Ramadan: Not just a diet plan 
Thursday, September 02, 2010 | 23 Ramadan 1431  




altmuslim editorial board
Introducing altmuslim.com
Since 2001, we've developed altmuslim.com into an introspective voice that helps promote a critical (and self-critical) analysis of issues regarding the Muslim world. Our name is inspired by the "alt.muslim" Usenet newsgroups from the early days of the Internet, where freewheeling online discussions about the Muslim world were born. Crafted from the very beginning as a public service to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, altmuslim has been a labor of love, patience, and faith. With an editorial board spanning several continents and a readership approaching 2 million unique readers per year, altmuslim.com is at the forefront of an emerging independent Muslim media in the West.

Site features
Feel free to sort through our growing archive of content and quickly find what interests you:
  • Our Comment section is our showcase for opinions from our writers and others, curated from throughout the web.
  • Our Briefings section provides analysis of a variety of issues involving Muslims in the world today.
  • Our Newsmakers section features introspective interviews with people whose lives shape and affect the Western Muslim experience.
  • Our Reviews section includes coverage of books, theater, movies, gallery openings, and pretty much anything else that can be reviewed.
  • Our Visions section is a look at the world we live in, as seen through the eyes of photographers covering the Muslim world.
  • Our Asides feature allows our editors to provide up-to-the-minute commentary and resources regarding issues that don't make the cut in our full articles and opinion pieces.
Global perspectives
We've recently expanded our editorial board, with specialists covering Muslim life from the USA (Austin, Washington, Indiana, San Francisco), Canada (Toronto), Europe (London), and Australia (Sydney). As a result, we have people with regional expertise to provide a better understanding of the unique challenges Western Muslims face. We've also expanded our roster of contributors, using our editorial overview to ensure quality contributions.

Media ventures
In addition to our long running podcasts, we write exclusive editorials for the mainstream media, co-sponsor real-world talks, and provide consultation to universities, think tanks, governmental agencies and NGOs. We provide analysis for radio and television news outlets from an independent viewpoint, through our network of dozens of mainstream journalists who have come to depend on altmuslim and our unique perspectives.

Strong partnerships
We developed altmuslim from the beginning to complement the best of independent Muslim media, from blogs to magazines, to provide synergy to our like-minded goals. We've recently expanded our efforts to share and provide content to established media organizations such as Beliefnet, Islamica, Illume, Q-News, The American Muslim, and more.

We welcome exclusive writing and photographic submissions that conform to our style guide. Additional comments or queries can be made here.

- The editorial board of altmuslim

HOME
COMMENT
opinion
BRIEFINGS
analysis
NEWSMAKERS
interviews
REVIEWS
media
VISIONS
photo + video
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
altmuslim this week - august 23, 2010 - This week, is there a connection between the heated rhetoric over Park51 and increased hate crimes against Muslims? Also, parallel struggles against anti-Muslim protests in Bradford, England and the innovation (and integration) on display in the 30 Mosques, 30 States and 30 Nights, 30 Grants projects.
ASIDES
editor's blog
How Miss USA will push the secret Muslim agenda - A leaked memo confirms a nefarious plot to infiltrate America using the one weapon we can't resist: Total hotness. (May 17, 2010)

South Park: The controversy continues - In a special for Salon.com, our Associate Editor Wajahat Ali offers his take on the controversy over South Park. If you think South Park's Muslim brouhaha was messy, you should see what's going on in the neighboring town of East Park. (April 28, 2010)

CONTRIBUTORS

PODCASTS
altmuslim review 033 - We're baaaaack! We speak about the ongoing controversy over Park51 and what means for the future of lower Manhattan. Also, a discussion with Farhad Chowdhury of the M100 Foundation, which seeks to change the way Muslims pay zakat (August 13, 2010)

altmuslim review 032 - Muslim writers everywhere! We speak about the new wave of Western Muslim literature and interview two authors with recently released books. Our own Irfan Yusuf talks about his memoir, Once Were Radicals and Reza Aslan tells us more about his second book, How to Win a Cosmic War (June 11, 2009)

ELSEWHERE
It's the occupation, stupid, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, June 4, 2010

Sex and the City 2's stunning Muslim clichés, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, May 28, 2010

Draw Muhammad Day: Collectively Punishing Muslim Americans, Shahed Amanullah, Huffington Post, May 25, 2010

Shahed will be a guest on the BBC World Service's World, Have Your Say discussing the proposed French ban on niqab (and fines for husbands who compel their wives to wear them) on May 18, 2010.

