4th Posting:NEW TRENDS IN MADRASA JOURNALISM

NEW TRENDS  IN      MADRASA  JOURNALISM



Though the term madrasa stands for old, oriental and obscurant, new
writings on the same

have proved that the real situation inside these reminiscents of the
old education system

is diverse enough to break the stereotype. So is the case with the
journalism practiced

there. It took me around four months to discover that new things are
taking place in the

domain of the madrasa journalism, though slowly.

It started in January of the year when Maulana Mohd Sajjad Rizvi, one
of my friends,

informed me about a magazine called "Jaam-e-Noor", Delhi and suggested
me to include it in

my study. But as the magazine has seen only three springs of its life
and I have been

looking at the five years of the magazines, I did not take the advice
seriously.  Though a

couple of things about it remained fresh in my memory, I could not
decide what to do with

it which was hinting the advent of a new brand of journalism in the
sphere of madrasas.

During the course of my fieldwork, I discovered two more magazines,
Maah-e-Noor and Tooba,

both from Delhi .Now, I was convinced that a wave of new trends was
very soon going to

sweep the field and the process had already been unleashed.
THE  JAAM-E-NOOR  STORY


What I found interesting about Jaam-e-Noor, the first magazine of this
sort I came across,

was the screaming headline on its laminated title page: "Sania Mirza
ka Libas Koi Masla

Nahi Hai." (What Sania Mirza wears is a non-issue.) .This headline
suggests that the

magazine, in its content and approach, is sailing against the
direction wind blows in

madrasa journalism. The driving force behind bringing out this
magazine is Maulana Khushtar

Noorani, a graduate from the Islamic Call College, Tripoli, Libya in
1998. A chubby and

bearded young man in his late 20s was posing for being photographed by
another bearded but

slim man when I entered 422, Matia Mahal, Jama Masjid, the office of
Jaam-e-Noor to

interview its editor. The person with camera turned out to be a fan of
the magazine and was

trying to capture a moment of his meeting with the editor, Khushtar
Noorani. This visitor

from Lahore was the evidence of name and fame he was enjoying in
Pakistan where 2000 copies

of his magazines are consumed, a record by any standard of the
religious journalism, as the

total circulation of the most of the madrasa journals does not exceed
2000 copies. However,

there are other contributory factors too which set ground for the
heights of popularity

Jaam-e-Noor and his editor is scaling nowadays.


Religious education runs into the family of Khushtar Noorani. Allama
Arshadul Qadri, his

paternal   grandfather, is   an   ideologue   and the best-seller pen
of    international
fame   within   the circle of the Ahl-e-Sunnat sect. Though his body
of work is comprised

of more than a dozen books, Zer-o-Zabar, Zalzala and Lalazaar are
supposed to be his magnum

opus in which he engages in the polemics with the Deobandi ulama at an
unprecedented plane.

According to Mohd Arif Barakati, a student of Al Jamiatul Ashrafia,
Mobarakpur, Azamgarh,

Jaam-e-Noor was a familiar name within the circle of Ahl-e-Sunnat as
the personality of

Allama Arshadul Qadri had been associated with it.  In 1963, he
started a magazine called

Jaam-e-Noor from Kolkata. But it had to shut down in 1964 because his
involvement in an

increasing number of projects left him with almost no time for the
magazine. When Maulana

Khushtar announced in 2002 on the occasion of the Chehlum ceremony of
Allama Qadri, to

bring out the deceased magazine in a new avatar, every body hailed the
decision. The

magazine is so popular among the students of Al Jamiatul Ashrafia, the
Oxford of the

Ahl-e-Sunnat sect that Paigham-e-Islam, one of the student
associations in the institution

orders for 200 copies of Jaam-e-Noor every month. Imtiaz Ahmed,
President of the

association and also a student at the Ashrafia madrasa, is of the
opinion that "apart from

the subscribers, at least 5-7 talibilms read a copy of the magazine".


