Free Republic

An elementary school in Colorado has come under criticism after they lowered the American flag and elevated a Saudi Arabian flag. The principal at Bauder Elementary School in Fort Collins said they did not mean to disrespect the American flag, according to a report in the Greeley Gazzette.

Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli military flights following a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, the Turkish prime minister and officials said Monday. Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Toronto that Turkey imposed the ban after the May 31 raid on a Turkish ship that was part of a six-vessel international aid flotilla, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency. The prime minister, who is in Canada to attend a summit of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations, did not elaborate. On Sunday, Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported that Turkey had not allowed a...

It was a scene Saudi women’s rights activists have dreamt of for years. When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition. But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping. A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a...

An Islamic court in Nigeria has permanently banned a rights group from holding an internet debate about amputation as a form of punishment. This follows a temporary order made last week by a court in northern Nigeria preventing Facebook and Twitter being used to discuss the issue. The ban was initially sought by a pro-Sharia group which said internet sites would be used to mock Islamic law. The Sharia code runs alongside secular law in 12 of Nigeria's 36 states. In 2000, Malam Buba Bello Jangebe was the first person in Nigeria to have an amputation carried out under Islamic...

A British man has been killed after youths allegedly rammed a car into a group of friends who were cycling in Saudi Arabia. Initially, it is understood that one of the cars clipped a cyclist causing him to fall off his bike. Then, however, one of the drivers is alleged to have turned around and deliberately ploughed his car into the cyclists. In the past 15 years, there have been a number of terrorist attacks on British and other western nationals in Saudi Arabia by Muslim extremists. Several westerners have been killed – and even more injured – in a...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said it will file suit today against a publicly funded charter school, alleging that it is promoting the Muslim religion and that its directors are using a holding company to illegally funnel taxpayer dollars to a Muslim organization. The suit was to be filed this afternoon in U.S. District Court against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, known as TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education, which the ACLU says is at fault for failing to uncover and stop the alleged transgressions. The suit names the department and Alice Seagren, the state education commissioner, as...