While Egypt saw bread riots recently, we see another row caused by bread, namely, burning of bread in Israel.

Not to mention panem et circenses (bread and circus games).

Media bias is a well known fact. Here is an example on how two Canadian news organizations are reporting on Christmas celebrations by the Christian Palestinians in Gaza.

While CBC highlights the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and border closure, CTV has taken a more biased view where it presents Christians are oppressed by Muslims in Gaza, specially under the rule of Hamas.

Ignored are the facts that Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for more than 13 centuries.

Last month, a photo was circulated by email and on blogs that has a pack of pork meat with a sticker saying Halal on it. The packer is a Singapore company and the country of origin is Australia.

Halal حلال is an Arabic word meaning 'permissible', but in non-Arabic speaking Muslim countries it takes a legal meaning derived from Islamic law. Pork is forbidden in Islam, just like Judaism. Hence it can never be "halal" in either sense of the word.

It seems that some bloggers thought it was true, while others thought it was a sick joke.

Nowadays, it is often taken for granted that Muslims are staunch Anti-Semites. Most people in the West either do not know, or deliberately ignore, historical facts to the contrary.

History of Jews in Muslim Lands

Compared to Europe, Jews faired much better in Muslim lands over 1300+ years.

Ossama Bin Laden, head of Al-Qaeda, appeared in a video posted on some sympathetic web sites. This is the first time in 3 years he has done so.

Noting that he looks more youthful, Western media has noticed his shorter trimmed bird, and less grey hair compared to before.

Moreover, Radio Free Europe analyses certain aspects of the video message, including:

I am not a supporter of the Muslim veil (Niqab or Burka, among other names), as I think it is more cultural than religious. But I certainly do not mind someone wearing it for whatever reasons she may think.

Now,
Elections Canada said that veiled women will not have to uncover their faces to have their identity verified for the upcoming elections.

CBC reports:

While Tajikistan universities ban hijab for women, Azerbaijan police burns the beards of men growing them.

Sometimes, the focus on religious freedom issues of Muslims is on Western countries, where there are indeed issues, but let us not forget that despotic regimes in Muslim countries do the same too.

A new phenomenon in dress, dubbed the Burkini (Burqa + Bikini) is making headlines around the world.

From
Australia, to Turkey to the USA, women (Muslim and non-Muslim alike)
are wearing the new swimsuit that covers most of the body.

One Mecca Laa Laa in Sydney, Australia is in a lifesaving beach patrol, wearning this new swimsuit. Ronza Othman swims in the ocean because of it.

Yet another poll about Muslims in the USA, with some postive and other disturbing results.

When studying history, we often look for literature, archeology, events, and the like. Seldom do we consider food and recipes to be a topic of history.

However, there are several sites that have recipes from olden days. Some of them have a nice collection of recipes from Islamic countries, most notably Iraq and Andalusia.

These recipes go back all the way to the 10th century, when Baghdad was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate, in the Golden Age of Islam in the East. The Andalusian recipes go further into the 15th century, just before the fall of Granada.