Not counting its historical importance, Jaam-e-Noor owes its
unprecedented popularity to

novelty of the approach it adopts towards the content and its
presentation technique as

well. This glaring difference between it and other madrasa journals is
a conscious effort

on the part of the editor Khushtar. During his academic sojourn
(1996-1998) to Libya, he

had closely observed how the journalism is practiced in the Arab
world. Returning to India,

he took a diploma in Print Journalism from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New
Delhi in 2001. All

this helped him in evolving his own vision of quality journalism. He
has been a bitter

critic of the madrasa journalism. Articulating his views on the theme,
he says that

"journalism per se has never been taken seriously in madrasas. The
motive behind bringing

out these journals has either been to manage funds or to keep the
community informed of the

daily routine of the pir of the shrine. These magazines have been
reduced to the status of

the mere mouthpiece of the institution". Those who are at the helm of
affairs, Khushtar

continues, "are simply not concerned with what are the current ground
realities of the

Indian Muslims, what they need, what ails them and what the earlier
can offer to the

community through their magazines. One of the reasons responsible for
this phenomenon is

that the editors of madrasa journals are not the professional and
trained ones. Without

having any idea how to plan the content of the magazine and how to
introduce diversity in

it ,they just keep on reproducing stuff relating to namaz , fasting,
miracles and

prophecies. One can find them in the religious books, easily available
in the market. What

new things you are offering through your journal to the readers?
Besides all these, the

editors lament of their low circulation. Obviously, if you are not a
professional editor,

the reading material you are offering are not upto the expectations of
the readers, why

should they buy your magazine? That's why these magazines soon cease
publication".

Jaam-e-Noor is the incarnation of the vision Khushtar has regarding
journalism and bringing

out a magazine. In fact the magazine has introduced, Khushtar claims,
a number of

innovations in the field of madrasa journalism. The magazine contains
64 pages which are

divided into regular columns and it strictly sticks to this column
design. Its editorial

runs into 6-8 pages and is per se a full-fledged article dealing with
an important current

issue. There is a column of Tahriri Mobahasa (debate in writing). He
relates passionately

how the idea of this column originated: "This concept I've borrowed
from The Times of India

which in its Sunday edition provides diverse views of experts on a
chosen theme. I also

select a theme and request experts to express their opinions in 2-3
pages." In one of his

columns entitled Fikr-o-Nazar, he publishes views of those readers who
are not columnists

or scribes but they have some important issue to share with others,
though in brief, say

only in 10 lines. "You can sense a sort of democracy in this column"
informs Khushtar

happily. He has a regular column devoted to interviews, which carries
every month an

interview of one of eminent Muslim personalities or of renowned
literary persons. Letters

of the readers suggest that this column is amazingly popular among
them. Khama Talashi is

another interesting column. In fact; the phrase khama talashi itself
is new to the

dictionary of Urdu. Khama stands for pen and talashi for
interrogation. Thus, khama talashi

means academic interrogation. "I've commissioned one of my most
talented friends for this

column. He writes under the pen name of Abul Faiz Moinee. In his three
paged column, he

critically analyses all what gets published in every issue of
Jaam-e-Noor. He even does not

spare me and I publish his scathing remarks because I want to spread
the message that

democracy and the freedom of expression are two key components of
journalism", exclaims

Khushtar proudly.









What really worked miracles for Jaam-e-Noor is the tone and tenor of
its editorials.

Khushtar, in his long and uncompromising editorials, blasted madrasa
system and attacked

the ulama community vociferously. This created a lot of controversy
among the religious

sphere of the sub-continent, resulting in carving out a niche for the
magazine among both

the critics and the criticized. In his own words, "the ulama were
exercising a sort of

control on the society. There was unstated rules that none could utter
or write a single

word against the mistakes they make….. I wanted to break this hegemony
on the part of the

ulema. In my editorials, I started writing against them and without
paying any heed to

their status or age." Here it will not be out of place to have a look
at some of the issues

discussed in his editorials.








