Free Republic

NPR touts Muhammad’s example as means to counter “extremism” This article is more ridiculous than most. Muhammad loved dates, melons and cucumbers and that’s supposed to make Muslims less susceptible to “extremist propaganda”? His non-snoring blowing sound while sleeping is supposed to make Muslims “emphasize charity and respect for other faiths”? “Hassan argues that if Muslims had more knowledge of how the Prophet Muhammad actually lived and what he taught, they would be less vulnerable to extremist propaganda. Counterterrorism officials — who’ve focused largely on surveillance, sting operations and community policing — would have more success countering extremism, he says,...

Whether Muhammad is a prophet is a matter of faith, not fact.In all the coverage of the barbaric terror attacks in Paris Wednesday, one fact of the story kept getting repeated in a curious way on network news, cable news, and in most mainstream publications. They kept saying, “Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.” Do you see it? You probably have become so used to it you don’t even notice anymore. But it’s strange, isn’t it? Why on earth do the news media continue to proclaim Muhammad as a prophet? Isn’t “prophet,” in this context, a subjective modifier?...

The configuration and physical impact of the bomb detonated last Saturday in Stockholm is best left for forensic specialists to evaluate. For the rest of us, the most important aspect of the event is that it constitutes yet another warning for the unctuously self-righteous, effeminate and oblivious West that Islamist attacks are based on what we do, not who we are and how we think. Taymour Abdul Wahab, the dead bomber, claimed his attack was motivated by Sweden’s contribution of five hundred troops to the U.S.-led Afghan war, the media’s printing of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and other Western...

The White House Released this statement yesterday from President Barack Obama to commemorate the Muslim holiday of Ramadan: These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings. Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality. And here in the United States, Ramadan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country. And today, I want to extend my best wishes to the 1.5...

<p>GENEVA (AP) - Islamic proposals to ban criticism of religion, which have gathered strength since the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad two years ago, threaten to derail an already troubled U.N. anti-racism conference planned for next year. The European Union rejects suggestions by Algeria—backed by other Muslim and African countries—that limits on free speech are needed to stop the publication of offensive articles and images.</p>

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, is refusing to remove medieval artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, despite being flooded with complaints from Muslims demanding the images be deleted. More than 180,000 worldwide have joined an online protest claiming the images.... are offensive to Islam, which prohibits any representation of Muhammad. But the defiant editors of the encyclopaedia insist they will not bow to pressure and say anyone objecting to the controversial images can simply adjust their computers so they do not have to look at them.[snip]Muslims and argue the least Wikipedia can do is blur or blank out the faces....

What exactly was the profession of Mohammed, the founder of Islam? Did he work at Wal-Mart? Did he flip burgers at McDonald’s? Did he at least work for a Jew jeweler, making ornaments for the beautiful women of Medina? Find it out here:

Spanish villages are abandoning the centuries-old tradition of burning effigies of the Prophet Muhammad for fear of offending Muslims. The annual festivals...feature locals donning medieval costumes to re-enact battles between "Moors and Christians" during the Reconquista period. The fiestas celebrate events in 1492, when the Catholic kings of northern Spain defeated and expelled Islamic forces, ending more than 800 years of Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally the festivities have culminated with the burning of mannequins of the Mahoma, a figure based on the Prophet Muhammad, to represent the final defeat of Islam in the region.

(2006-02-17) — In a dramatic escalation of the conflict over cartoons, first published in Denmark, depicting a connection between terrorism and the founder of Islam, Iranian bakeries that retaliated this week by renaming Danish pastries as “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad,” today expanded the offensive by giving new names to baked goods associated with America. The official Iranian Bakery News Agency announced that donuts will now be called “Bullet in the Face of the Great Satan”, and donut holes labeled “Beheaded Infidels.” (...)

TIME was, long ago, when Muslim commentators delved with tabloid nosiness into the public and private life of the Prophet Muhammad. Bukhari, considered the most authentic of the early collectors of the Prophet's sayings, revelled in the ins and outs of who slept with whom, when and where. No longer. When al-Hilal, a small Jordanian weekly, published accounts, based on Bukhari, of the Prophet's sex-life, the result was shock and horror. This week, three of al-Hilal's journalists were hauled, chained and caged, before a state security court and tried for defaming the messenger of God. An army general had earlier...