http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/may/09us.htm
A
TV channel for American-Muslim community
Tanmaya Kumar Nanda in New York
May 09, 2003 18:51 IST
Muslims in
America may finally have their own television channel soon, if the
dream of two men comes to fruition.
The Bridges Network Inc is in the process of launching Bridges TV,
the first-ever nationwide English language, Muslim television
channel in North America.
However, the launch date is still a year away, slated for summer
2004. Entrepreneurs Omar S Amanat and Muzzamil S Hassan are
looking to sign up the required 10,000 paying members to
demonstrate public support. So far, only a tenth of that number
have signed up.
Hassan is the founder of Tradescape, which he sold to E-trade last
year for $ 280 milllion.
"I realised that the only way to undo misconceptions [about
Muslims] was to create our own media forum from which our stories
would be beamed and our culture would be shared," says Amanat.
"Other cultural groups have gained acceptance and increased
understanding through a media forum, why can't Muslims do the
same?"
Amanat says
that despite his financial success on Wall Street, public
perceptions of Muslims prevented him from being fully accepted.
In keeping
with such networks as Telemundo, which caters to a Hispanic
audience and BET, which caters to an African-American viewership,
Amanat says Bridges TV would create programming that members of
the American-Muslim community would be able to identify with.
"We would differentiate ourselves from such foreign language
channels as Zee TV and ART TV (an Arabic
channel), which are broadcast in foreign languages and focus on
life experiences in foreign countries," he says. "These channels
are popular with immigrant parents but not with their US-born
children."