The Ahl-e-Sunnat ulema have a history of polemecising against each
other on a certain

theological issue in the pages of Dabdaba-e-Sikandari, a weekly
newspaper from Rampur which

began its publication around 1864, as Usha Sanyal has mentioned in her
seminal work

Devotional Islam and Politics in British India. (P.188-98.OUP, 1996).
Contrary to this, no

magazine has ever criticized the way they engage the laymen of the
sect or questioned the

efficacy of methods they are employing to counter the arguments of the
'others'.  Khushtar

Noorani in his editorial entitled "An overview of the conventional and
path-breaking

activities of the Ahl-e-Sunnat" (April 2005) discusses the following
evils prevalent in his

sect:

1. Craze for the admission in madrasas
2. Obsession with the rebuttal of the Wahabis
3. Eloquence of Oratory
4. Establishment of the Jurisprudential Board
5. Flood of journals






There used to be a time when there was a craze among Muslims to send
their children into

madrasas while the current trend is that only poor students study
there or those children

are spared for madrasas who do not show any penchant for studies. This
attitude of the

Muslims is responsible, according to Khushtar, for the constant
degradation in the standard

of madrasa education and, also, provided 'others' (defined in terms of
Islamists and

secular modernists) with the opportunity to question their relevance.
Lambasting on the

obsession of the ulema of the Ahl-e-Sunnat with rebuttal of the
Wahabism, he says, we have

a tradition of countering the Wahabis with both pen and speech since
the inception of this

stray sect. Though a number of very important areas merit the urgent
attention of the

ulema, the problem is that nobody has time to give them a thought
because of their

obsession with this anti-Wahabi spree. Worse, they are not ready to
mellow down their tone

in rebuttal of the Wahabis. Moving to the next point of the editorial,
Khushtar writes that

there is no denial of the fact that oratory, like writing, is a tested
device of

propagation. So, some of the Ahl-e-Sunnat ulema also started using
oratory to enhance the

mass appeal of the sect. Later on, a number of ulema introduced new
elements in their

oratory to multiply their impact on the masses. As the popularity of
the orator is directly

linked to his monetary income, madrasa students went mad in seeking
excellence in the field

and the whole night oratory session became recurrent phenomena within
the religious circle,

forcing the neighborhood to spend a sleepless night.







In 1992, under the auspices of Al Jamiatul Ashrafia, Mobarakpur, the
Jurisprudential Board

was set up as a splendid body of Muftis, envisioning it as a platform
where important

decisions relating to Sharia, will be finalized with consensus. The
event sent waves of

happiness across the Ahl-e-Sunnat. Though the body made it a point to
incorporate all the

renowned muftis of the sect, it was not long before a number of such
bodies started

mushrooming in the length and breadth of Jahan-e-Riza (the world of
the followers of Imam

Ahmed Riza Khan).Khushtar writes with astonishment: "I am at loss to
understand the use of

establishing all these small and big Jurisprudential Boards if their
decisions are not

followed by others". He, taking a dig on theses muftis or the towering
ulema, bitterly

notes that though they think these enterprises as noble deeds, to me,
the latter are not

more than "just a waste of time and money". The only way to transform
them into a fruitful

exercise, he suggests, is to constitute a co-ordination committee of
these Jurisprudential

Boards which can strive for making decisions of one of them acceptable
to the most of the

rest.









Khushtar has devoted the concluding paragraphs to the religious
journalism practiced within

the circle of the Ahl-e-Sunnat. He, in his own singular style, very
succinctly bares the

fact about it. He says that till date I am at loss to get appropriate
words to describe

these magazines: whether they are "anthology of essays taken from
religious books", "bundle

of personal advertisements", or "dazzling blood-drops of journalism on
white papers".(p.5).

However, there are instances from the history that some magazines
really did well and are

still remembered. .Khushtar is of the opinion that their success can
not be termed as the

success of the magazine per se as they were not different from others
from the pack. It was

the personal writings of their editors the popularity of the magazines
springs from. What

baffles him is the herd mentality prevalent in the Ahl-e-Sunnat sect.
None is ready to do

any sort of experiment. Every body wants to trade on the trodden path,
resulting in

unnecessary crowd in some fields while in want of appropriate man
power in others which are

by no standards less important.



