Over the fold, a recently screened television debate between Mark Steyn and three of the Canadian Muslims who have brought action against Macleans magazine.

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Marginal Revolution’s Professor Tyler Cowen explains in the New York Times:

RISING food prices mean hunger for millions and also political unrest, as has already been seen in Haiti, Egypt and Ivory Coast. Yes, more expensive energy and bad weather are partly at fault, but the real question is why adjustment hasn’t been easier. A big problem is that the world doesn’t have enough trade in foodstuffs.

The damage that trade restrictions cause is probably most evident in the case of rice. Although rice is the major foodstuff for about half of the world, it is highly protected and regulated. Only about 5 to 7 percent of the world’s rice production is traded across borders; that’s unusually low for an agricultural commodity.

Sniffing chairs, yes, but having inappropriate dealings with a small marsupial known as a quokka is a bridge too far for West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell.

West Australian Opposition Leader Troy Buswell says there is “absolutely no substance” to reports he once did something inappropriate to a quokka, a small marsupial found on a holiday island off Perth.

Mr Buswell, who has admitted to sniffing the chair of a former Liberal party colleague and snapping the bra of a Labor staffer, was questioned on the rumours today while attending a press conference at Parliament House.

The Canadian Islamic Congress has decided to use Canada’s hate speech legislation to go after the Canadian magazine Macleans for publishing an extract from columnist Mark Steyn’s book America Alone.

Here’s a video of Steyn himself talking about the issue on Canadian television:

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The Kipp Report have an interesting story on the growing phenomena of the “halal hotel”:

Dubai-based Almulla Hospitality plans an international chain of 150 Sharia-compliant hotels by 2015. Around 90 are planned in the Middle East and North Africa, but the remainder will be Europe, Asia and North America - and Almulla says it will develop non-Muslim brand names.

The plan is to create three sub-brands - Cliftonwood, Adham and Wings - all operating under universal Sharia codes (no booze, halal food). Almulla has signed with the UK’s Jasper Capital Group to structure the new venture. Jasper Capital chief executive Stewart Jack has previously worked in the banking industry in the UAE and managed the development of an Islamic bank project in Europe.

And in other hotel news (also from the Kipp Report):

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The Quilliam Foundation — a British group run by a coterie of ex-HT’ers such as Ed Husain — has an open challenge:

The Quilliam Foundation openly challenges Islamist groups to public debates. Our first challenge is to Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the group that influenced Syed Qutb in prison and is thus the ideological inspiration to al-Qaeda. While HT may disagree with Osama bin Laden’s methods, they both aspire to the same end: the creation of a theocratic, expansionist dictatorship.

Debate is good and should be welcomed.  However,  one must really question whether the Quilliam Foundation is interested in doing more than just talking about such debates.

It turns out Ed Husain and another member were recently booked to host the BBC program called ‘World Have Your Say’.  Sadly, as a BBC journalist explains, they had to cancel at the last minute:

Ed Husain was booked to host the show with me today. Along with a colleague at the newly-formed Quilliam Foundation, he was going to discuss with you how he became attracted to radical Islam and turned his back on it.  And how he’s trying to stop other young Muslim men becoming radicalised. But today he cancelled for a variety of reasons, the main one being that he wasn’t prepared to take part in the show if certain people (whose organisations he has been critical of) were invited on.

Oh dear.  And who exactly were the people he didn’t want to debate or discuss matters with on air?

‘Sometimes it’s as simple as some people being wrong, and some being right. I’ve better things to do than argue with these people.’ This was in response to me saying that we would have to offer the organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir a right of reply as I knew he would criticise them on the programme.

ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint program have ‘selected highlights‘ from the recent debate on Islam and democracy.  It’s not the entire debate but begins with Daniel Pipes making the case for the affirmative (that Islam is incompatible with democracy).

The Australian reports today:

In the absence of halal food - prepared in accordance to sharia dietary laws - the Islamic delegates were forced to eat “salad sandwiches and vegetarian pies”.

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