Free Republic

It is horrible to see the collapse of Afghanistan and thousands trying to flee the country before the Islamists take complete control there. What motivates the Taliban who once again are violently asserting power in that country? What makes the Taliban tick? There’s no mystery here. In some ways, it’s the same impulse at work in our world for the last 1400 years, ever since the hordes of Mohammed, Islam’s prophet, arose from the Arabian desert and took over as much territory as possible. Mohammed himself said, “I have been ordered to fight against the people until they testify that...

Asra Nomani comes with the message not to fear Trump, but to fear Islamic extremism Nancy Pelosi tried to offset the storm of criticism against new Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s succession of anti-Semitic remarks by claiming “I don’t think Ilhan Omar is Anti-Semitic. She has a different experience in her use of words, and she doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning she doesn’t realize.” Pelosi showed her ignorance of the cultural and ethnic background that allowed Somali-born Omar to say what she said, and mean what she said. But Pelosi did stumble on the kernel of...

One in 12 Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith and are the target of violent attacks including rape, a shocking report has found. According to a study by Open Doors USA, an organization that studies Christian persecution, 215 million Christians live in areas with high levels of persecution worldwide. The report also goes on to state that over 3,000 Christians were killed and nearly 800 churches were damaged in the last year. 'The most significant findings were that Christian women are among the most violated in the world, in maybe a way that we haven't seen before,'...

We have some breaking news coming from the United Kingdom. Apparently, British intelligence and security services have foiled an assassination plot against Prime Minister Theresa May.  Sky News reports that the head of MI5, Britain’s internal security service, briefed the May’s cabinet, telling them that a plot to launch some sort of explosive device at Downing Street in the hopes of killing Prime Minister May. We’ll keep you updated on the matterVia Sky News: Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "It's the latest in a number of terror plots that police and MI5 believe they've foiled this year."I understand that...

“The one thing I like about President Trump, he understands that we’re in a religious war,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday night, hours after a legal immigrant from Uzbekistan rammed his rented truck into people enjoying a sunny day on a lower Manhattan bike path, killing eight of them.The terrorist, apparently acting on behalf of ISIS, ended his mile long rampage when he crashed into a school bus. A policeman shot and injured him. He is expected to survive.Graham told Fox News the American people need to know, “We’re fighting people who are compelled by their religious views to kill us all. They kill fellow Muslims...

Americans considered Obama a credible source on Islam. After all, he had studied it in his younger years. That influence obviously had some residual value after he left office, even possibly influencing a vote in July by the U.S. House of Representatives on a very important GOP proposal. Drafted by conservative Republican Trent Franks of Arizona, the proposal sought to undertake a study of “Islamic religious doctrines, concepts or schools of thought” that could be authoritatively cited by terrorist groups to justify their actions. In other words, it was a vehicle by which members of Congress could be educated about...

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia has revealed the country will return to moderate, open Islam. Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud also announced the kingdom would do more to tackle extremism today. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh he said: "We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideas, we will destroy them today". The conference, which runs until Thursday, aims to show how the country is opening itself up to the modern world and diversifying economically. Prince bin Salman was appointed heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia by his...

It's been three years since President Obama called the Islamic State, a terrorist organization that emerged in the Iraq power vacuum left behind after his pre-mature troop pullout in 2011, the "jayvee team." During his remaining time in the Oval Office between 2014 and 2016, Americans and the world watched as ISIS marched across Iraq undeterred, brutally slaughtering thousands and destroying world history along the way. What had been won by U.S. forces in preceding years was lost. By 2016, ISIS had taken over and controlled large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the coveted caliphate so many Islamic...

You probably don’t want to go to actor Jordan Gavaris for geo-political advice. The star of BBC America’s Orphan Black spouted off on Islam, terrorism and the attack on London. He also managed to bash Donald Trump as a “tyrannical fascist.” 

Former FBI special agent John Guandolo has written a strong and sobering essay at his website, UnderstandingTheThreat, called "Unfit for Duty." It argues that two senior Trump administration officials, HR McMaster and Sebastian Gorka, are "catastrophically wrong" in their assessment of Islam as publicly stated and that this is "leading America down a disastrous road towards defeat." I agree. However, the problem is much, much larger than that. It is true that the statements (excerpted below) of both men serve to sever the logical, in fact, blatant connections between Islam and what I will call Hot Jihad (terrorism, war) and...