Jaam-e-Noor came as a fresh gust of air to the readers of the madrasa
journals. Khushtar's

editorials provided them with a new vision of journalism. In past, no
body mustered the

courage to express such daring views regarding the shortcomings of the
Ahl-e-Sunnat ulema.

Started in 2002, his magazine is about to successfully complete its
four years in a couple

of months. He says that many persons wonder: "It was very courageous
on your part that you

have written publicly on the issues people were afraid of mentioning
in their private

chambers. We wonder how they have spared you from the fatwa yet".
Maulana Qamar Ahmed

Ashrafi Misbahi, a graduate from Al Jamiatul Ashrafia, Mobarakpur, is
the advisor-in-chief

of Jaam-e-Noor. Trying to analyze the factors behind the success of
the magazine, Qamar

says: "There was a discomfort among the new generation of the
Ahl-e-Sunnat ulema regarding

the scheme of things in the sect. But they were afraid of being
ostracized or the backlash

from the elder ones .So, they were looking for someone who is immune
to this sort of

reaction. Khushtar was a perfect case as he was the grandson of Allama
Arshadul Qadri whose

towering stature and contribution to the Ahl-e-Sunnat was
undisputable. Surrounded by this

hallow of familial linkage to Allama, he was shielded from any direct
reaction on the part

of the elder ulema. Moreover, a number of leading ulema demised during
this decade, leaving

an intellectual and authoritarian vacuum behind them. In addition to
this, he had advantage

of being educated in Libya and was one of those few who had a degree
in journalism from a

recognized government institution. He had a great passion for
journalism and was

impatiently looking for the opportunity to tap his potentials.
Besides, he did not owe

allegiance towards any khanqah, excluding any chance of being
pressurized by his pir. Last

but not the least; Jaam-e-Noor is published by Maktaba Jaam-e-Noor
publishing house, owned

by Ghulam Rabbani, Khushtar's father. In other words, Khushtar is not
a servent-editor but

is the editor cum proprietor. So, he needed not to be afraid of being
thrown out of his

job. Thus, all these factors worked in his favor and he became the
vehicle for the

dissemination of the thoughts of the agitated young ulema who extended
to him tremendous

support: intellectual, moral and in form of articles". Had there been
someone else in his

place, he would have been either silenced or a fatwa would have been
issued against him.

Self-criticism is intrinsic to the vision of Jaam-e-Noor. It is this
call of introspection

which it gives time and again to the laymen and ulema of the
Ahl-e-Sunnat, keeps its

readership graph up. In February 2005, Khushtar as the editor of the
magazine went on a

tour to Pakistan and interacted there with a range of ulema of his
sect. His editorial of

the month of May, 2005 is a sort of travelogue of this trip.
Interestingly, he  has

mentioned   a couple of differences, which he observed, between the
ulema of India and

Pakistan. "It should be acknowledged that in the period of last 2-3
decades, the

contribution of the Pakistani ulema has outnumbered that of their
Indian counterparts. The

propagation of the thoughts of Imam Ahmad Riza has been carried out on
a scale which is

unparallel in the world."(p5).Consequently, he continues, "Pakistani
literature constitutes

today 70% of what the Indian publishing houses are churning out". It
suggests, on the one

hand, the paucity in the intellectual production of the Ahl-e-Sunnat
ulema of India, and it

speaks volumes about the state of original contribution and
publication in the language of

Urdu on the other hand. He, in the later part of the editorial,
emphasizes that contrary to

the Indian ulema, their Pakistani counterparts are more open to find
out people-friendly

legal solutions of the problems posed by the innovations in the field
of science and

technology. He is amazed at the glaring difference between the ulema
of both countries in

their approach to the day-to-day issues, despite the fact that all of
them adhere to the

same sect. Then he goes on to elaborate it with the help of an
example. On the question of

the legitimacy of Videography and photography, the Ahl-e-Sunnat of
India is divided into

two camps, triggering a series of writings and counter-writings on the issue.

