IRIS Blog

202 people were killed by unrependant jihadists four years ago in Bali. For the second time in two months, the world's largest Muslim country is now issuing early releases for good behavior:

Indonesian officials say they will release at least two Islamic militants in jail for involvement in the 2002 terrorist bombings on the resort island of Bali, to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

As Indonesians prepare to celebrate the holiday, Eid al-Fitr, prison officials say they will release at least two Muslim militants on Tuesday, the day most people will celebrate the end of the holy month.

Jakarta traditionally reduces prison sentences on holidays for prisoners who show good conduct.

Via: Little Green Footballs

An interesting trend in Europe: as the leadership is paralyzed by political correctness, the population is beginning to vote with desperation:

In the Belgian elections on October 8, the right-wing Flemish Vlams Belang party won 20% of the overall national vote, reaching almost 33% in Antwerp and even more in smaller communes. These electoral returns reflect a larger European phenomenon: After decades at the margins of political life, extreme right-wing parties are making strong gains across the continent, a reflection of growing anxiety among the public for the future of Europe in light of the growth of Muslim communities on the continent.

For many Europeans, the multiplying list of outrages where an intolerant, aggressive, violent, and retrograde Islam openly challenges liberal values such as freedom of speech and gender equality is a sign that a strong response is in high order. If they vote for the extremists, it is not necessarily because they have become extreme, but because the parties at the political center are paralyzed by political correctness, fear of antagonizing a growing Muslim electorate, or simply too naive to understand what is at stake.

Here is an important article from the UK, which is engaged in long-overdue chair rearrangement on the deck of its Titanic:

At long last, there are signs that the people of Britain are refusing to capitulate to the Islamicization of large enclaves of our cities. The backlash began when Labour party floorleader and former foreign secretary Jack Straw spoke out against the practice of Muslim women covering themselves from head to toe, revealing only the eyes. His argument was that such veiling made integration and even communication difficult or impossible. Straw received overwhelming support from the public. Muslims who wear the veil - or, generally, even the headscarf - are signaling that they are Islamists and that they wish to replace secular with Sharia law. This poses a direct threat to others, backed by the implicit threat of terrorism. Islamists are demanding toleration for their own intolerance, which a liberal society only grants at its peril.

Lieberman Opens 17 Point Lead in Connecticut
Not a surprise. The far-left and largely anti-Semitic extremists who have taken over the Democrat party are cash-rich thanks to Soros, but vote-poor.

Jordan's King Pardons Hamas Smugglers
Jordan, universally reported as a moderate country and an tacit ally of Israel, is neither.

Israel Found 39 Russian-Made Missiles in Hezbollah Hideouts

House Intel Chair Suspends Democrat Staff Member on Suspicion of Leaking

Two Wounded as Grenade Thrown into TA Nightclub

The West has almost entirely neglected the ideological war on the Global Jihad (here is a welcome exception, probably paid for by the US). Today the point is emphasized by a report that extremist Saudi Wahhabi sermons are being broadcast on American cable television, praising suicide bombers ("martyrdom") and promoting the the legal replacement of the Constitution with Islamic Law (sharia) through a demographic battle.

Bridges TV, an American-Islamic TV channel "seeking to improve the image of Muslims in the United States" and to "offer a unique perspective on the Middle East and the war on terrorism," has extended its availability into six states, creating a potential audience of nearly 2 million.

A religious figure who appeared on the channel on Oct. 3 said Muslims have a duty to change America and to increase their numbers to 50% of the population from 2%. He recommended that Islamic law be implemented in American courts.

On Oct. 5, a discussant offered a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict: "For the Jews to leave and return to Europe."

Throughout the day, Bridges TV airs segments of Koranic verses, quite a few of which denounce "unbelievers." One notable verse that aired Oct. 9 praised martyrdom.

Since the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began, the channel has been showing official, Saudi government-controlled Wahhabi sermons from Mecca, with English subtitles.

As predicted, Olmert and company have gone back to not defending the country after the Lebanon War revealed an utter neglect of Israel's defense. A reporter was able to drive one of 17 Israeli armored fighting vehicles sitting unguarded next to the Gaza border.

A Jerusalem Post reporter was able to climb into one of 17 armored fighting vehicles left unguarded barely half a kilometer from a Gaza suburb and half that distance from the border fence - with ammunition and various other military equipment inside - start the engine and move it a few meters without being interrupted on Thursday.

The AFVs, which had taken part in the IDF operations in the northern Gaza Strip, spent the day not in a secret staging area but rather in an open field, in clear view of the main road running opposite Kibbutz Mefalsim and next to the Col. Nabi Meri monument.

The IDF had concentrated large armored forces in the field four months ago, immediately following the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and had invited the press to photograph the hundreds of soldiers preparing to enter the Strip.

The incursion, like most everything in the Olmert playbook, was primarily political theater, not a serious security maneuver.

