Free Republic

Months after Karen Hughes assumed the role of diplomat-at-large to the Muslim world, she told Time magazine that one of her two key influences on understanding Islam was Georgetown Prof. John Esposito. She’s not alone. The FBI has repeatedly consulted him, and much of academia holds him in high regard. But when he’s not busy shaping U.S. policy toward the Muslim world, Prof. Esposito mentors a man who wishes he could be a suicide bomber and who recently (and publicly) reinforced his support for “martyrdom.” He has collaborated on two books with Dr. Azzam Tamimi, and he still maintains a...

An ultra-radical Islamic ideology mixing zealot-like devotion and holy war creed is drawing more scrutiny in anti-terrorist probes from the Middle East to Europe — with increasing indications that its base on the fringes of Islamic extremism could be widening. In existence since the 1960s, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra has offered intellectual inspiration to al-Qaida and other militant groups. But authorities now worry about followers becoming more aggressive with recruitment and retaliation against perceived foes of Islam, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Officials in the Netherlands say the Dutch-Moroccan suspect — accused of killing Van Gogh on a busy...

The audience at a Muslim rally today were told that dying for your beliefs was "just" and the "greatest act of martyrdom". Dr Azzam Tamimi, a firebrand Islamic academic and self-styled Hamas sympathiser, claimed he is prepared to become a suicide bomber. An 8,000 strong crowd in Manchester were told that Tony Blair and George Bush were not pursuing a path which was "just and fair". He said the government was attempting to make the war on terrorism a war on Islam. Dr Tamimi, 51, was speaking at the ExpoIslamia convention at the Manchester Evening News Arena. The Palestinian, who...

CAIRO, Nov 20 (KUNA) -- Liaison officer of the Iraqi team of the wise Dr. Amer Al-Tamimi said Sunday, it was agreed to hold the wide-scale national reconciliation conference in Baghdad by end of February or prior to convening the Arab summit conference. This came during a closed-door session held by the team but off the Arab League headquarters and attended by Secretary General Amr Moussa, representative of the UN Secretary General Ashraf Qazi and representatives of 16 Iraqi factions. He told newsmen here today that during the session a solution was reached for the most critical issue that threatened...

A major explosion shook central Baghdad Friday morning near an interior ministry building where U.S. troops found detainees showing signs of torture, witnesses said. There was no immediate information about casualties. The blast in the Jadiriyah neighborhood reverberated through the city center, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by the sounds of sporadic small arms fire. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Earlier this week U.S. troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees, some showing signs of torture, in the building. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main...

<p>The Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hussein's long-range missile program has fled to neighboring Iran, a country identified as a state sponsor of terrorism with a successful missile program and nuclear ambitions, U.S. officers involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press.</p>

Little Green Footballs alerts us that Hollywood actor (and incarnate Tibetan Buddhist lama, according to him) Richard Gere is urging Palestinians to vote ("Vote or Die"?) in the fortcoming election. The problem is that he is willing to share the stage with some murderous villains: Gere’s co-stars in this public service announcement, presumably also speaking for the entire world, have previously urged Palestinians to wipe out Israel and finish the work of Adolf Hitler: Joining Gere in the announcement are Sheik Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Atallah Hanna, the...

Oct. 23, 2003 Palestinian gets 16 life sentences for driving Sbarro bomber By JPOST.COM STAFF A female Hamas activist was sentenced to 16 consecutive life sentences for driving the Palestinian suicide bomber who blew up the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem some two years ago, killing 15 people. A military tribunal sentenced Jordanian-born Ahlam Tamimi, 23, for driving the suicide bomber to the restaurant on August 9, 2001. Fifteen people were killed in the attack and over a hundred others were injured. According to a transcript of the trial, Tamimi was the first woman to be recruited by the Izzadine el-Qassam...