Interestingly, on the other side of the border, it is simply a
non-issue. The Pakistani

ulema find videography and photography useful in spreading the views
of their sect.

Critiquing those who consider the use of videography illegal, Khushtar
argues, what they

mean by "majority" (Jamhoor) when they refer to their stand as
representing that of jamhoor

while the reality is that it is legal in all parts of the Muslim
world, including Pakistan.

So, in majority are those who see its use lawful, contrary to the
arguments of those who

are against it. (p6). It is this position of the editor which makes
Jaam-e-Noor perhaps the

only Ahl-e-Sunnat magazine which publishes blurred photographs of
human beings on its title

page.


Hamrey Masail (Our Problems) is a weekly program telecast by ETV Urdu.
Devoted to the

discussion on one of the current issues relating to Muslims, Obaid
Siddiqui anchors the

programme amidst the invited experts and a number of participant
audiences. In one of its

episodes, Khushtar was invited as the representative of the
Ahl-e-Sunnat sect to express

his view regarding the Division in the All India Muslim Personal Law
Board. His reaction to

the arguments of Shaista Amber, President of Women Personal Law Board
makes an interesting

reading as it provides a glimpse of his thoughts regarding the secular
reformist Muslim

women. He writes in his editorial that the session started with the
question: why Shias,

Barelwis and women, breaking away from the All India Muslim Personal
Law Board, have formed

their own boards? It was Shaista Amber who spoke first. Listening to
her words, I  felt

that "she is suffering from the labor pain (emphasis mine) caused by
the birth of

rebellious mentality in the women against men and specially against
ulema, springing from

western thoughts, superficial study of Islam, limited knowledge,
borrowed insights and

ordinary power of  perception.".(Jaam-e-Noor, June 2005, pp 3-4). In
the concluding

paragraph of the editorial, he summarizes what he spoke in the
program. In his words: "If

the representatives of the AIMPLB believe that drafting a model
Nikahnama, they can solve

the familial disputes and social tension, and if women, forming their
own personal law

boards, think that this will add to their prestige in the society, and
they will not be

meted with any injustice and atrocities in their homes as well as the
incidents of talaq

will stop, I think, they are chasing the mirage and nothing more". The
tranquility and

peace can not prevail in the society unless initiatives to implement
Islamic injunctions in

the society are taken. (Ibid, p5).




In an editorial on the electoral politics in Bihar, Khushtar has
presented a detailed

analysis of the dynamics of the Laloo Prasad vs. Ram Vilas Paswan
scenario. Subheadings

like the Muslim situation in the post 1990 Bihar, role of media in the
politics of Bihar,

an overview of the Paswan's love for democracy, the reality of the
slogan of Muslim chief

minister, use of puppet ulema by Paswan in the election campaign are
enough to suggest that

the editorial has a pro-Laloo and anti-Paswan tilt. It highlights how
Laloo has made riots

an alien phenomenon in Bihar which had been the worst-hit state by the
recurrent communal

violence under the Congress regime. After the demolition, Muslims got
disenchanted with it

and started voting different secular parties in the different parts of
the country. This

strategy on the part of Muslims divided their votes, culminating in
the emergence of the

BJP as the single largest political party in the 14th Loksabha
election. He has shown how

Paswan's secular credentials kept oscillating from Laloo to NDA to
Congress. That's why he

should not be given a chance any more. Then, Khushtar argues how the
consolidated Muslim

votes to Congress in the general election of 2004 has breathed a new
life into it, reduced

to almost a dead party then. "The need of the hour is that Muslims of
every state, using

their foresight, should  vote for only that party which is capable of
stopping the rising

tides of communalism and which guarantees for their development in
different walks of life

", concludes Khushtar.(Jaam-e-Noor, December 2005.p9).




