IRIS Blog

Here is an analysis of today's widely reported news that newspaper subscriptions fell by the largest amount ever this year (cf: Big Metros Show Severe Declines in Latest Circ Report).

I did the research after noticing an anomaly in the data: the conservative New York Post was the only major paper to record any significant rise in circulation this year, and it was quite large. I then looked at the trend over a number of years and detected an extraordinary trend: every newspaper consistently lost subscribers, except for four which experienced solid growth. Three of those four are the nation's only conservative dailies, while the fourth is arguably the least partisan paper, USA Today.

While the trend is consistent across all newspapers, I will list below the data for the largest papers, which have the most statistically significant time range (2002-2006).

Liberal Newspapers:

Publication	2002	2006	% Loss
NY Times	1,113,000	1,086,798	-2.35%
LA Times	965,835	775,766	-19.7%
Washington Post	747,066	656,297	-12.1%
Chicago Tribune	596,667	576,132	-3.4%
NY Daily News	714,127	693,382	-2.9%
Houston Chronicle	551,914	508,097	-7.9%
Newsday	578,911	413,579	-28.6%

Centrist Newspaper:

Publication	2002	2006	% Gain
USA Today	2,135,321	2,269,509	6.3%

Conservative Newspapers:

Publication	2002	2006	% Gain
Wall Street Journal	1,801,087	2,043,235	13.4%
NY Post	589,897	704,011	19.3%

The only reliable Internet data for the conservative Washington Times shows nearly 3% annual growth in 2005.

One of 6,292 deadly Islamist terror attacks since 9/11, despite Michael Moore's insistence that "There is no terrorist threat in this country. This is a lie. This is the biggest lie we've been told":

According to the Assyrian website ankawa.com, a 14 year old Christian Assyrian boy, Ayad Tariq, from Baqouba, Iraq was decapitated at his work place on October 21.

Ayad Tariq was working his 12 hour shift, maintaining an electric generator, when a group of disguised Muslim insurgents walked in at the beginning of his shift shortly after 6 a.m. and asked him for his ID.

According to another employee who witnessed the events, and who hid when he saw the insurgents approach, the insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that his ID stated ?Christian?, asking if he was truly a ?Christian sinner.? Ayad replied ?yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner.? The insurgents quickly said this is a ?dirty Christian sinner!? Then they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting ?Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!? while beheading the boy.

Palestinian government spokesman Dr. Ghazi Hamad wrote in Al-Ayyam on October 17, 2006: "Are we really a violent society?...It has become the master that we obey everywhere - in the home, in the neighborhood, in the family....Our celebrations have no point or meaning, unless during them we fire a volley of bullets that echoes alongside the women's ululations of joy. Under sad circumstances and at funerals, our heroes volunteer to 'puncture' the air with hundreds of shots from their rifles. It is inconceivable for our marches - whatever their goals and political color - not to have dozens of rifles and armed gangs climbing on cars and aiming rifles, and youths leaning out of car windows waving the barrels of the Kalashnikovs and roaring with joy."

"When we are angry at the electric company, we have no solution but to shatter its [equipment] and break its furniture. When we are angry at the municipality or at the governor, we call in a group of masked gunmen - the heroes of our age - to climb on the rooftop and draw their weapons in front of the satellite TV [reporters]."

Hamas Has Taken Over Gaza
As IRIS predicted.

Hezbollah Demands More Government Power in Lebanon
Hezbollah would gain veto power over any legislation.

Hezbollah Could Take Power within Five Years

Israel Constructing Nuclear Shelter for Cabinet

Here's a game that's even more fun than Where's Waldo? Buried in each of these stories is a single word that explains how free Europe will be replaced with something very different within one generation. Hint: The secret word begins and ends with the letter M.

Chirac 'Horrified' at Attack that Left Woman Badly Burnt

French Youth Set Fires on Anniversary

2 Public Buses Torched in Paris Suburb

Tense France Braces for Another Wave of Violence. Little has Changed Since Young People Rampaged Last Year

Youths Burn Hundreds of Cars in France

For Frustrated Waldo Searchers: Here is a page about last year's French Intifada with Waldo everywhere you turn.

