Free Republic

Only two days after admitting that Barack Obama has a problem with his "frightening" birth control decision, Chris Matthews on Thursday was back on offense. He berated Rick Santorum as a "theocrat" and knocked Reverend Franklin Graham as a "disgrace." The Hardball host singled out Family Research Council President Tony Perkins as the representative of all those who would question Obama's faith. Matthews interrogated, "Tony, do you think this president is a Muslim?" He added, "Why [do] your people" make such allegations? An exasperated Perkins replied, "no" and shot back, "My people?...The things that we have said have always been...

  THE TROUBLE WITH MUSLIM DEMOCRACY by Daniel Greenfield    The ultimate symbol of Muslim Democracy may not end up being the purple fingers of the Iraqi ballots but the smoke from burning churches and dead Coptic Christians in Egypt. While Iraq was tenuously balanced between Shiites and Sunnis, Arabs and Kurds, there is no such balance in Egypt. The average Egyptian is a Sunni Arab and thinks Christians are dogs. Church burnings are as close as Egypt is ever likely to get to democracy and we should be happy for that. The Muslim world is so enthusiastic about...

One odd feature of this bizarre Republican primary season is what we haven't seen yet: a full-bore re-litigation of Mitt Romney's Mormonism. There was a one-day tizzy last month over the anti-Mormon comments by Southern Baptist Convention leader Rev. Robert Jeffers, a Rick Perry supporter, but that's pretty much been it, which is all the more notable given that Romney's not the only Mormon in the race. Instead, the only ones to really contend with the implications of Romney's Mormonism have been a few voices about as far from GOP circles as one can get. First, there was Chris Lehmann's...

Men stand near their trucks as they are questioned by U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment about the contents in their trucks on July 14, 2011 in Iskandariya, Babil Province, Iraq. On the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many Americans are wondering whether the risk of a terrorist attack against America has been reduced. The picture is mixed. With the death of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda is weaker. With revolutions in several Arab countries, frustrations with unpopular autocratic governments — a recruiting theme for terrorist groups - have been mitigated. But one important contributing factor has...

Every once in a while an issue arises that can leave no doubt as to one’s true colors. Clear examples of this are the congressional bills that unambiguously prevent judges in American courts from citing or using Sharia in their rulings. If you support them, you oppose Islamic law in America; if you oppose them, you don’t. The purity of this issue doesn’t allow for prevarication. Michigan Representative Dave Agema, R-Grandville, has introduced the newest of these bills. While it doesn’t openly reference Islamic law (Sharia), it clearly intends to prevent judges from including Sharia in their rulings. The bill...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Intended as a simple gathering to invoke God’s help for America, a high-profile Houston prayer rally hosted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry kicked a beehive of anti-Christian sentiment as media commentators slammed the event as bigoted, unconstitutional, and even akin to Nazi brainwashing tactics. The Response, a non-denominational Christian event initiated by Gov. Perry and joined by cosponsors including the American Family Association (AFA), drew around 30,000 participants to Houston Saturday. There, the crowd followed a Biblical injunction to “gather together, repent of their sins, and pray to God to intervene on...

In October of 2007, Obama declared at a Apostolic Church in Greenville, South Carolina that he would create a millennial kingdom of God on earth. The church is Redemption World Outreach Center and is reported to be a part of the Pentecostal Holiness movement, according to some websites. Some Pentecostals believe that the kingdom will be a real physical kingdom, a theocracy ruled by men, and this appears to be such a sect. The doctrine that the millennial kingdom will be a man-made physical kingdom on earth created by political or military means is called Dominion Theology. The doctrine of...

In response to whether the public should vote for a Mormon for president, one should know what beliefs a candidate had. Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have Mormon roots and they have been vague about their beliefs and loyalty to the LDS church. Mormon theology includes ideas like their priesthood brethren will become the government leaders, or future kings of the world, in a globalized theocracy, and that their male leaders will take over when a second coming of Christ occurs. They believe they are the pre-ordained leaders to rule over a coming theocratic kingdom.Worthy Mormon males are temple attending,...

The NYT artcile linked below takes on the air of child-like wonder when the author seems to ponder how it is that the "young, educated secular activists who initially propelled the nonideological revolution are no longer the driving political force" DUH! RPR and most other rational, intelligent observers noted the Muslim Brotherhood was the only truly prepared to assume the mantle of power in a post-Mubarak Egypt, and that, it appears, is exactly what's happening. Despite the crying and wailing, secular Egyptians are doomed to loose this fight. The Egyptians do not, and have never had, a culture of Liberty....

A recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune highlighted the fact that the Church’s Presiding Bishop, H. David Burton, attended the signing of a comprehensive set of immigration reform bills passed by the Utah legislature. The article said: “One thing is clear: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has abandoned its claims to neutrality on these bills.”This needs a clarification.While the Church does not endorse or oppose specific political parties, candidates or platforms, it has always reserved the right to address, in a nonpartisan way, issues that have significant community or moral consequences. Immigration is such an...

National Journal has the transcript. I was expecting praise for the protesters tempered by warnings about “gradual” change, the importance of “stability,” and so on. Nope. This was a love letter to democracy, little different from what Bush would have said at his most glowing moment of neoconservative idealism. The strategy over the past few weeks, I thought, was to hedge between support for liberal reform and support for Mubarak as a U.S. ally in order to reassure Jordan, Yemen, and the Saudis that we won’t dump them too the minute they run into trouble. Are we now telling them...

President Obama was scheduled to speak at 12:30pm Central Time. While we are still awaiting his words, feel free to vent about the current situation in Egypt until he begins speaking!

Forty years ago, the thought of granite counter tops, marble floors and indoor basketball gyms at Houston mosques seemed unthinkable. But after decades of growth, the Muslim community is expanding and building new facilities at an unprecedented pace, with features and amenities that rival five-star hotels, leaders say. Multimillion-dollar plans for major mosque expansions and constructions are moving forward throughout the Houston area, coming on the heels of recently finished developments.

From the days of the Caesars to the heads of democratic states and Marxist empires, the ungodly have seen what Christians too often fail to see, namely, that Biblical faith requires and creates a rival government to the humanistic state. Defective faith seeks to reduce Biblical faith to a man-centered minimum, salvation. Now salvation, our regeneration, is the absolutely essential starting point of the Christian life, but, if it is made the sum total thereof, it is in effect denied. Salvation is then made into a man-centered and egotistical thing, when it is in fact God-centered and requires the death,...

Is there a Churchillian lesson to be found in Ahmadinejad’s visit this week to wildly enthusiastic Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon? If one thing has become clear, it’s that Ahmadinejad’s radical-Islamic curtain has descended over Lebanon. Practically all of Lebanon’s political parties euphorically welcomed Ahmadinejad at the presidential palace. Um Ali, a Lebanese woman who is, like Ahmadinejad, a Shiite, said, “God willing, we will have an Islamic Republic in Lebanon.” Israel’s foreign-ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, deemed Ahmadinejad’s trip the equivalent of a “landlord coming to inspect his domain.” The Obama administration is, for the most part, sitting on the sidelines...

Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor. By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN In a commentary on the shrill Republican silence in the face of the "Obama is a Muslim" nonsense, Slate’s John Dickerson wrote that "with so much traffic on the low road in American politics, you'd imagine a politician or two might take the high road simply to beat the congestion." Well, New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg continues to take the road less...

Jocelyne Cesari, in a special column for CNN’s website, wrote a piece called, “Islam is a religion, not a terror ideology”. The piece is full of mistakes and assertions that are based in liberal’s hopes not actual fact. Let’s dissect this piece of wishful thinking one lie at a time. She writes, “Opposition to Islamic centers and mosques in the United States shows remarkable similarities to anti-Islamic movements in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, where people also have sought to prohibit new mosques. Last December in Switzerland, citizens voted in a referendum to prohibit new minarets.” There is good reason...

Not only are US Mosques teaching and preaching Sharia Law, now our government is foolishly allowing a Sharia “college” to open. I say foolishly because Sharia is what the enemy wants to impose on us, and allowing it to be taught here in America, is the equivalent to allowing Nazis to have their own US schools during WWII. Not only do we have to end all Muslim immigration, we also need to ban Sharia Law. Then arrest and deport if possible, any Muslim who calls for Sharia. They are to be looked upon as enemies of the state, just as...

The current wave of anti-mosque protests around the country represents a new threat to the religious freedom of Muslims in America — a threat directed not just at terrorists who act in the name of Islam, but at all Muslims and Islam itself. Incidents of discrimination and bias aimed at Muslim Americans have been rising since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But anti-Muslim rhetoric has taken an ominous turn in recent months as a growing number of political and community leaders — some with tea-party affiliations — have begun warning of a “Muslim takeover” of America.

The Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip have ordered lingerie shops to display more modesty. A week after banning women from smoking water pipes in public places, the Hamas-run police force has told stores selling women's underwear to remove scantily-clad mannequins and any posters of racy undergarments. "These measures have stemmed from complaints and pressure by ordinary people. They have to do with upholding our traditions," police spokesman Ayman Al-Batniji said Wednesday. Hamas leaders have repeatedly denied any intention to impose Islamic law on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. But Hamas police have broken up a hip-hop...

A stupid New Jersey judge has attempted to use Sharia law to uphold a Muslim husband’s “right” to rape a teenage girl forced to wed him in an [arranged marriage. Taking the view that married women are the chattel property of their husbands, the judge (whose name has not been published by the old media) denied the validity of New Jersey’s charges because the rapes were committed within the period in which the couple was married. Allowing the man’s Islamic [beliefs to exonerate him, the judge remarked, "This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had...

The web site Favstocks.com has published what amounts to propaganda for the financial jihadists. In an online article published on July 1st, the site “explained” “Islamic investing,” touting it as “socially responsible.” This affords us a teaching moment. We will go through the various aspects of the article and deconstruct the propaganda:

…the point is clear and her position is ultimately that “of course, we know [the Word] means” and that she is defining the Word Biblically. Yet, she is then applying it to public/governmental policy and we know that this can mean anything/everything such as abortion, welfare, the social gospel, etc. So, what do the watchdogs/watchgods have to say about the fact that a Democrat, Barack Obama administration, House Speaker is stating that, “we have to give voice to…public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word….‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us’”? Dan Barker:...

The Coalescing of the Christian Right with Apostolic Dominionism It is not about FREEDOM, it is about DOMINION "The NEW BREED of Christian is poised to take over the earth, precinct by precinct. God's Army is rising up. It is time to put on the militant garb. The glint in the eye becomes fixed as the exhilaration of the hour sweeps through the masses. They can make a difference! The world has been waiting with bated breath for this LAST DAY GENERATION. False prophets in their midst are caught in sin, under discipline, yet their tapes sell to believers of...

The project of a community center /mosque is being proposed by two organizations, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and their sister organization, the Cordoba Initiative. This past Wednesday night they made their presentation to the Community Board of lower Manhattan (CB1). Twelve people sit on the board and would you like to guess what the final vote was? Get ready to grab a barf bag … the 12 members voted unanimously to support the project. Yes, it's not a typo, it was unanimous, all were in favor and, to give you an idea of how excited the board...

SNIP The impact of this continuing dialogue is difficult to measure, but White House officials cited several recent government actions that were influenced, in part, by the discussions. The meeting with Ms. Napolitano was among many factors that contributed to the government’s decision this month to end a policy subjecting passengers from 14 countries, most of them Muslim, to additional scrutiny at airports, the officials said. That emergency directive, enacted after a failed Dec. 25 bombing plot, has been replaced with a new set of intelligence-based protocols that law enforcement officials consider more effective. Also this month, Tariq Ramadan, a...

The Green Movement is a revolt against theocracy. Most of its adherents are young Iranians with little or no religious motivation. Yet, an iconic figure of the revolt was the nation’s highest-ranking cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri; and, last month, Ashura, a holy day celebrating martyrdom, occasioned some of the movement’s most massive protests. Perhaps the fact that the movement has acquired a Shia veneer shouldn’t be terribly surprising. During the past century, no social movement in Iran has succeeded without draping itself in religion or without a strong Shia contingent in its leadership. But to limit the discussion...

Obama's "Christ"mas (Obamacare) gift to the masses (Xmas Eve Vote A Conspiracy?) Could there be with some narcissistic irony, that on the night of the Christ Child's birth, Barack Hussein Obama (and who knows what faith he really espouses?) gives the gift of Obamacare to the masses of our (last time I looked) constitutional republic, one nation under God and indivisible (?)... Could this Xmas Eve Vote be the mother of all conspiracies?

There is no discussing Islam without discussing the Moderate Muslim. Like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, the Moderate Muslim is often a topic of conversation, but rarely has much to say about himself. And even those who note that the Moderate Muslim is somewhat less in evidence than the Dodo or the Mammoth, turn instead to the project of reforming Islam. It is of course possible to reform Islam. It is also possible to reform a serial killer. It is however not likely, and certainly not safe to stake your serial-killer prevention strategy on letting the serial killer run...

