[size=18]Muslim glossy goes mainstream to break down cultural borders[/size]
[b]By Will Pavia[/b]
IT IS shiny, there is a moody looking musician on the cover, and it rests beneath a rank of fashion magazines, but inside is something slightly different — this is Britain’s first glossy Muslim lifestyle monthly.
The magazine emel — the name references the initials ML, for Muslim Life, and an Arabic word meaning aspiration — has been running as a quarterly for two years.
Yesterday, in Borders bookstore on the Charing Cross Road, it officially went mainstream. “We used to be only in Muslim bookstores and at niche outlets,” Sarah Joseph, the editor, said. “From today it is available in Borders, Tesco, W H Smiths and newsagents up and down the country.”
She believes that it will sit “quite nicely alongside the fashion magazines. It’s got that quality”. However, she said: “We are not a Muslim Cosmo or a Muslim Economist. We are not just for women. We have full features on history and art and a lot of comment.”
This month’s editorial is a lengthy discourse on they way emel may be “a window, a door, a bridge” into the Muslim community. There are bite-sized slots explaining the Arabic roots of the word “magazine”, the Islamic influences behind the construction of St Paul’s, comment features slamming the British media coverage of the fallout from the July bombings and interviews with three Pakistani cricket players on how they keep up their fitness during Ramadan.
The fashion pages picture models from the neck down.Anoushka Jehangir, 27, emel’s stylist, said: “If we showed the head, there would be all sorts of other questions — do we do the hair, does she wear make-up, does she wear a headscarf — there’s a debate about that. We are just concerned with the clothing. Obviously if we show a jacket, a mainstream magazine could put the woman in hot pants or a bikini. We can’t do that. We have to be more creative; make our models modest yet fashionable.”
The advertising derives from vendors of Bombay sweets, fizzy drinks, pilgrimages to Mecca, and campaign material from Islamic charities and the British Heart Foundation.
Ms Joseph quotes the consumer research group Mintel, which believes that the Halal food market is worth £21 billion in Britain, and estimates Ramadan spending at around £700 million. She expects a core British Muslim readership but also hopes to pull the noses of non-Muslim readers out of Glamour and Men’s Health and into emel’s fashion, travel and cooking features.
Ms Joseph is a veteran of such cross-cultural discourse. Brought up Roman Catholic by an accountant and a model’s agent, she converted to Islam at 16, and by 33 had won an OBE for services to inter-faith dialogue and the promotion of women’s rights.
After September 11, when British Muslims faced a backlash, she toured the country with her husband, a prominent Muslim barrister, lecturing in community halls. Friends and well-wishers helped to raise £20,000 to launch emel in September 2003. Two years on the magazine is now profitable, and is going mainstream, she said, by popular demand.
[url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1804602,00.html]The Times[/url]
Does anyone else here read emel?
Mashallah.
Wish them luck.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
got a copy
got a Salam mag as well
look and the read is awfully similar
i thawt it was just a name change!
good mags overall....altho sum1 told me Salam were HT lol
im sure not muh better than The Revival...wouldnt you agree folks?
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
salaam is HT.
better than the revival?
I cast you into exile, you fool!
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
oh yeah....it was you who told me it was HT, now i remember
i meant ITS NOT BETTER!
wallahi!
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
anyone read al mumin.....or my sister magazine ?
Never heard of em.
I dont read magazines that much. I dont think I get much benefit from them cos I like my topics to be dealth in detail. Magazines by their nature can only provide a summary or a brief overview.
Having said that I know that magazines if done with Islamic Ethos are extremely beneficial. May ALLAH accept them.
I love BOOKS!!!!! I wanna build a library, but not just islamic books, even mainstream books that are beneficial like the collapse and fall of empires, military tactics, different philosophies etc. I kinda have an eclectic thing going on at the moment, I think uni is corrupting me . . .
qsn: does any1 know if in UK any1 teaches calligraphy islamic. Ooh I need to add another point to what i want to be when Im older. . . .!!! Im soo excited.
Ya ALLAH Madad.
Haq Chaar Yaar
lol
hope u can do all u want to in life, but dont expect too much!!
i like the books idea, sign of a wise man indeed
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
bro. I think life is too short.
