Two years ago, after the attacks of 7/7 in London, we started fiddling with Garage Band on our PowerBooks and came up with a podcast to talk about the unfolding events. The first episode was pretty crap, actually, but we persevered to produce better quality weekly episodes after that, expanding the format to include interviews and discussions on art, culture and more. Before 2 months had passed, we were invited to chat about the show - or had excerpts played - on Australian, British, and American radio. The BBC World Service sent a reporter to record us recording a show (an audio mobius strip) for an audio documentary on religious podcasts.

We weren't - and aren't - professionals. We didn't pretend to be religious experts either. But we did feel we have something to offer on Muslim life in the West, having been involved in a number of Muslim organisations, especially in the US. Ours was among the first of a group of Muslim or Islamic (there is a difference) podcasts, including Zahir Janmohamad's Qunoot podcast and Zaytuna's highly regarded show. The whole idea was to produce something that, like altmuslim itself, reached out to both Muslims and non-Muslims in a critical, balanced, and non-dogmatic way.

But our podcast and website are volunteer-run, and we've found ourselves strapped for time as we've extended ourselves to other projects, some still in the making. We'll continue to produce our podcasts on a monthly basis if possible, for those who are interested in such things. But in the meantime, what's a loyal podcast listener to do?

Earlier this year, Riazat Butt, a journalist at the UK's Guardian newspaper began a podcast called Islamophonic. Intrigued by any Muslim-run podcast, we've watched her show move from strength to strength until it was recently named Podcast of the Year. Riazat's cynical wit and engaging interview style has amused even the skeptics, probably because no one knows quite what to do with her. She notes that people wonder "why the programme is so self-critical, or deals with social and political issues rather instead of spiritual matters. The podcast has always been about Muslims and Muslim life and sometimes this has nothing to do with Islam."

Shocking to some, perhaps, but we've taken this approach with altmuslim from the beginning. Discussions on Islam alone can often become dogmatic and coercive. Discussions on the Muslim world, on the other hand, reveal the inherent plurality of those who practice the faith and, by extension, the plurality of interpretations the Muslim world will eventually have to learn to live with.

Both Shahed and I have been guests on Riazat's show, both in the UK and America, and consider her a friend and colleague. In short, she gets it. We wish many others would.

Yes, I fully agree with how excellent Islamophonic is (after all, she does get paid to do it) - but she is on hiatus now too!

Please, don't abandon my need for progressive Muslim podcasts! ;-)