Warning: Do not play O? est Waldo? without IRIS supervision, because there are hundreds of stories that seem to look just like the ones above, but sadistic editors have removed Waldo completely. Here are a few examples:

Critics Complain About Lack of Change One Year After French Riots

Replay of French Riots Feared as Anger Boils Over

Anger Boils Over with Anniversary of French Riots

(Hat tip: Dan Friedman)

It turns out that the popular imam who justified gang rape in Australia by claiming "woman are like uncovered meat" has also promoted jihad against Australian troops, while praising the ideological father of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb:

Taj Din al-Hilali has praised militant jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling them men of the highest order for fighting against coalition forces - which include Australian soldiers - to ?liberate? their homelands.

In an interview on Arabic radio two weeks ago, the imam based at Sydney?s Lakemba mosque said he was opposed to terror attacks in Madrid, London and New York but strongly endorsed fighters in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the interview, Sheik Hilali pays tribute to Sayyid Qutb, the ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood and intellectual mentor of Osama bin Laden and al-Qa?ida.

?Jihad of the liberator of Palestine, that?s the greatest and cleanest and highest ... jihad which lifts our heads in pride in south Lebanon,? Sheik Hilali says in the October 17 interview.

He tells broadcaster Abrahim Zoabi that he endorses jihad for liberation. ?We are talking about ... jihad of liberating our land, jihad of Muslim Afghanis in their land - that?s jihad.

?Jihad of Iraqi Muslims is jihad, but not when Sunnis and Shias are killing each other - that?s not jihad.?

The revelation comes as a neighbouring cleric from Sydney?s Bankstown accused Sheik Hilali of supporting military Islamic jihad against the West and called on imams from around the country to band together to force the mufti to step down.

Sheik Ibrahim El-Shafie said yesterday Sheik Hilali was a follower of the Egyptian Islamic scholar Qutb, one of the founding fathers of modern jihad, whose teachings are used by al-Qa?ida and Jemaah Islamiah.

In the radio interview, Sheik Hilali says Qutb interpreted the Koran in the ?finest manner?. ?Sayyid Qutb is an intellectual man ... who gave up his soul in 66 for Islam.?

Via: Little Green Footballs

In the limited reporting of the Australian Imam who justified gang rape, almost no mention has been made of the fact that this is only the most recent of a series of nearly identical comments by imams. Here is but one example:

Copenhagen Mufti Declares Women who Refuse to Wear Headscarves are "Asking for Rape"

As a result, there is an unreported epidemic of Arab Muslim gang rape occuring, primarily in Europe. See here for an absolute must-read. As usual the mainstream media's response is two-pronged: ignore the story and propagandize on behalf of those Muslims who have been exposed. This puff piece from the BBC is a case in point:

A few weeks ago, I happened to interview Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali outside the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney where he delivered his controversial sermon.

A softly-spoken man, who clearly commands both enormous respect and affection within his community, the Egyptian-born cleric discussed the government?s recent proposals for an Australian citizenship test - an examination which many Muslim immigrants believe is targeted at them.

His English is poor, and it was difficult at times to make out precisely what he was saying.

But he told me he was keen to encourage the greater use of English in mosques and for Imams to gain a much greater understanding of Australian history and culture.

Though he did not agree with Prime Minister John Howard?s contentious view that sections of the 300,000-strong Muslim community are not doing enough to integrate themselves into the mainstream of Australian society, he seemed prepared at least to address the criticism in a constructive way.

Sheikh Hilali referred more than once to the idea of ?the Aussie imam?, as he called it - model clerics with a broad knowledge of Australian culture and history.

Neat, snappy and eminently quotable. Just the kind of epithet which sticks in a journalist?s mind.