When it comes to the international affairs, Jaam-e-Noor is no
different from other

traditional madrasa magazines. Muslim world and how the US engages it,
is what dominates

most of the writings on international politics in the magazine. Also,
they have great

appetite for the hear-say about the Zionist lobby. Like any other
traditional alim,

Khushtar Noorani too has his own understanding of what takes place in
the arena of

international relations. It will not be out of context to reproduce
here a couple of

paragraphs from one of his editorials entitled: "Well-Planned Designs
of the US against the

Muslim World and the Reality of our Silent Protests":

1. "After the 2nd World War the US and Soviet Russia emerged as two
superpowers on the

world map. But
  after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 9th decade of the
20th century, the

United States became the sole super power .Now it got involved in its
retaliatory actions

against the Muslim world, for which the whole western Christianity and
Zionism have been

preparing since 15th century after their defeat in the
Crusades".(Jaam-e-Noor,July

2005,p3).

2. "If we chronologically analyze the meticulous planning behind these
regular attacks on

the Muslim world then we come to know that when Muslim world was
celebrating its victory on

the West in the Crusades, vows were being solemnized in the churches
of the West to erase

the contours of the Muslim world from the world map. According to this
plan when Europe was

struggling hard to wake up afresh, mustering its courage, Muslim
rulers and nobility were

leading lavish life in their palaces and were busy in wine sessions.
In the 16th century,

two movements swept Europe: Renaissance and Reformation. The earlier
made Europe shine with

the light of knowledge and paved the way for establishing of
universities of Oxford and

Cambridge, institutions of international repute, while the latter led
to the emergence of

the Protestants as a sect. At that time the Muslim rulers were busy in
composing verses in

praise of their beloved and were putting all the might of their
kingdom at disposal to

erect wonderful monuments like Taj Mahal to please the souls of their
dead soulmates. In

the 17th century there started an age of scientific and material
development in Europe and

till the 18th century they, to subjugate the world and especially the
Muslim world, were

successful in inventing arms and ammunitions which were earlier beyond
imagination…  ".

(Jaam-e-Noor, July 2005, pp3-4).



Among other eye-catching columns of Jaam-e-Noor, those of interview,
tahriri mobahsa and

Khama Talashi worth mentioning here. As far as the interview column is
concerned, it's

really an innovation in the field of madrasa journalism. That the
magazine unfailingly

publishes a fresh interview every month exudes how serious the editor
is about the quality

he promises to his readers. Some of personalities whose interviews
have already been

published in it is : Maulana Mansha Tabish Qasuri ,Lahore; Dr.Syed
Aleem Ashraf Jayesi,UP;

Mohd.Arif Iqbal, editor, the monthly Urdu Book Review; Mosharraf Alam
Zauqi, the novelist;

Maulana Kaukab Noorani,Karachi; Dr.Monazir Aashiq Harganwi,Bhagalpur
University,etc.

Tahriri Mobahsa (discussion) is another interesting column which is
exclusive to

Jaam-e-Noor. It should be borne in the mind that in the Muslim
religious circle, dissenting

voices even in the matters concerning academics are shortly silenced
by one means or

another. This column, through its debate on a range of issues, has
established, on one

hand, how ulema of a particular sect differ from each other in their
opinions on a given

topic while on the other hand; it reiterated the need to tolerate
differences in opinions.

Some of the topics of this column are as follows: How to save the
world from the scourge of

terrorism? , What should be the role of ulema in the general
election?; Should Urdu be

included in the curricula of madrasas?; How useful is the university
education for the

madrasa graduates?.



The last question was thrown for the discussion in the month of April,
2005(pp21-27). Views

of five madrasa graduates on the topic have been published. Here is
what the editor has put

in boxes as the summary of their views:
1. University education widens the mentalscape of the madrasa
graduates, revitalizes

their views and makes their arguments serious and factual. (Tanveer
Arshad, Department of

Arabic, JNU).
2. People should stop bothering about the shortcomings of the modern
educational

institutions because every coin has two sides. (Samrul Hoda Noori, 4th
semester, Faculty of

Medicine, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi).
3. In the contemporary time, one can not properly render his services
to Islam on the

global scale unless one is trained in the modern sciences. This
underlines the need for the

modern education. (Shaukat Ali, Department Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia).
4. Today it's obligatory for every Muslim child to marry religious
education with

modern one so that he, retaining his identity, can lead a dignified
life. (Sadrul Islam

Misbahi.Department of Arabic, University of Delhi).
5. Modern education, through some of the madrasa graduates, will steer
the course of

the history of the Ahl-e-Sunnat towards a new direction. It's started
making its effects

felt since now. (Zishan Ahmed Misbahi, sub-editor, monthly Jaam-e-Noor).