For two decades, the Religious Right has reveled in the successes of their crusade to erode the wall separating church and state. Since America's sharp Left turn in 2008, they have not been so quick to gloat. Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said, "I'm not grieving over Barack Obama's victory, but over the loss of things that I've fought for, for 35 years," particularly concerning abortion rights and advancement of the so-called homosexual agenda. The Religious Right itself seems to be taking a soul-searching sabbatical, to get back in touch with its deeper mission: to live...

Pope Leo XIII on True LibertyA Great Pontiff Condemns a Modern ErrorMICHAEL DAVIES IN his encyclical letter Libertas, Pope Leo XIII warns that there are certain so-called liberties which modern society takes for granted that every man possesses as a right. These are the liberties "which the followers of liberalism so eagerly advocate and proclaim." (The terms freedom and liberty will be considered synonymous for the purposes of this article; the Latin word libertas is expressed by either, depending on the translator.) The essence of liberalism is that the individual human being has the right to decide for himself the...

Unfortunately for America the Islamic dominance in sections of Michigan is growing stronger, and stronger. Will the Islamic influence there get as bad as it is in the UK? Time will tell... NOV. 4, 2009 Muslims given strong role in Hamtramck BY NIRAJ WARIKOO FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER After Tuesday's election, Muslims are to make up half of the city council members in Hamtramck, a percentage believed by advocates to be the highest Muslim representation in a municipality in the United States.

The Left is not the decrier of theocracy and the champion of strict separation of church and state that it claims to be. Democrats seem perfectly willing to accede to an Islamic brand of theocracy if it strengthens the Left's hold on America. Alarmingly, the Democrats also seem to think they can keep Islamic extremism under their control, using only so much of it as is necessary to further their own agenda. This naiveté portends disastrous consequences for freedom in America. We must act now before the religion that gave us the 9/11 hijackers makes the Whitehouse Muslim. Or has...

Sources at the Iranian opposition said that the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has died. The Iranian police have increased their activities in the streets of Teheran recently. For the time being, it is known that Khamenei lost consciousness on Monday afternoon and was hospitalized. Only his son and personal therapist have the right to visit Ayatollah at hospital. Khamenei reportedly lapsed into coma, although spokespeople for the Iranian opposition say that the spiritual leader has passed away. The Iranian administration has not commented the situation yet. Several western publications said that the information...

The Iranian regime is increasingly unstable and its collapse has become a real possibility. Economic and international pressure, fractures in the regime, and the increasing hostility of the majority of the population to the government are factors that could prove fatal to the theocracy. As the Iranian government’s pillars continue to shake, a new generation of leaders is poised to fill the gap and take the country in a more positive direction. Let us take a closer look at this new generation of leaders to gauge what may ensue if the tyrannical theocracy falls. The most talked about leader is...

The Left loves to talk about Sarah Palin's church, but not so much about its burning. And please don't mention to them that before he became president, Barack Obama sat in a church for 20 years while one of his mentors, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, preached Marxist Liberation Theology. As with all things, libs want to have it both ways. Like many other leftist hate sites, Planet of the Chimps 2 mocks Palin and Wasilla Assembly of God, a church she no longer attends: "One of the musical directors at the church, Adele Morgan, who has known Ms. Palin since the...

"The quickest way to end a war is to lose it". - George Orwell Monoculture is a term that has been freighted with a lot of baggage, mostly negative. The origin of this compound word is usually traced to agriculture where it is used to describe a farm or a farming community that relies on a single crop. Tobacco, cotton, sugar, and now corn, are examples. The advantages of monoculture farming are obvious; seed, soil, water and equipment requirements are uniform. Yet standardization has a down side. Uniformity makes crops vulnerable to a single pathogen or pest; and the soil,...

The pivotal foreign policy event so far in the Obama presidency was not this week's summit with Russia. It was instead that rarest of all events: Barack Obama's silence. When the people of Iran filled the streets of their country demanding a fair election, the U.S. clutched for a week. Uncertain of whether U.S. interests lay with the nuke-building ayatollahs or the democracy-seeking population, the Obama team essentially mumbled sweet nothings through the first days of the most extraordinary world event in this young presidency's term. That moment of hesitation, when a genuine and strategically useful democratic moment needed support,...

At this point, only the short-term future of Iran's clerical regime remains in doubt. The current protests could be repressed, but the unelected institutions of priestly rule have been fatally undermined. Though each aspect of the Islamic Republic has its own dynamic, this is not a regime that can last many more years. When it comes to repression, Iran has a spectrum of security instruments that can be used...The national police can take care of routine crowd control; riot-police units can beat some demonstrators in order to discourage others; the much more brutal, underclass Basij militiamen enjoy striking and shooting...

