Free Republic

Some of Samia Sultan’s neighbours don’t greet her any more, and sometimes it’s hard for her to understand why. Sultan, a dentist, lives in Glasgow, in an area of the city that is – like most Muslim populations in the UK – majority Sunni. But Sultan isn’t Sunni: she is Ahmadi. And that is the source of the problem. “My neighbours were fine, but when they came to know I was Ahmadi, their attitude changed,” Sultan explains....“They would no longer reply to my greeting As-salāmu ‘alaykum [peace be upon you]” with Wa’alaykumu s-salām [and upon you peace].” When Asad Shah,...

The suicide bomber who blew up a youth soccer match late last month left barely a dent in the hard, dry earth, and only a faint scorch on a concrete wall nearby. But he gouged a chasm of grief in the heart of the small community that lost more than two dozen of its sons in a single moment, at 6:15 on the evening of March 25. A total of 43 people died in the bombing at the game, according to figures provided by the local government. Of those, 29 were boys younger than 17 who had either been participating...

A recent blockbuster expose on the Pakistani public school system has some eye-opening news for the non-Muslim world. In the wake of the Easter bombings in Lahore, Pakistan the people of the world complained that the Pakistani government wasn’t doing enough to push back against the Muslim extremists in their country. In response, the government has promised to crack down on militant terrorism that has entrenched itself in certain corners of their country. Here’s the problem with these promises… the “extremism” isn’t just found with the radical terrorists. In Pakistan, radical Muslim “extremism” isn’t actually that extreme. In fact, it’s...

Obama and Turkey's Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan Western media, President Obama, all Muslim countries, and myriad groups and individuals have been telling us that ISIS does not represent Islam. Muslims, especially in the West, insist that their beloved faith has nothing to do with the terrorists who are embarrassing the good and peaceful Muslims and who are giving Islam a bad name and dishonoring the real Islam. It is a fact that Arab/Islamic culture highly values honor and pride and has little tolerance for those who dishonor Islam and Islamic "family values." Because honor is so vital in Islamic culture,...

One of the more pernicious and prevalent post-9/11 myths is that one of Islam’s most fundamental concepts, jihad, has been distorted by “violent extremists” who have “hijacked the religion.” In this fairy-tale view, jihad is above all a struggle for self-betterment that al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Boku Haram, and others have twisted and deformed. Mourad of Smith College and Lindsay of Colorado State University provide an excellent antidote to this ahistorical nonsense by offering a serious primer on the historical codification of jihad and its subsequent application in response to the Crusaders.

The latest issue of Islamic State's online magazine targets the terror group's fellow Muslims even more than the West. Dabiq, as the English-language publication is called, devotes a majority of the 56 pages in the latest issue to justifying the killing of Shia Muslims. In numerous articles, the magazine goes to great lengths to give a theological basis for killing members of the minority Muslim sect that controls Iran and Iraq and has been at odds with Sunni Muslims for over a millennia. "The magazine spends so much time justifying the killing of innocent Shiites that it suggests that ISIL...

Most people assume that the Sunni terrorist group ISIS is the natural and mortal enemy of Shia Iran, but this is not always the case. In fact, in at least one part of the Middle East, Iran has become a crucial, if indirect, sponsor of its supposed enemy. As the world's eyes are focused on ISIS terrorism in Europe, the Middle East, and even the U.S., the group's branch in the Sinai has become one of the most powerful, dangerous, and effective in the region. Recent reports indicate that Iran, through the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, is primarily responsible for...

Sudan and the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain said Monday they would sever ties with Iran, as Saudi Arabia did late Sunday. The United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties to Tehran to the level of the charge d’affaires, while other nations issued statements criticizing Iran. The concerted campaign by Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia highlights the aggressive stance King Salman and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have adopted in confronting Iran, a longtime regional rival. "What we have seen during the last 24 hours is unprecedented... It shows you Saudi Arabia has had enough of Iran and...

Three Sunni-led countries joined Saudi Arabia on Monday in severing or downgrading diplomatic ties with Iran, worsening a geopolitical conflict with sectarian dimensions in one of the world’s most volatile regions. The diplomatic protests from the three countries — Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates — came as Iran accused Saudi Arabia of using an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran two days earlier as a pretext for diverting attention from its problems. Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the embassy on Saturday, along with the Saudi Consulate in Iran’s second-largest city, Mashhad, after the Saudis executed...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continued his diatribe against Saudi Arabia following the execution of of prominent Shi’ite Cleric Nimr-Al-Nimr. “The hand of God will take vengeance against Saudi leaders,” Khamenei said on Sunday morning. Khamenei told Iranian national TV that “for the unjust spilling of blood of this holy man, who suffered and was downtrodden, there will no doubt be heavenly vengeance taken upon Saudi politicians.” Khamenei also said that it was “a political mistake” taken by the Saudis, who are the greatest political and religious rival to Iran in the Persian gulf. Additionally, Khamenei’s website published an...