The amount of knowledge out there is IMMENSE, i cant even fathom how much knowledge there is out there. I mean there was one Mawlana I met who came to our Madrassah last year. Alhamdulillah it was a great honour for me. This Mawlana was from karachi and he spent his entire graduate life in the Science of Narrators, studying which narrators could be relied on and which couldnt and profiliing them and making mini-biographies about them. That is ONE NON-MAJOR science and Mawlana spent I think so far 35 years on it!!
I was looking at a certain Darul Ulooms website and if a person just does dars e nizami, speciality in fiqh , speciality in theology, specialiity in literature, speciality in tafseer thats 14 years!! then you can do a masters in calligraphy, or a masters in dawat and tableegh, or a masters in comparitive religion!!
Ya ALLAH accept me and fill me to bursting point with knowledge. Ameen.
Ya ALLAH Madad.
Haq Chaar Yaar
Inshallah like i said, i hope you get to do it all
just saying your very eager and thats good, but you want to do quite a lot and life is short.
im already going thru old age
Inshallah i hope you do
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
Irf can u link to the magazine, i wana chek it out and maybe buy it....
I subsribed for the Q news or somethin like that (boring magazine btw) and paid like £12 (which aint much if you get quality) neway they send out a magazine montyly...i joined bak in april and i have only recived 2 magazines :? i am sooooo not happy bout that!
Can anyone give me links to good magazines?
ah there used to be an excellent magazine some time back......
forgot the name!!! they were really popular and had loadza issues and volumes.....subscribed for a year, recieved about 3 and they went bust lol
best magazine tho
you should be able to get Emel or other magz from ur local Islamic book store
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
Brother, im not a complete nut.
I doubt very much that I will do all the things I want to do. I mean scholars have devoted their entire lives to only one branch and still they die at ripe ages learning new things in their chosen field, so my desire to gain knowledge in loads of different fields is obviously not entirely realistic, well if I did have some knowledge in all those fields it would not be to a HIGHLY specific level.
But one thing I will say is that we always told by jamaat that make an intention. I make intention that I will do the 14 years in the darul uloom, I make intention to learn all the recitations of QURAN, to make a Quran copy with my own calligraphy, to be an Ustaad of Hadeeth, to be a Mujahid because if my intetnion is pure then inshaALLAH ALLAH will raise me on Day of Judgement as all of those things.
So, I make intetnion and ALLAH I say that YOU open up the way for me.
Truly every act is upon its intention, and every man shall get what he intended.
NB - bro I advise you make a sincere attention for all those things aswell. ALLAH accept you and your intentnions inshaALLAH.
Ya ALLAH Madad.
Haq Chaar Yaar
http://www.emelmagazine.com/
Now available at all decent newsagents.
chill out man, i never said u were a nut!!
i only wish you the best Inshallah
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
emel, salaam, q-news...are all good mashallah
salaam and emel are lifestyle magazines...
q news is aimed at intellectuals, upper market, academics....
we on the other hand are a youth magazine...like trends used to be...
i regularly get salaam, qnews an demel
also i enjoy islamica
how do you think the revival stands in compariosn to the other magazines?
Since i am considered as a youth (so i think), the revival is unique in that it acually serves the purpose of answering the questions/issues that face the youth today and does so in our language...other islamic magazines(probs read only 1-2) that i have read are boring and just go on and on, i dont benefit much from them to be honest.
thats the one!! Trends....that was top! what ever happened to them?
Revival is the most interesting read outta the ones that exist today....but the others have more to offer....but i guess revival has a diff target audience
theres that other one....Voices, are they any good?
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
32 is not youth Aunty Jee :twisted:
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
I think your getin me mixed up with yourself, i aint your age grandpa it must be the old age thats havin effects of memory loss on you, but its ok your forgiven grandpa duh
grandpa duh
you jus dont stop do ya!
well that makes 2 of us golden oldies.....sit back in our rocking chairs, roc n relax n discuss the weather, u can nit n i can moan.....ahhh bliss
lol
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ
like i said grandpa, its the alzheimers thats kickin in, so no need to get me confused at being old.........
Neway i am off to sleep, nackered 2day been a long day....tc wa-salam
adios
long day indeed....fell asleep on the bus already lol
Allah Hafiz every1, even tho im usually the last on here quite sadly!
The Lover is ever drunk with love;
He is free, he is mad,
He dances with ecstasy and delight.
Caught by our own thoughts,
We worry about every little thing,
But once we get drunk on that love,
Whatever will be, will be.
ɐɥɐɥ