I have been watching the HuffPo since it started and posted the following on my blog a while back--the second half of the post is more relevant and I reproduce it below
"I have been keeping an eye on it since the HuffPo started, and one aspect at the back of my head has been the number and quality of Muslims voices on it. It seemed like a site providing an outlet to voices that one usually doesn't hear would be a good venue to get some different voices out there. (Yes, most of the people are not disadvantaged; but they are not people you hear discussing current affairs and social issues.)You can read my full original post here.
At first blush, maybe because I am as paranoid as the next Muslim, the only name I noticed was the ubiquitous Irshad Manji. And that didn't bode well. You've seen what where I think she sits in this whole discussion. But then, along the way, I noticed what the HuffPo was doing. Their were Muslim voices on there--and ones that were saying the very things most Muslims would like to bring to the table. What follows here are some notes I took a while back, while digging in to the HuffPo:
One writer, for example, is described in his profile as follows: "...a writer based in New York. He is a contributing editor at CARGO Magazine (Conde Nast), and writes the regular 'Classics' column for the magazine. Majd has also written for GQ (Conde Nast), the New York Times and the New York Observer." And I have to say, I am impressed by both the background of this writer, and his writing. Take for example, the post, titled "Karen's First Baby Steps.
Check out the full list of what he's written:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooman-majd/
Another write has a similar background. The name is Cenk Uygur, a nice Turkish name. Check out what he writes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/
So on balance, I have to say I am impressed by what the HuffPo is doing in this regard."
And now they have Eteraz. Which can only mean more of the moderate-to-progressive--whatever Eteraz hisself might think of the concept--Muslims voices being heard.
Technorati tags applicable to this post: Muslims in the Media - Eteraz
2 comments:
i disagree with the terms 'moderate' and 'progressive' islam is by nature moderate.therefore,y shud a muslim hav2 apply the west-imposed label 'moderate' so as not to be called 'extremist',etc. & 'progressive' just implies islam is backward. as a journalist too,its our role to challenge the stereotypes of muslims,which sadly become accepted by muslims themselves thru mass media 'brainwashing'
Islam itself is actually rather progressive, not just moderate. But not all Muslims are. You will notice that people like me never say "Progressive Islam" or "Moderate Islam", but "Progressive Muslims" or "Moderate Muslims".
Are you saying that ALL Muslims are moderate? Usama, for example, is progressive?
Oh, and are you saying that I use the words because I am brainwashed by mass media brainwashing? The arguments I had with members of the Islami Jamiat Talaba while in college in Pakistan were because I was brainwashed by the mass media? Or the disagreements my father has always had with the Jamat-e-Islami are the result of mass media brainwaishing? Or the fact that my grandfather (who never partook of politics after 1947 or so) and the Jamaat-e-Islami were on different sides of the argument about how the Muslims of the British Indian Empire should engage politically were the result of the mass media brainwashing? He was watching CNN in the 1940s? [BTW, it was the JI, that was against the founding of a separate country for Muslims--and my grandfather was NOT one of the folks educated in the Western tradition.]
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