On Thursday, the place was deserted. No one was there to prevent anyone from entering the AFVs, starting their engines and driving away....The vehicles were fueled up and there was no need of a key to enter one or start it up.

This reporter, an Ahzarit driver during his military service, climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine and moved the Ahzarit a few meters forward and back. Despite the engine's loud noise, no one from the small IDF reconnaissance post nearby or the police firing range at the edge of the field came to inquire about why the vehicle was being moved.

George Will points out, with his signature understatement, the ludicrous spin Democrats and the mainstream media are putting on a terrific economy, our ace in the hole against economically weak tyrannies:

Recently Bill Clinton, at the British Labor Party's annual conference, delivered what the Times of London described as a "relaxed, almost rambling" and "easy anecdotal" speech to an enthralled audience of leftists eager for evidence of American disappointments. Never a connoisseur of understatement, Clinton said America is "now outsourcing college-education jobs to India."

But Clinton-as-Cassandra should not persuade college students to abandon their quest for diplomas: The unemployment rate among college graduates is 2 percent.

A year ago, I predicted the obvious regarding the consequences of the overwhelming leftist bias in mainstream news coverage:

My prediction is that the main result will be an acceleration of the mainstream media's erosion of credibility and therefore, its audience.

Here are two examples from today's news:

NY Times Profits Plunge 39%

NBC Universal Makes $750M in Cuts by Reducing Staff, Scripted Shows, News Budget
"The moves come as more and more viewers and advertisers gravitate toward new media.... NBC's cost-saving plan involves laying off people from the company's 11 news divisions, including on-air talent."Of course, Fox News, a balanced news source, continues to soar.

Connect these dots:

al-Qaeda has a safe haven in Pakistan, Waziristan, approximately the size of Israel

Tens of thousands from the UK visit Pakistan each year

UK asylum rules are so lax that the head of the Asylum Support Service stated that Osama bin Laden could be accepted (and immediately begin receiving welfare payments) among the large numbers of Arab refugees accepted by England

Fortunately UK counter-terror officials are waking up to the threat, although there are no signs of effective counter-terror actions:

Britain Now No. 1 Al-Qaeda Target

Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaeda, which has successfully regrouped and now presents a greater threat than ever before, according to counter-terrorist officials.

Intelligence experts fear that extremists are intent on carrying out a huge spectacular, on the scale of the U.S. atrocities in 2001.

Since the start of the Iraq War, the mainstream media has been attempting to portray it as a Vietnam-like quagmire. Today hundreds of outlets have published their "big fish":

Bush Accepts Iraq-Vietnam Comparison

A leftist blog went further, claiming:

President Bush is right to finally admit that violence in Iraq has reached a tipping point, and that the U.S. is not winning the war as he has claimed.

Unfortunately what Bush said was exactly the opposite, as Tigerhawk conclusively demonstrates:

That is, of course, not what the President said. He merely agreed that there was an appropriate comparison to be made between the Tet offensive and the violence we are seeing in Iraq today. I agree. The question is, what was the lesson of Tet (the all-out offensive of the Viet Cong in early 1968, at the time of the "Tet" new year holiday in Vietnam)?

At the time the media perceived and promoted the Tet offensive as a great victory for the enemy. In an age when the network anchors deployed truly awesome power, Walter Cronkite destroyed Lyndon Johnson's chances for re-election when he editorialized that we were "mired in stalement". President Johnson declared "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America," and withdrew from the 1968 presidential campaign.

Tet, however, was not a military disaster for the United States. Quite to the contrary, history has revealed that the Tet offensive was in fact a crushing defeat for the Viet Cong, and effectively required that the Communists conquer the South by invasion from the North, rather than by civil insurgency. The Viet Cong were only able to turn a military disaster into strategic victory by persuading the American media that the United States was mired in stalement. With the domestic political support for the war fading fast, the United States decided to withdraw from Indochina, even though it would take Nixon and Kissinger another four years to accomplish it.

Wal-Mart to Sell $4 Generic Drugs in 14 More States
The simple solution to health care price inflation is the free market. This represents an 80% price decrease. Target has begun to match the prices as well.

Palestinian Professor Charged with Aiding Hamas Begins Trial in Chicago

Attacks Jump 22% More in Ramadan

FBI Questioning Milwaukee Resident in Connection with Internet Posting of Terror Threat against NFL Stadiums

Hezbollah Hit Israel with Cluster Munitions During Lebanon War
Chinese-made weapon is first confirmed use of this particular model of cluster munition anywhere in the world. They are anti-civilian devices: each submunition in turn shoots out hundreds of steel spheres, with deadly force.

Europeans Back Gradual Steps Against Iran's Nuclear Program
The key step proposed was "watching the newspapers to see which city disappears first."

