A review of English publications
By Kashif-ul-huda
While going through Milli Gazette, I came across a sher by Akbar Allahabadi
[kheencho na kamaan aur na talwaar nikaalo || gar top muqaabil ho to akhbaar nikaalo]
Akbar Allahabadi and other Muslims of India recognized the power of journalism; no wonder that we find big names involved in this noble profession during India’s freedom struggle.
After India’s independence, Muslims continue to nurture Urdu journalism without much support from the government. Unfortunately Muslim involvement in the media remained confined to the Urdu press. The Mid-day and The Asian Age, while owned by Muslims, remained far from being the Muslim voice in the media. They are a commercial enterprise and have remained mainstream in their approach. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but there was no one left to champion the voice and issues of Indian Muslims during a time when this group was facing one attack after another by politicians and the administration.
In the wake of the global war on terrorism, it looks like even the Indian media has joined the establishment in attacking Muslims in India. In this hour, fortunately, many Muslims have understood the power of the media and the importance of having a Muslim presence in it.
The English media continues to yield a disproportionably high influence in India’s political scene and agenda. No wonder Muslims have rushed to establish their presence in the English media. While the dream of daily newspapers still eludes Indian Muslims, there are some notable magazines published in English for a number of years.
The purpose of this article is to review magazines published by Indian Muslims in English and hope that this will help the magazines improve themselves and see where they stand with their peers.
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I have been subscribing to most magazines for more than a year so the analysis here is based on my impression of them in the year 2006. I will highlight the positive and negative of each publication, but to compare each with the others I have devisedb a five moon ranking that will help us and the publication understand where they stand.
The First moon is for the publication quality, cover, design and paper, just the overall look and feel of the magazine. The Second moon is for magazines which mostly use original articles in their publications and do not copy and paste from articles floating around online. The Third moon is for the overall quality of the articles, how well the writer engages the reader, addresses the issue, and what kinds of issues are covered.
Advertising continues to be the major source of revenue for any publication, even if it has good subscription figures. For a publication to stand on its own feet it is important that it doesn’t depend on the charity from some wealthy individual but funds it expenses from the advertising revenue. It is possible that some of the magazines are financially viable through subscription dues but in the absence of any way for me to check that, I will award a fourth moon on how much advertisements they have.
Finally the fifth and most important moon is for community news. If a magazine claims to be for Indian Muslims it should have room for news that does not have a mention in the mainstream media.
Magazines are listed in alphabetical order:
Islamic Voice: 
= 4.5
Published: Monthly
Annual Subscription: Rs. 145/ USD 10
Islamic Voice scores highest in the quality of its publishing. It is well supported by advertisements mostly from businesses local to Bangalore. Unfortunately, the quantity of news leaves much to be desired. Many articles appear to be original and written exclusively for Islamic Voice. I had to take half the second moon off because lots of articles written on Islamic issues are reprints, even though they are of high quality.
Even then articles written on social issues are gems to read. Articles in IV cover a wide range of issues.
Community news can be improved.
The Milli Gazette: 
= 2.5
Published: Fortnightly
Annual Subscrption: Rs. 220/ USD 39/ Euro 30
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The Milli Gazette is published every fortnight from New Delhi. The best part of Milli Gazette is its community news and news maker sections. This is a very important service to the community that Milli Gazette is providing. It has about three pages devoted to reader’s letters which is also useful.
Many pages of each issue are devoted to articles that are highly critical to US & Israel. Unfortunately, most of these articles are not exclusive to the Milli Gazette so provide no useful information on how Indian Muslims are responding to world events.
To its credit, MG publishes reports which are hard to find in mainstream media.
Some of the articles are unsigned and therefore difficult to say if they are in-house articles or from some other source. Other magazines are also guilty of this practice.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, editor of Milli Gazette is recognized as an important Muslim intellectual of India and it would have been nice to have his editorial.
Milli Gazette is in its 8th year of publishing which a remarkable feat, considering the little advertising support it gets.
Nation and the World: = 1.5
Published: Weekly
Annual Subscription: Rs. 225/ USD 30
Email: [email protected]
This magazine disappointed me the most because it has some of the biggest names in India associated with it and thus it is expected to be a high quality magazine. Most of the articles are not original articles written for this magazine; spelling and other errors are common in most of the articles.
True to its name, it does have a broad canvas and you can see articles that cover India and other countries of the world. Among all the magazines covered in this article, this magazine has the best Islamic Q & A section, which covers cotemporary issues and answers are enlightening.
Radiance viewsweekly: = 3.5
Published: Weekly
Subscription: Rs. 400/ USD 60
http://www.radianceweekly.com/
Radiance viewsweekly is associated with Jamat-e-Islami. This association may make one think that it will be limited in scope of what it can cover and say. Surprisingly though, Radiance may be the best news magazine for Indian Muslims which handles issues from different angles and gives in-depth analysis on national and international matters. Its editorials are excellent and just like its articles address, the moral aspect of the issues too.
Radiance, on a regular basis, comes out with special issues on Islamic, historical or political topics and a collection of articles on that topic is very informative and has a broad canvas.
Two magazines that are not reviewed are:
Muslim India:
Published: Monthly
Subscription: Rs. 200/USD 12/Pound 12
Eastern Crescent:
Published: Monthly
Annual Subscription: Rs. 150/ USD 50
http://www.radianceweekly.com/
Muslim India started publishing again which is a welcome step, and Eastern Crescent is a new magazine published from Mumbai. There were not enough issues in 2006 for the review. They will be reviewed for 2007.
Lastly, I want to congratulate the staff and people behind all these publications for bringing these issues out on a regular basis. Without much community and advertising support, these people are our heroes who toil day and night to keep an important pillar of democracy strong.
This review should not be taken as a criticism of any magazine. It is an attempt to encourage them to do even better. We hope that readers of this article will understand that there are enough quality Muslim magazines in India published in English to choose from. Subscribe and play your part in having a strong Muslim presence in the Media.