Even Controversial Views Should Be Protected by Freedom of Speech, Asma Uddin, The Huffington Post, May 7, 2010.

What I understand about Faisal Shahzad, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, May 6, 2010

No freak out about South Park, Zahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, April 23, 2010.

Shahed will be a guest on the BBC World Service's World, Have Your Say discussing the South Park controversy along with Zarqa Nawaz (Little Mosque on the Prairie) and other guests on April 22, 2010.

Shahed will be a guest on NPR's State of Belief discussing Barack Obama's outreach to the Muslim world, April 17, 2010.

Zahed will be attending a panel discussion entitled "Are Islam and Free Speech Compatible?" in London, England on Friday, March 26, 2010 sponsored by The City Circle. He will be accompanied by Riazat Butt (The Guardian), Hamid Khan (Consultant in Offender and Youth Development), Abu Muntasir (JIMAS), and Dr Usama Hasan.

'Jihad Jane': not the usual suspect, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian, Comment is Free, March 18, 2010.

Al-Awlaki, a new public enemy, Zahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, December 30, 2009.

Islamophonic: Review of the year, Riazat Butt, Zahed Amanullah and David Shariatmadari, Cif Belief (The Guardian), December 18, 2009.

Fort Hood has enough victims already, Wajahat Ali, Comment is Free (The Guardian), November 6, 2009

The pitfalls of filming Muhammad, Shahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, November 4, 2009.

Children of Dust (published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins), the first book by longtime altmuslim.com contributor Ali Eteraz, is released in the US, Canada, and the UK on October 13, 2009.

Shahed will be attending the m100 Sansoucci Colloquium in Potsdam, Germany, September 14-16, 2009. He will be moderating a panel discussion on the Danish cartoon crisis with Denis MacShane MP, Jasim Al-Azzawi (Al Jazeera English), and Flemming Rose (Jyllands Posten).

Associate Editor Wajahat Ali's play "The Domestic Crusaders" is having its premiere at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, NY, September 11, 2009. The play will continue through Sunday, October 11, 2009.

Shahed will be moderating or participating in three panel discussions at the Islamic Society of North America's annual convention, including Muslim Journalists: The View from the Inside, Supporting Social Entrepreneurs and Civic Leaders, and Blogistan: Muslim Americans on the Web in Washington, DC, July 3-6, 2009.

State-sponsored Sufism, Ali Eteraz, Foreign Policy, June 10, 2009.

IN THE NEWS
Helping U.S. reach out to young Muslims worldwide - Soon after Farah Pandith was named last year as the State Department's first special representative to Muslim communities, she sat down with the editor of an independent Muslim website for her first official interview. Altmuslim.com, a forum for opinion and analysis about current issues facing Muslims, was a fitting choice. Pandith has said a strong focus of her work is to reach out to younger Muslims around the world, often those most likely to use the Internet for news and networking. (June 5, 2010)

Censorship is in the ascendant - Zahed Amanullah, associate editor of altmuslim.com, has argued in a national newspaper blog that, since the warning came from an unrepresentative group, the media interest was not justified. As for events of the past – the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoons, the murder of van Gogh – they were "three incidents over a 20-year period from amongst 1.6 billion people. These things do happen. But we all need a bit of perspective." (April 30, 2010)

Muslims say new security rules unfair, ineffective - ''Muslims are doing their duty. Muslim parents are being attentive. It's the TSA that's not being attentive. It's the TSA that's not doing its duty," said Shahed Amanullah, an editor at the Web site altmuslim.com. "There's nothing more that Muslims can do than turn in their own families." (January 7, 2010)

US Muslims & media… Lost love - "We have a big problem; it’s that other people are shaping the story about us," Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, told IslamOnline.net. (December 16, 2009)

Moves to Seize Mosques Spark Outrage - "I'm extremely skeptical that the link between these mosques and this organization is so strong as to merit the seizing of a considerable amount of assets that do a lot of good for the Muslim community," says Shahed Amanullah, a prominent Muslim blogger based in Austin. "The government better be prepared to make a very good case, because this is unprecedented." (November 17, 2009)

CONTENT PARTNERS
Beliefnet

Illume Media

The American Muslim

Q-News
Islamica Magazine

European Media Islamic Network

Common Ground News Service
EDITORIAL BOARD

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

ABOUT ALTMUSLIM