Update: Here is another extreme statement in today's news:

UK Muslim Cleric 'Backs Execution of Gays'

And of course, 5,000 congregants screamed their support for the imam as Relaxed Sheik Gets Rock Star Treatment

One of the Middle Eastern myths that defies logic is that the Fatah of Arafat and Abbas are moderates struggling against Hamas extremists. They have openly played this good cop/bad cop routine for years:

In a keynote speech earlier this month to the American Task Force on Palestine, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice compared the Palestinian cause to her own civil rights struggle growing up in "segregated Birmingham, Alabama." Rice said if she could overcome such tremendous odds to become Secretary of State, Palestinians could achieve their dream of statehood. She based this belief on "the commitment of the Palestinian people to a better future."

Where is the evidence of this "commitment?" Poll after poll has indicated majority Palestinian support for suicide bombings. Whereas children across the world have posters in their room of sports stars or famous artists, Palestinian youths decorate their living space with posters celebrating "martyrs."

What about the very real possibility, or even likelihood, that the Palestinian people elected Hamas precisely because it's a "violent terrorist group"? Palestinians are not stupid. Is it even possible that Palestinians didn't understand that they were electing a "violent terrorist group" with the stated goal of eliminating the Jewish state?

Palestinian society was Islamicized by Yasser Arafat. Once he was given the reins following the 1993 Oslo accords, Arafat instituted an aggressive program of Islamic indoctrination, primarily through the schools and the media. PA-run schools placed far greater emphasis on Islam than ever before, and every Friday PA television still broadcasts sermons of fiery and bitterly anti-Semitic imams. The indoctrination worked.

The original PLO terrorists had an inherent limitation, as the prospect of their own deaths was a deterrent. Arafat thus turned to Islam, which enabled him to breed a new generation of terrorists who were far more effective. Not only were they not afraid to die, but they actually desired death.

With the Islamic indoctrination that continues largely unabated, the sad reality is that Palestinians are likely to move further and further away from accepting peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state.

Not only is the West negligent in the ideological battle against Islamism, we are actively recruiting more jihadi converts like John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla and Adam Gadahn:

Islam is being taught in the nation's public schools as a religion to be embraced because "organized Islamists have gained control of textbook content," according to an organization that analyzes textbooks.

The American Textbook Council has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners."

It has gone so far that correcting the situation now becomes a problem, because "educational publishers and educational organizations have bought into claims propounded by Islamists ? and have themselves become agents of misinformation"....

Indeed, Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes even has repeatedly expressed concern about the "privileging of Islam in the United States" and warns the stakes go well beyond 7th-grade texts. His opinion of Houghton Mifflin's "Across the Centuries? Full of "apologetics" and "distortions"....

"Today, Christmas and Nativity scenes are outlawed while Clinton's nominee, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, recently approved 'Islam: A Simulation' where children learn to become Muslim, recite the Quran, fast for Ramadan and pray to Allah including this prayer: 'In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment-day! You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help, Guide us to the straight path'"

More of what IRIS has been warning about, from the Wall Street Journal:

UK intelligence officials say Britain has become "al-Qaeda target No. 1," and judge Britain's "home grown" terrorists to be organized, trained, and controlled either directly from Pakistan or via Pakistani networks in Britain.

Until now, intelligence services thought British Islamist terrorists had no hard links to al-Qaeda and were believed to have acted alone or in self-constructed cells.

Senior military intelligence officers now believe the July 7 bombers received crucial weapons training in Pakistan.

MI5 also believes the number of extremists is rising. It keeps very close tabs on more than 1,000 extremists, and 14,000 British Muslims are considered potential terrorist threats.

A significant number get radicalized and recruited on university campuses. At least 13 convicted Islamist terrorists and four suicide bombers have been students at British universities.

Radical Islamist student societies operate websites, hosted by university servers, which direct visitors to organizations that glorify jihad and terror.

Academic institutions should surely help protect Britain from those who clearly do not believe in democracy, are not civilized, and who try to harm us.

Meanwhile, writes Mellanie Phillips, "America's defense of the free world against Islamic terror is widely viewed in Britain as the cause of that terror."

