Free Republic

SNIPPET: "NAIROBI, Kenya, May 5 (CDN) -- Islamic militants yesterday killed another leader of the underground church movement in Somalia, sources said. Before he was fatally shot on Tuesday (May 4) in Xarardheere, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jowhar, 57-year-old Yusuf Ali Nur had been on a list of people the Islamic extremist al Shabaab suspected of being Christian, sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told Compass. Al Shabaab, said to have links with al Qaeda, has vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity." SNIPPET: "Nur is survived by his wife, whose name was withheld for security reasons, and...

just breaking, Oberoi Trident hotel is secure

Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey, in an effort to defend Barack Obama against President Bush’s “appeasement” speech, actually ends up defending Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria): Bush, and His Use of ‘Appeasement’. Democrats are rebuking President Bush for saying in his speech to the Knesset, here, that to “negotiate with terrorists and radicals” is “appeasement.” The Democrats took it as a slap at Barack Obama. What bothers me is the continual reference to Hitler and his National Socialists, particularly the British and French accommodation at the Munich Conference of 1938. What Hitler was...

President Bush’s speech to the Israeli parliament sparked a series of denunciations from high ranking Democrats across the country. The President’s characterization of negotiation with terrorist regimes—like the one in Iran that has called for the destruction of Israel—as “a foolish delusion” and akin to Neville Chamberlain’s negotiations with Hitler appears to have touched a nerve in Democratic circles. Although Bush did not specifically name anyone in his speech, Democratic presidential front runner, Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) called Bush’s comments an “appalling attack on my ‘peace through concessions’ strategy for making America safe. Look, we can’t afford to get involved...

Even military leaders aren’t immune. In 2005, columnist Diana West noted that America’s Iraq commander, Lieutenant General John R. Vines, was educating his staff in Islam by giving them a reading list that “whitewashes jihad, dhimmitude and sharia law with the works of Karen Armstrong and John Esposito”; two years later, West noted the unwillingness of a counterinsurgency advisor, Lieutenant Colonel David Kilcullen, to mention jihad. In January 2008, the Pentagon fired Stephen Coughlin, its resident expert on sharia and jihad; reportedly, his acknowledgment that terrorism was motivated by jihad had antagonized an influential Muslim aide. “That Coughlin’s analyses would...

had an unusual education in the Holocaust. When I was working for the Attorney General, I was assigned to do the classified research about the Holocaust, so I went underground to a little town called Suitland, Maryland, right outside Washington, D.C., and that's where the U.S. government buries its secrets -- literally. There are twenty vaults underground and each vault is one acre in size. Anyone see the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? The last scene of that movie is what the underground vaults are really like, only not as organized as they are in the movie. And in...

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. Nicolas Sarkozy Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was warned of an 'intifada' As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed "banlieue" estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin. It said the situation was so grave that it had asked the government to provide police with...

DENMARK'S Foreign Ministry warned Danish citizens against travelling to several Muslim countries and Israel today after the latest Prophet Mohammad cartoon controversy. The warning comes after Danish state TV aired amateur video footage showing members of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) youth wing taking part in a competition to draw images mocking the Prophet at a summer camp in August. The Foreign Ministry issued a strong advisory against travel to the Gaza Strip and cautioned against travel to Israel and the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen...

I no longer accept that we are only at war with Islamic fascists or Islamic Fundamentalists or whatever the heck we’re calling them this week. I believe that we in the West are at war with Islam, period. I have heard any number of politicians, up to and including President Bush, claim, contrary to all reason and evidence, that Islam is a religion of peace. If you buy that load of malarkey, I’ve got a Brooklyn mosque I’d like to sell you. This is the religion that was founded by the violence-prone Mohammed fourteen hundred years ago. It was he...

LONDON (AFP) - Police have revealed they were investigating the dumping of a pig's head outside a mosque on the first full day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The head was found outside the Jamia Mosque in Newport, southeast Wales, on Saturday. The Koran strictly forbids Muslims to eat pork. "We treat all incidents of hate crime seriously and are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry to identify the offender," said Gwent Police Superintendent Simon Prince on Friday. Nobody at the mosque was available for comment but Sheikh Mohammad Thair Ullah, the chairman of the nearby Shah...

INDONESIA: Medical Update on Beheading SurvivorSeptember 21, 2006 The sole survivor of a radical Muslim attack on four Christian high school girls has successfully undergone medical treatment. When Noviana Malewa and her three friends were walking home from school on October 29, 2005, they were assaulted by a group of jihadists wielding machetes. Three of the girls were decapitated by the assailants, yet Noviana survived a severe slash to her head and neck in an unsuccessful beheading attempt. Today, Noviana still deals with emotional and physical torment from the brutal attack. Suffering from nerve damage and a dislocated jaw,...

Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslim religious leaders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday warned Pope Benedict XVI that he must "accept" Islam if he wanted to live in peace. The warning, the first of its kind, came as many Christians in the West Bank expressed anger over a spate of attacks on churches in protest against remarks made by the pope about the Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. Two more churches in the West Bank were targeted on Sunday in protest against the pope's remarks, bringing to seven the number of churches that have been attacked over...

The spiritual leader of Lebanon’s Sunnis, the Grand Mufti Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, said the pope’s remarks emanated either from "Ignorance and lack of knowledge or were deliberately intended to distort Islam." Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said “there should be no controversy; the pope has already explained his true intentions. The religious dialogue and the respect for every religion is a necessity, and religion doesn’t justify violence. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said of Benedict XVI: He is a great pope, with great intelligence. Right-wing politician Roberto Calderoli said “I ask myself some crazy member of the Left...

Four days into his reign, Pope Benedict called the journalists who had been covering his election to what was billed as a press conference. Addressing the assembled correspondents, photographers, camera operators, sound recordists and producers, he noted that the media were capable of reaching and influencing not only individuals, but whole masses of people - indeed, the whole of humanity. He thanked us all for our hard work in putting that awesome power at the service of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican for a few days. Then he blessed us - and, just as the reporters present were...

Australia's Islamic clerics have been told they must draw on the teachings of Islam to condemn terrorism, and preach in English. The federal Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Robb called on more than 100 Australian imams and Muslim leaders attending a government-sponsored conference to denounce extremist misrepresentations of Islam. "We live in a world of global terrorism where vile acts are regularly being perpetrated in the name of your faith," Mr Robb told the two-day conference. "Because it is your faith that is being invoked as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem. "You cannot...

Don’t blame Islam for Taliban’s behavior Wednesday, September 13, 2006 Joseph Vogel’s Aug. 27 letter "Muslim fascism had a grip on Afghanistan" falls into the category of problematic, to say the least. If the Taliban are "Islamic fascists," deed, though the Christian leadethen the Nazis were "Christian fascists." Inrs of Germany praised Adolf Hitler at the time, there was nothing Christian in the Nazis. They used their people’s faith and love of their country to lead them to hell. Similarly, there is nothing Islamic in forcing a particular government or religious practice on anyone, as the Taliban do. Islam, like...

Are fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions justified?

Muslim women booking into hospital for operations can now respect their religion by wearing this unique burka-style gown. The 'Inter-Faith Gown' is the brainchild of Karen Jacob, the linen services manager at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is the first such gown to be introduced in the country and patients at Preston and Chorley hospitals will now have the opportunity to wear it if they wish. Ms Jacob said: "I noticed a gap in the market and thought that it would be great if there was a gown that helped to preserve a patient's modesty." The gown provides...

The Odd Couple An odd couple Fascism presents itself in various forms and today two predominant forms of fascism can be found working within Islam and modern liberalism. It seems strange that although they are diametrically opposed to each other, and in heart hate each other, they are often found fighting on the same side of a cause or an issue. When comparing the ideologies of Islamic fascists vis-à-vis to western ideofascists of leftist persuasion, it is amazing how similar some of their rhetoric is as well as their list of enemies. It should also be noted that even though...

President Bush has toned down his war rhetoric after Muslim-rights groups complained his description of the enemy as "Islamic fascists" unfairly equates Islam with terrorism. In his speech to the American Legion Thursday, Bush backed away from the term, defining the enemy simply as "fascists" and "totalitarians." He said the war on terror was an "ideological struggle" with terrorists who "kill those who stand in the way of their totalitarian ideology," but he did not identify the source of the ideology. His only reference to Islam during the speech was in noting that the Muslim terrorists are distorting the tenets...