News recently emerged that Russia was banning key Islamic scriptures—including Sahih Bukhari—on the charge that they promote “exclusivity [supremacism] of one of the world’s religions,” namely Islam; or, in the words of a senior assistant to the prosecutor of Tatarstan Ruslan Galliev, “a militant Islam” which “arouses ethnic, religious enmity.” If Sahih Bukhari, a nine-volume hadith collection compiled in the …
MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Turkey No Friend of the West By TAREK FATAH
Last week, Pope Francis paid a visit to Turkey in what was seen as an attempt to align the Catholic church with moderate Muslims. In a gesture of goodwill, Pope Francis visited the Blue Mosque, one of the masterpieces of Ottoman architecture, where he turned east toward Mecca, clasped his hands and paused for two minutes as the Grand Mufti …
MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Death of an American ‘Infidel’ in Abu Dhabi By PHYLLIS CHESLER
On December 1st, a figure in a black burqa, armed with an eight-inch knife, entered the upscale Boutik shopping mall located in Reem Island, the neighborhood where most of Abu Dhabi’s 40,000 expatriates live. The black burqa’ed figure waited for more than an hour in a woman’s toilet—then stabbed the first white blonde infidel American woman who came in to …
TRANSLATING ISLAM: Christian Convert Illegally Imprisoned and Tortured, Begins Hunger Strike By RAYMOND IBRAHIM
According to attorney Karam Ghobrial (“Gabriel”), his client, Bishoy Armia Boulous, a Muslim convert to Christianity, remains illegally incarcerated and has “vowed to starve himself to death.” Bishoy, more notoriously known as Mohammed Hegazy, is the first Egyptian ever to try legally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his official ID card, prompting much shock and …
Congressman Engel Urges Cuba to Release Alan Gross on Humanitarian Grounds
WASHINGTON, D.C. – December 3, 2014 — Congressman Eliot Engel, the leading Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement on the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of Alan Gross in Cuba: “When I first met with Alan Gross’s wife Judy in 2009, I never could have imagined that Alan would still be in prison …
MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Legitimate and Illegitimate Dictators By BURAK BEKDIL
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again declared his refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and reproached countries that have accepted Mr.. el-Sisi as a legitimate leader. “They [el-Sisi] toppled a person [Mohamed Morsi] who came to power through votes. What did those countries who call themselves ‘democratic’ say? Did they speak up?” These …
MIDDLE EAST FORUM: The Myth of ‘Deradicalizing’ Islamic Radicals By TAREK FATAH
On Monday, November 24, 2014, I appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence. The committee is studying the question of security threats to Canada as well as ‘deradicalization’ efforts being promoted by the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]. I suggested to the senators that ‘deradicalization’ initiatives by Canada’s security agencies were doomed to failure because the …
PBS News Hour: Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi Decries Islamic State as anti-Islamic
Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, a prominent Syrian Sunni Islamic scholar and vocal critic of the Islamic State, led prayers at the funeral of American beheading victim Peter Kassig. Chief foreign correspondent Margaret Warner interviews al-Yaqoubi, exiled from his country, about atrocities committed by the Islamic State, why the militant group is able to gain followers and the fight against the Assad …
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: Obama’s Legacy (and Europe’s) By GUY MILLIÈRE
It is difficult to think that President Obama — or leaders in Europe — want their names to go down in history as the fools who actually legitimized a rogue entity such as “Palestine” or enabled Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. But just as Neville Chamberlain is looked on as the biggest laughing stock in history for promising “peace” with …
TRANSLATING ISLAM: Islamic State Breaks Another Church Cross By RAYMOND IBRAHIM
First published by RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Islam Translated in Muslim Persecution of Christians on November 23, 2014. http://www.raymondibrahim.com/category/muslim-persecution-of-christians/ Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The …