An Islamist gunman, who has confessed to the killing of 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day, told a court that he had aimed to kill Christians during his attack, Hurriyet newspaper said on Monday, citing testimony given this weekend. Abdulgadir Masharipov initially planned to attack the area around Taksim Square but switched to the upscale Reina nightclub due to the heightened security measures around the square, Hurriyet said, without saying how it had obtained the document. "I did not take part in any acts before the Reina event. I thought of carrying out an act against...

The domestic intelligence service has announced an uptick of hundreds in a matter of months. At least one cause of the worrying trend is the ease with which young people can become radicalized online, authorities said. Germany's domestic security and intelligance agency (the BfV) said on Wednesday that the radical Islamist scene in the country had grown considerably, from only about 100 people in 2013 to some 1,600 today. Indeed, according to BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen, the number had jumped by several hundred in a matter of months."We receive between two and four credible tips on planned terrorist activity in Germany...

President Obama’s top official responsible for vetting refugees testified before the Senate Wednesday that it’s possible for people from Syria and other terrorist-infested countries to have their refugee applications approved based simply on personal interviews with a “highly trained” immigration officer. Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, could not deny that in many cases there is no data from the refugee’s home country that would corroborate or refute his story. He tried to reassure the committee by saying the screening process is lengthy and continuously being improved, noting that the United Nations pre-screens the refugees before his...

Washington – A number of American psychologists ruled out the possibility that religion might be the main motive for the American Islamists extremists who used violence, especially those who said they are ISIS followers. These experts said that a huge number of them suffer psychological problems and cultural contradictions or even a failure in life. John Cohen, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University and the former counterterrorism coordinator at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told Asharq al-Awsat that many of them have psychological and behavioral characteristics in common. “Some studies reveal that they suffer dangerous psychological and personal...

Author and human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali argued President Obama's position on radical Islam is what he believes is strategic, but "it's a strategy that has failed" on Monday's "Hannity" on the Fox News Channel. Ali stated, "I'm always surprised to see people of authority here saying, what we see, these terrorist acts, the subjugation of women, the hatred of Jews and Christians, it has nothing to do with Islam. I mean, I watch that with amazement. I obviously have come to understand that it is a strategic position, that if we say these things, maybe the Islamist extremists...

In Islamist terrorism we face a violent and highly contagious madness that believes the killing of civilians is a moral act. Whatever this is, it is not a clash of civilizations. The concept of "civilization" scarcely comes into it. Nor is it a struggle between competing sets of values, or a religious war, or a battle with an alien culture. There is no debate here - as there was in the Cold War - about how it is best for men to live: the enemy has stated explicitly that it does not revere life at all. On the contrary, it...

Even before the killing of four Marines in Chattanooga, Tenn., in an "act of terrorism," Americans revealed a deep concern about Islamic extremism and a very high worry about ISIS, according to the latest poll from Pew Research.

The Muslim immigration warnings offered by Dutch politician Geert Wilders—who was in the facility in Garland, Texas, that was attacked by terrorists last weekend—seem to be coming true. Wilders, who has asked his own parliament to hold an exhibition on the Muhammed cartoons from the Garland, Texas event, has warned frequently that high levels of Muslim immigration without assimilation to the Western world—Europe and the United States of America—are dangerous to the culture and values of the West. Wilders, a featured speaker at the Garland event, has been on a terror hit list since 2010 for proposing to place a...

There is no doubt that President Obama’s remarks about Christianity at the National Prayer Breakfast last week were historically accurate. But they were also — let’s face it — glib, facile and patronizing. [snip of brief, gratuitous, misleading snark to burnish and retain his progressive credentials] My objection is that Obama — in drawing parallels between past atrocities perpetrated in the name of Christianity and current ones by terrorists acting in the name of Islam — constructed an all-too-pat narrative that lets everyone off the hook, including himself. The admonition not to “get on our high horse” about jihadist terror...

The number one issue at President Obama’s private meeting with Muslim leaders on Wednesday was the rise of Islamophobia in America, not the threat of Islamic terrorism, according to sources in the room with the president. Comedian Dean Obeidallah wrote that he attended the event and found the main topic to be discrimination against Muslims by their fellow Americans. “In fact, it was clearly the No. 1 issue raised: The alarming rise in anti-Muslim bigotry in America,” Obeidallah wrote for the Daily Beast. “My point was that while bigotry from certain Republicans is nothing new, I’m alarmed about the Democratic...