GOP candidates debate for first time since terror attacks.

The Cameroon army claimed Wednesday to have dealt a major blow to Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists, killing around 100 fighters and freeing 900 hostages in a three-day operation last week. ... The sweep enabled troops "to release almost 900 hostages, seize large supplies of arms and munitions as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags", the statement added, without providing details on the identities of those freed. Boko Haram swore allegiance to IS in March 2015. The minister attributed the success of the raid to cooperation between Cameroon security forces, a new multinational force being set up to fight Boko Haram...

The laws of several western countries, besides the Islamic ones themselves, do not permit anything critical to be said of Islam. Such laws forbid what is called "hate speech." They often include other sub-groups like homosexuals, women, or race. Such laws and customs have practically reduced responsible freedom of speech to a dead letter. Fines and jail sentences are meted out if such laws are violated. Such laws are generally based on a civil peace idea rooted in Thomas Hobbes. That is, violence is caused by religious and philosophical controversy. The only way to prevent it is by a civil...

Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliar's controversial remarks against gender equality have triggered a strong reaction from parties and activists who demanded that he withdraw them and apologise. Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist and ruling Congress lashed out at the Islamic scholar over his "anti-women" remarks. Marxist veteran and state Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan alleged that Musliar's remarks were equal to the "anti-democratic" stand of Sangh Parivar and they should be withdrawn. "His remarks amount to insulting even his (Kanthapuram's) own mother. The statements were equal to the anti-democratic stand of Sangh Parivar. He should withdraw it and...

Turkey should be kicked out of NATO for downing the Russian jet near the Syrian border Tuesday because the country "is trying to establish their own Ottoman Empire again," retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told Newsmax TV. "They're moving very much to the Islamic State — and they've been no help in supporting the opposition forces against Assad," Vallely said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "They've been hitting a lot of the Kurds, as you know, up north in Syria and the northern part of Iraq." Despite the downing of...

Islamic attitudes toward non-Muslims are determined by many factors of which two are most necessary to consider. The first is Jihad or Holy War. The second is the concept of Dar Al Harb (Arabic for "House of War") and Dar Al Islam ("House of Submission") in Islamic tradition. "House of War" refers to any territory or people who are not living in submission to Islam. "House of Submission," or Dar Al Islam, refers to any territory or people living in submission to the message of Muhammad. The concept of Jihad (Arabic for Struggle) has been given two interpretations, which...

According to experts, the fundamentalist jihadists who carry out murderous attacks are Muslims whose beliefs are rooted partly in longstanding Islamic teachings. ROME - President Barack Obama refrained from describing Nov. 13's Paris attacks as "Islamic terrorism" or even radical Islamic terrorism, continuing his policy of distancing such atrocities from the religion. But that nonetheless leaves open the question: How Islamic are Islamic terrorists? To equate the attacks with "views of Islam" creates "stereotypes" that are "counterproductive" and "wrong," Obama told reporters at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 16. "They will lead, I think, to greater recruitment into...

Kochi - In Kerala, where 50 per cent of the seats and positions in local self-Government institutions are reserved for women and where hundreds of Muslim women are contesting in the current civic poll, a prominent Sunni scholar-orator has pushed Muslim outfits into confusion by issuing a 'reprimand' that women's entry into politics and election battles is "Haram before Allah" according to Islam. The 'reprimand' has caused a huge headache for outfits like the Muslim League, second biggest constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF for which Sunni Muslims are a major vote-bank. But the speech of the scholar of Samastha,...

<p>The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group executed 70 members of a Sunni tribe allied to the government in western Iraq earlier this week, a tribal leader and the United Nations said Wednesday.</p> <p>The victims, members of the Albu Nimr tribe, were executed on Sunday in the Tharthar area north of Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar province, tribal elder Naim Gaoud told AFP.</p>

Saturday's Washington Post had an article which quotes the usual unnamed intelligence sources saying that they are surprised to discover that al Qaeda has "reconstituted" itself. This surprise derives from, inter alia, the computer data found recently in Pakistan, intelligence sources (both ours and friends'), and simply looking at the range of activities in which the terrorists engage. This surprise is, as usual, unsettling, since it has been quite clear for some time now that al Qaeda and the other major terrorist groups — Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Jamaa, etc. — are all working together, and have been ever since...