Allah vs atheism: ‘Leaving Islam was the hardest thing I’ve done’

January 19, 2014   Amal Farah, a 32-year-old banking executive, is laughing about a contestant singing off-key in the last series of The X Factor. For a woman who was not allowed to listen to music when she was growing up, this is a delight. After years of turmoil, she is in control of her…

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Dutch Couple Return from Yemen Kidnapping

December 11, 2013   A Dutch couple kidnapped in Yemen in June have been released, according to the foreign affairs ministry. Journalist Judith Spiegel and Boudewijn Berendsen were taken from their house in Sana’a.  The couple returned to the Netherlands on Wednesday. Spiegel denied speculation that the captors were affiliated with Al Qaeda, saying “…I…

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US: American fighters in Syria a security risk

November 30, 2013   Federal officials say Americans are joining the bloody civil war in Syria, raising the chances they could become radicalized by al-Qaida-linked militant groups and return to the U.S. as battle-hardened security risks. The State Department says it has no estimates of how many Americans have taken up weapons to fight military…

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Feds charge New York home improvement store clerk with trying to join al-Qaida-related group

October 19, 2013   For 25 years Marcos Alonso Zea lived in America, working most recently as a clerk at a home improvement store on New York’s Long Island. But federal authorities have arrested the U.S.-born man, charging him with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, attempting to support terrorists and al-Qaida in…

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No-fly-list challenge back in court 2 years later; Va. man still barred from travel

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — It’s been 2 ½ years since Gulet Mohamed, then 19, found himself stuck in Kuwait, unable to return to the United States because of his apparent placement on the government’s no-fly list.   Mohamed made it back to the U.S. not long after a federal lawsuit was filed on his behalf in…

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