YouTube and the Cyber Jihad
Islamists have posted hundreds of propaganda videos extolling the virtues of jihad, but benign conservative videos have been banned.

Is Ahmadinejad More Popular Outside Iran?
65% of Iranians are dissatisfied with their president

Israeli Truck Driver Wounded in West Bank Shooting

In "moderate" Bangladesh, leading officials of the ruling party participated in a mob beating of a Muslim editor who wrote several pro-Israel articles.

A Muslim journalist facing charges of sedition for advocating ties with Israel was recently attacked and beaten by a crowd in Bangladesh that allegedly included leading officials of the country?s ruling party, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, an English-language publication based in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, was working in his office on October 5 when nearly 40 people stormed the premises. The mob beat Choudhury, leaving him with a fractured ankle, and looted cash that was kept in the company safe. Choudhury was briefly hospitalized.

According to a statement appearing on the Web site of the Weekly Blitz, the attackers were led by Helal Khan, international affairs secretary of Jasas, and included Babul Ahmed, Jasas?s secretary-general. Jasas is the cultural wing of the ruling Bangladeshi National Party (BNP).

During the assault, Ahmed is said to have shouted at Choudhury, labeling him an ?agent of the Jews.?

In a photo taken shortly after the incident that was obtained exclusively by the Post, Choudhury can be seen hunched over a table wearing a torn shirt while a Bangladeshi policeman dressed in blue chats with two BNP officials. Both officials took part in the attack.

No arrests were made, and police refused to allow Choudhury to file charges against his attackers.

New Calls by Hamas to Target the U.S.

U.S. to Bolster Hamas Opponents
America is paying $42 million to bolster Fatah, which has committed more terror attacks than Hamas.

Olmert: Iran Nukes Could Reach Hezbollah
Echoing warnings IRIS has been making for months. The problem is that he isn't doing anything about it.

Palestinians Rocket Sderot, Wound Three
Rocket attacks have been occurring daily for months, with no response whatsoever from the Olmert administration, except complaining that the Palestinians won't meet for negotiations for more Israeli land withdrawals and terrorist prisoner releases.

Daniel Pipes brings news of a small win in a long war. What is not mentioned in this article is that the issue goes beyond the carrying of bottles of alcohol in Duty Free shopping bags. Blind passengers with seeing eye dogs are regularly refused service because Islam speaks negatively about dogs. Notably, Palestinian schools infuse each day's lessons with songs of "Arabs are beloved and Jews are dogs."

A week ago, it appeared likely that Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport would win special dispensation to avoid transporting alcohol-carrying passengers. The Metropolitan Airports Commission had proposed to give those Shari?a-minded drivers an off-colored light atop their cabs, allowing them to remain in queue while customers with bottles found other cabs....public response to the proposed program ?has been overwhelmingly against creation of a two-tiered taxi service system?....

Hassan Mohamud, vice president of Minnesota MAS, naturally expressed his disappointment in the decision. ?More than half the taxi drivers are Muslim and ignoring the sensibilities of that community at the airport I think is not fair.? But other Muslims publicly dismissed the drivers? fastidiousness. Mahmoud Ayoub, an Islamic scholar at Temple University, stressed that Islam bans drinking alcohol, not carrying it. ?I know many Muslims who own gas stations [where beer is sold] and sell ham sandwiches. They justify it and I think rightly so, [saying] that they have to make a living.?

The Free Muslims Coalition announced it is ?disgusted? by the Muslim drivers? behavior, on two grounds: First, ?Most Muslims don?t agree that cab drivers are prohibited from transporting alcohol. Islam merely prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol and those drivers are seeking to impose their religious values on others.? Second, ?When the cab drivers chose to drive a cab they entered into an agreement to perform a public service that is essential to the economy of any city. They have no right to refuse a fare because the passenger is holding a bottle of wine or other spirits.? Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslims Coalition, added: ?These taxi cab drivers basically think they?re living in their own countries where it?s OK to impose your religious beliefs upon others?....

For now, taxi drivers who refuse fares so as to avoid transporting alcohol will continue, as has been the case, to forfeit their place in the airport taxi queue and must return to the back of the line, in keeping with a MAC ordinance. But the Free Muslims Coalition correctly argues that this does not suffice. Cab drivers who discriminate against passengers with bottles of alcohol, it holds, ?should be banned altogether from picking up passengers at the airport? and their hack permits should be cancelled.

Exactly. Islamists need to understand that the Constitution rules in the United States, not Shari?a, and Americans will vigorously ensure that it continues to do so.

US Imam Pleads Guilty to Aiding Hamas
The title actually reads "US Man Pleads..." I defy anyone to find a crime story where a priest, rabbi or minister was headlined as a "man." The coverup of the Muslim threat continues...

Christian BA Employee Suspended for Wearing Cross Necklace
The cross is about the size of a fingernail. Muslim hijabs are permitted.