IDF: Hundreds of Arms-Smuggling Tunnels Being Dug in Gaza
Israel continues a policy of swatting at flies, instead of identifying the PA (including the "moderate" Fatah) as a genocidal enemy, and defeating the source of the terror and continuing rocket barrage.

Jihad in Cyberspace

Western Press Ignores Iran's Hate-Filled Quds Day
"It is disturbing when the entire leadership of one nation, along with hundreds of thousands of its citizens, comes out with celebrations and parades every year that call for the annihilation of another country. It is more twisted that no world leaders or international bodies, including the United Nations, have denounced the activities surrounding Quds Day, an Iranian holiday introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini that is marked on the last Friday of Ramadan."

IRIS was the first Web site to make the case that an intifada was under way in France. Confirmation of this thesis is accumulating regularly. Skeptics argue that the Muslim gangs are simply typical hoodlums, but has any group of petty criminals ever organized attacks on police before? This is an effort toward ever-expanding Muslim autonomous zones, which they believe will swallow France, Europe and eventually, the world:

On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths attacked them with stones, bats, and tear gas before fleeing. The ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of three weeks of rioting last year. One police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Michel Thooris, head of the small Action Police union, claims that the new violence is taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge. "Many youths, many arsonists, many vandals behind the violence do it to cries of 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great) when our police cars are stoned," he said in an interview.

As predicted, the UN "disarmament force" is yet another Mideast fraud. The only question is when the next attack will come, how many Israelis will die and how close to zero is the amount of activity Olmert and company are expending on preparation:

Iran and Syria are rapidly rearming Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as an international peacekeeping force has failed to carry out a UN mandate to disarm the Shi'ite militia group, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday in an interview in Washington. Mofaz expressed frustration that the Lebanese army and an enhanced UN peacekeeping force had not disarmed Hezbollah or sealed the border to prevent Syria and Iran from rearming their "proxy." "Arms smuggling across the border from Syria has continued after the war," he said.

Mofaz added that the bloody internal standoff in the Palestinian territories between Hamas and Fatah leaves Israel with no effective negotiating partner.

Israel achieved none of the stated objectives in the recent war, but damaged a significant number of buildings. That does not appear to have been anything but temporary, however:

Rival Factions Showering Aid Dollars on Lebanon

Two months after the war ended in Lebanon, a second battle for Bint Jbeil is well underway. This time, it's a struggle to win the hearts and minds of the predominantly Shia residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Hezbollah launched a massive campaign to rebuild the south, handing out wads of cash provided by Iran. Lebanon's own government announced last week that owners of destroyed homes would each be given $40,000. Meanwhile, the rich Sunni regimes of the Persian Gulf, anxious about Iran's growing influence in the region, are also pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the reconstruction.

Of course the money is primarily going to Hezbollah and one of the biggest factions fight over the affections of Lebanese is America.

From Daniel Pipes:

Recent decades have witnessed no end of surveys indicating the appalling ignorance of high school or college students. But a study just released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, "?The Coming Crisis in Citizenship' Survey Results," breaks new ground in several ways, as Mike Ratliff, senior vice president at ISI explains. First, with a sample of 14,000 students at 50 schools, it is the largest study ever done on the topic.

Second, Ratcliff explains how the survey shows "that at 16 of the 50 schools, the freshmen did better than the seniors. We were startled by the extent of what we call ?negative learning.' When courses are not offered or required, the students forget what they knew when they entered as freshmen, and that 16 included some of the best schools in the country, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Duke."

Third, the survey reveals "that on some campuses?like Rhodes College and Grove City College?that the amount of learning that was taking place was disproportionate to someplace like Harvard or Princeton. These are campuses that value classroom education and the professors are more focused on making sure the students are learning."

Fourth, students attending the most prestigious colleges start out with higher scores as freshman, getting 60-70 percent of the questions correct. "But the seniors at Rhodes and Grove caught up with many of them by senior year, while the scores of many of the students at the prestigious schools dropped by senior year."

Rhodes and Grove City are two of the very few conservative colleges in the whole of the United States.