Just saw it on Fox News in a discussion about the role of camera pens in the Iran protests.

Where is President Barack Obama? The whole world wonders. As people who yearn to free themselves from the yoke of oppression look to our president for guidance, the purported leader of the free world dithers on Iran. As the great and historically unprecedented upheaval continues, one of the greatest orators of our time, has become a sideshow, his response to the crisis reduced to issuing tepid, cautious, lawyerly equivocations. On Iran, Barack Obama is held captive to his firmly held conviction in the post-modernist concept of moral equivalence. The doctrine of moral equivalence was not only a pivotal and indispensable...

In describing Islam, many political commentators use words like radical, political, extremist or militant as qualifying adjectives or they use the words Islamism or Islamo-fascism in order to specify their cirticism of the political side of Islam and to carefully exhibit no hostility toward Islam as a religion. This approach caters to the prevailing political orthodoxy by implying that there is an overwhelming majority of Muslims devoted to the good religious Islam with only a small subset of extremists fighting for the bad political Islam, which Muslims themselves don’t necessarily endorse. We call this the “two Islams formula.” Politicians love...

Funny to return from Lebanon, Syria and Turkey - where women go unveiled - and return to Britain, the land of the full hijab. I see more women with their faces covered in Tower Hamlets than I did in Damascus. I used to think that covering the whole face except for the eyes was the normal Islamic custom (in a week in Afghanistan I hardly saw a woman's face) and so was surprised to find that even in Syria, the most culturally conservative of the Middle Eastern countries I've just visited, not a tenth of the women seem to cover...

President Barack Obama who conesses to have Muslims relatives and who comes from a Muslim father has numerous times; both verbally and in writing painted Muslims with a kind and appreciative brush. He has described Muslims as nice, talented, civil and agreeable people. His resolve and decision to utter his full name with the middle name Hussein during the oath taking ceremony as president speaks for his conviction and strength of character. Perhaps he has a laudable fondness for the Muslims whom he thinks were as peace living, law abiding and hardworking people within the United States as other were....

Here is complete video of President Obama today addressing the Turkish Parliament - the Grand National Assembly. Obama used this speech to urge closer times between the United States and the Muslim world. He did so by declaring that the U.S. "is not and never will be at war with Islam" . . . . . Obama is underestimating the number of Muslims in the world who do identify with the ideology of Al-Qaeda. If there were only a few extremists in Islam, they would not have the power and ability that they have. He is right that many Muslims...

JEDDAH – Women’s coffee shops are no longer just meeting places for friends or refuges for a moment’s escape from the daily routine. Instead, according to some, they have become the haunts of university students and schoolgirls playing truant to indulge themselves in smoking shisha pipes and cigarettes, with women using the locations as impromptu job agencies, and matchmakers seeking willing bribes. Behind the walls of women’s coffee shops, some say, all sorts of things go on. Salwan Abdullah, a 24-year-old university student, recalls the first time she was invited by a student friend to go to an all-female coffee...

8 "Freedom." Unfortunately, "freedom," as expressed in American foreign policy, does not always seek to engage how the local community and culture understands it. Absent such an understanding, freedom can imply an unbound licentiousness. The balance between the freedom to something (liberty) and the freedom from something (security) is best understood in a conversation with the local context and, in particular, with the Muslims who live there. "Freedom" is best framed in the context of how they understand such things as peace, justice, honor, mercy, and compassion. 9. "Religious Freedom." Sadly, this term too often conveys the perception that American...

The recession gripping the nation has taken less of a toll on American Muslims who follow age-old Islamic laws against paying – or charging – interest. They've also been shielded by socially responsible retirement plans because Shariah– Islamic law – forbids investments in banks and mortgages as well as tobacco, alcohol, gambling, pornography or weapons. "If everybody was Shariah-compliant, there would be no recession," said Farouk Fakira, a Yemeni immigrant who moderated a discussion on Islamic finance at Sacramento's Masjid Annur last week.

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

CHICAGO — In a bid to get more Muslim Americans working in the Obama administration, a book with resumes of 45 of the nation's most qualified — Ivy League grads, Fortune 500 executives and public servants, all carefully vetted — has been submitted to the White House. The effort, driven by community leaders and others, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., was bumped up two weeks because White House officials heard about the venture, said J. Saleh Williams, program coordinator for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, who sifted through more than 300 names. "It was mostly under the radar," Williams...