qureshi had pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. Prosecutors say Qureshi's wife, Humera, was sleeping on July 15, 2006, when her husband poured a pail of gas on her and began flicking a lighter. They say he threatened to kill her unless she promised not to leave him. Authorities say the couples' four children, who range in age from 4 to 14, were asleep at the time of the attack, but were awakened...

-snip- "...Almost 90% of all robberies reported to the police were committed by gangs, not individuals. “When we are in the city and robbing we are waging a war, waging a war against the Swedes.” This argument was repeated several times. “Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet.” The boys explain, laughingly, that “there is a thrilling sensation in your body when you’re robbing, you feel satisfied and happy, it feels as if you’ve succeeded, it simply feels good.” “It’s so easy to rob Swedes, so easy.”...

Islamic Republic of Fear http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9687617 Iran Islamic Republic of Fear Aug 23rd 2007 From The Economist print edition Restoring the revolution, taking away civil liberties AP Iran makes a grotesque spectacle of itself Get article backgroundTHE head of Iran's judiciary is a confident man. Despite foreign attempts at slander, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi recently declared, his country has presented a fine image to the world of Islamic law at work. If news were limited to such mercies as the recent release, on bail, of Haleh Esfandiari, a 67-year-old Iranian-American academic, after six months in jail on charges of espionage, or...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Muslim man is demanding police take action after, he said, he was discriminated against at a local mall. Mustapha El Mahjahtti said he was at a store at the Prime Outlet Mall on I-Drive when a woman tried to cut him in line. He said he told the woman to go to the back of the line, but she allegedly physically attacked him and even called him a terrorist. Mahjahtti said security guards failed to help. Now he's working with the local Council on American-Islamic Relations to get action. "We are not criticizing the Orlando Police...

Homeland Security: Forget everything you've been told about "moderate" Muslim groups in America. New evidence that U.S. prosecutors have revealed at a major terror trial exposes the facade. Exhibit No. 003-0085 is the most chilling. Translated from Arabic by federal investigators in the case against the Holy Land Foundation, an alleged Hamas front, the secret document outlines a full-blown conspiracy by the major Muslim groups in America — all of which are considered "mainstream" by the media. In fact, they are part of the "Ikhwan," or Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas, al-Qaida and other major Islamic terror groups....

It's clearly necessary to begin thinking about what form deterrence will take against future terrorist attacks on the U.S. At least 5 such attacks have been prevented at the operational stage by Bush administration policies over the last six years. What is needed is more serious consideration of the value of policies that deter such attacks. This is likely to become a more pressing concern, as America's ability to interrupt such attacks, if a Democrat becomes President, will be severely eroded. The Democrats are profoundly indifferent to national security, and have even managed to convince themselves that terrorism is some...

NEW YORK — Federal investigators are examining what appears to be an inoperative military rocket launcher tube found Friday morning on the front lawn of a Jersey City home that sits directly in the flight path of busy Newark Liberty International Airport. Jersey City Police removed the tube, and the incident is now being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The New York office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told FOX News that it appeared to be a military firing tube, and that there was no evidence of any explosive...

Pentagon sees 5 million child terrorists in Iraq Next generation could join jihad if reconstruction fails Posted: July 15, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern The Pentagon warns that if U.S. reconstruction efforts fail in Iraq, punishing unemployment could drive the country's next generation of workers to join the jihad. In that event, America and the West potentially would face an army of as many as 5 million young terrorists. Right now, Iraqis suffer from 50 percent unemployment, and the prospects are especially grim for the nation's youth, noted Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense at the Pentagon. Iraq is largely a...

Following are excerpts from a Hamas TV children's show, featuring Nahoul the Bee, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 13, 2007:Saraa, child host: Who are you, and where did you come from? Nahoul the Bee: I am Nahoul. Saraa: Nahoul who? Nahoul: I'm Nahoul, Farfour's cousin. Saraa: What do you want? Nahoul: I want to continue the path of my cousin Farfour. Saraa: How do you want to do this? Nahoul: I want to be in every episode with you on the Pioneers of Tomorrow show, just like Farfour. I want to continue in the path of Farfour –...

LAMITAN CITY [Philippines]-- They were returning to base in heavy rains after a fruitless search for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi when their trucks stalled in the mud. Then the firing began. In a 10-hour gun battle that turned into a carnage, 14 Marines were killed -- 10 of them beheaded -- and nine others wounded in one of the most shocking military debacles in years in the country’s southern islands. “They were surprised when bullets rained on them,” Brig. Gen. Ramiro Alivio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, recounting Tuesday’s daylong clash between 50 badly outnumbered Marines and some 400...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 10 -- A suicide bomber targeted a NATO patrol in a marketplace filled with children Tuesday, killing 13 elementary school students and at least four other people. Eight Dutch soldiers patrolling on foot -- the apparent targets -- and at least 35 Afghans were wounded in the bombing in southern Uruzgan province. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest in Afghanistan this year.

Doctors of Death (For Islamist Physicians, Medicine is Jihad by Other Means) By Andrew G. Bostom FrontPageMagazine.com | July 9, 2007 The London and Glasgow terror attacks have highlighted the prominent role played by Muslim physicians during the global resurgence of jihad witnessed over the past four decades. Although such violent actions targeting innocent life were openly sanctioned by Osama bin Laden’s Muslim physician mentor, Abdallah Azzam, (and indeed the London/Glasgow plots may have been approved by Bin Laden himself), they represent the most profound violation of basic medical ethics, and what it means to be a physician. Canadian-born physician...

Saudi fatwa against liberals raises fears of violence Sun Jul 8, 2007 5:56 PM IST By Andrew Hammond RIYADH (Reuters) - A religious edict by a prominent Saudi cleric suggesting liberals are not real Muslims has enflamed debate over reforms in the conservative Islamic state, with self-professed liberals fearing they will be attacked. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that rules by strict application of Islamic law, giving clerics a powerful position in society, but Islamists fear that liberal reformers are gaining ground under the rule of King Abdullah. Responding to an online request for a religious edict,...

SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10. As she spoke, rifle shots rang out, the acrid smell of tear gas drifted over Islamabad and hundreds of troops surrounded the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, a religious school complex in the heart of Pakistan’s capital where Saima was among hundreds of children being held as virtual hostages in a stand-off between militants and the government. Saima and...

LONDON - Some now call London the "Muslim capital of Europe." No Western city has more mosques. And now London could be home to the largest Mosque outside of the Middle East.

Human rights campaigners have warned the "honour killing" of a 20-year-old woman is not an unusual case in the UK. Banaz Mahmod was killed after falling in love with a man her family did not want her to marry. Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, from Mitcham, London, were convicted of murder on Monday. Human rights barrister Usha Sood said so-called "honour" crimes were becoming more common and were "being perpetrated in the hundreds every year." Miss Mahmod's father and uncle ordered the murder because they believed she had shamed the family, the three-month trial at...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions. "These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah...