Free Republic

“A plan to build a mosque and Muslim cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero has unleashed a virulent and un-American wave of religious intolerance. As a fundamental matter of principle, houses of worship are welcome in New York. Whether they be churches, synagogues, temples or mosques, whether they be modest storefronts or soaring cathedrals, they have a home here. Islam included – and even downtown. There is no doubt that many in this country distrust the religion that was twisted malignantly into the force behind 9/11. And some, in blind ignorance, hate. Among those are Mark Williams, the Tea...

Seattle cartoonist launches "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" After Comedy Central cut a portion of a South Park episode following a death threat from a radical Muslim group, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris wanted to counter the fear. She has declared May 20th "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." Norris told KIRO Radio's Dave Ross that cartoonists are meant to challenge the lines of political correctness. "That's a cartoonist's job, to be non-PC." Listen to Molly Norris on Dave Ross Producers of South Park said Thursday that Comedy Central removed a speech about intimidation and fear from their show after a radical Muslim group...

LONDON: Since the terror attacks hit the United States on Sept. 11 six years ago, Europe has suffered far more than the United States from new attacks and reported plots. There were the train bombings in Madrid three years ago that killed 191 people, the London transit attack two years ago that killed 52 commuters and a string of foiled plots. Then there were the arrests last week in a plot in Germany that the police said could have caused even worse carnage than in Madrid or London. In response, Europeans for the most part are looking inward to explain...

My cousin Kamran is a successful software engineer in Tehran with a house, a thriving business of his own, and a brand new Peugeot, which he likes to show off by careening through the city's clogged streets at maniacal speeds. Like most of Iran's young and highly educated population, he must rely on other means to make ends meet. So, in addition to running his software business, Kamran tutors neighborhood children, raises chickens on his aunt's farm, hires himself out as a guide and translator for tourists, dabbles in real estate, and occasionally sells imitation designer handbags out of the...

Republican Fred Thompson says the terrorist threat from Islamic radicals is going to pose danger to the United States for a long time. He says "We have got to be more united and more committed than ever before." The former Tennessee senator and actor known for his role on NBC's "Law & Order" spoke last night at the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Indianapolis. Before his speech, he said he's in a sound position to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination, even though he hasn't declared his candidacy and others in the crowded field announced months ago. Thompson...

A Republican victory in 2008 could sink America's reputation in the world even lower. Even if George W. Bush is the most awful American president in modern times, as many historians believe, and even though he has brought the United States into unprecedented disrepute around the world, as opinion polls indicate, the bombastic tone of the candidates seeking to succeed him from his own party raises a disturbing possibility. If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse. Concerning the Iraq war, of course, there is no discernible difference between the current president and...

With his clenched fists, wild eyes and gnashing teeth he has become the face of Muslim fury, protesting against the enemies of Islam. Shakeel Ahmad Bhat has been on the frontline of political activism in Srinagar, India, for more than a decade. His constant presence, captured by photographers and beamed across the world, has caught the imagination of rightwing bloggers who have dubbed him Islamic Rage Boy and turned him into an internet phenomenon. Typing his nickname into a search engine yields more than 75,000 results. He has inspired a cartoon character and merchandise. But the 30-year-old Kashmiri activist is...

The two terrorist attacks known worldwide by their dates—9/11 and 7/7—inspired suspicion of Muslims in communities in both Europe and America. But each one also symbolizes the different relations each continent has with their Muslim populations. On 9/11, America was attacked by Muslims who came here solely for the purpose of attacking it. On 7/7, London was bombed by British Muslims who were products of their own society. What lessons Europe and America each draw from this will determine the future of their Muslims and their national identity. The Muslim communities of North America and Europe are often compared, with...

NORTH America's political columnist, Christopher Hitchens is telling the world+dog that the Everywhere Girl has been replaced by "Islamic Rage Boy". Islamic Rage Boy is a stock photo of a Kashmiri-based rent-a-protester who seems to be protesting at everything which moves. According to Hitchen's Slate column, IRB has been seen protesting Danish cartoons, magazine photos of a Muslim Mosque, a visit to India by President Bush, comments by the Pope, execution of a Muslim terrorist by India and Israeli military action. In other words when big media needs a picture of a stereotyped mad mullah to satisfy the prejudices about...

The U.S. would consider military force if necessary to stem al-Qaida's growing ability to use its hideout in Pakistan to launch terrorist attacks, a White House aide said Sunday. The president's homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, said the U.S. was committed first and foremost to working with Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, in his efforts to control militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. But she indicated the U.S. was ready to take additional measures. "Just because we don't speak about things publicly doesn't mean we're not doing things you talk about," Townsend said, when asked in a broadcast interview why the...

Is there not a cause? ~ David (c. 1040 B.C.) Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils ... nor, I think, will the human race. ~ Plato ("The Republic" 473c-d) Bombs, bullets and soldiers alone will never stop al-Qaida, Hezbollah, radical Islam and their religious fanatical jihad against Judaism, Christianity and the West. Why? Because...

On July 8, 2007 the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army, Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) war veterans issued an announcement warning the international community and especially the United Nations (UN) not to interfere the process of recognizing Kosovo’s independence. The KLA announcement specifically said that the Albanian leaders of Kosovo should not accept more suspensions (delays) or new negotiations because these would lead to new hostilities. If their demands were not accepted, then the KLA veterans warned that they would have to take action as KLA soldiers and honor the oath of their national heroes. The announcement came while the...

We could see it coming when, upon a recent visit to Palestine, a young Palestinian child asked me if I was with Fatah or with Hamas, the two rival and politically irreconcilable groups in the Palestinian territories. I answered, spontaneously, that I was simply a Palestinian -- to which the young man seemed bewildered. The Palestinian people, we are being told, no longer have Israel's 40-year-old occupation as a common enemy, but a bloody and almost tribal war to decide who should speak for the Palestinians. What we are witnessing is a civil war in Palestine. But it is civil...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions. "These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah...

On Sunday France elected a pro-American, conservative named Nicolas Sarkozy as its new president. The 52-year-old who beat back by 10 percentage points his Socialist rival, promises an unabashed Thatcherite agenda for France. Sarkozy also replaces the embattled Jacques Chirac, a relic from an earlier age of French politics, who made anti-Americanism his hallmark. Sarkozy campaigned on a platform of sweeping reforms, pledging to dismantle large portions of the social welfare state and to make France competitive on world markets again. He also pledged to reduce taxes, shrink the size of government and shut down redundant government programs. Carrying out...

MOSCOW-Russia's U.N. envoy on Wednesday warned the United States against trying to put a Western-backed independence plan for Kosovo to a vote, saying it would split the U.N. Security Council and create deadlock on the issue. Vitaly Churkin said Russia continues to strongly oppose the plan proposed by U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtissari that would give independence to Kosovo, which has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999. Churkin warned that Russia, which is a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, was prepared to take any action necessary to block the plan, although he stopped short of saying...

When the outcome of a tragedy is known in advance, it finds ways of occurring earlier than expected. In this case, the fate of 100,000 Serbian Christians who remain in Kosovo may pre-empt the debate over Europe's eventual absorption into the Muslim world. A new book on the Islamification of Europe appears almost weekly, adding to the efforts of Ben Wattenberg, Oriana Fallaci, Bat Ye'or, George Weigel, Mark Steyn, Philip Jenkins and a host of others. Scholars debate whether the decline and fall of Europe will occur by mid-century, or might be postponed until 2100. The inconvenient Serbs may force...

Hezbollah guerrillas also endanger U.N. troops by systematically setting up rocket launches alongside U.N. bases, either in the hope that Israel will think twice before firing back, or with the cynical aim of generating bad publicity for Israel by enticing it to bomb peacekeeping troops. They had sidled up to the U.N. bases to strike Israel at least four times in 24 hours this week, officials here said.