The column of Khama Talashi (Academic Interrogation) adds one more
feather   to the cap of

Jaam-e-Noor. This style of self-criticism is not only praiseworthy but
is a contributory

factor towards emergence of a culture of tolerance and internal
dialogue among religious

elites. Abul Faiz Moinee, who writes the column with unmatched
fearlessness and erudition,

is extremely popular among the readers. He starts one of his columns
narrating an incident

of Josh Malihabadi: "Josh Malihabadi sent a copy of his autobiography
entitled 'Yaadon ki

Baarat' to Mahirul Qadri, editor of the monthly 'Faraan' with this
note: Janab Mahir!

Lijiye bakra hazir hai.Shauq se zabah farmaiye. (Mr.Mahir! The lamb is
here before you.

Please butcher it.).Then Mr. Mahir butchers the lamb with his own
style .i.e., wrote a 60

pages treatise as a critique of the book. My friend Maulana Khushtar
Noorani too every

month sends me a copy of Jaam-e-Noor with an identical note on it.
It's a matter of

coincidence that till date it's his own writings which have been
slaughtered at the altar

of criticism".(Jaam-e-Noor, October 2005, p55). In the present column, he first

congratulated the editor on having designed such a wonderful title
page, and that's without

including any dome or minaret. Then he wonders how the editorial has
adopted a soft line

towards the ulema as the editor has a reputation of being extremely
critical of ulema.

Further, he mentions an article which seeks to analyze observations of
some oriental

scholars regarding the Hadis literature. He writes: "Though the piece
is informative and

analytical, there are few places where my eyes stopped" due to
mistakes in the years of

birth and death mentioned. Commenting on the debate on the topic of
"Whether the suicide

bombing may be a form of jihad or is just a waste of  human life", he
criticizes a

participant for the mistake he committed in translating an Arabic
sentence while takes a

dig on the other for using jargon-laden language, almost
incomprehensible for the masses.

Assessing the next piece which is a travelogue by Maulana Kaukab
Noorani, Moinee writes in

a lighter vein: "I went through the piece, the first part of a two
part-series and am

eagerly waiting for the next part as the earlier has nothing
substantial in it." (p 55).

Thus, every column of Khama Talashi makes a hilarious reading,
especially when you are

aware of the content of the previous issue of the magazine.




Besides all these, Jaam-e-Noor is an Ahl-e-Sunnat magazine to the core
of its content.

Though I came across a couple of non-Ahl-e-Sunnat fans of Khushtar's
writings, being an

Ahl-e-Sunnat magazine is central to its identity. That's why themes
which distinguish the

sect from 'others' frequently find place in the pages of the magazine.
Even Khushtar, in

some of his editorials, writes on these issues. Apart from the content
of Shari' Adalat,

the fatwa column, which reinforces the Ahl-e-Sunnat identity of the
magazine, other columns

also time and again keep raising these issues. For example, articles
like 'Of course, there

is no sect called Barelwi' (February, 2006), 'Accounts of Oral
Contestations (Monazara)

with Deobandis' (July, 2005), 'Seeking help from the grave of the
deceased Shah Saud'

(November, 2005) suggest that polemics are not completely out. Thus,
university education

and a degree in journalism has engendered in the editor's approach a
tilt towards providing

choices to the readers but while doing so he has to be careful enough
not to cross lakshman

rekha of the sect. On the other hand, the journalism course has
enabled him to package the

commodity called magazine in an eye-catching manner and then to adopt
marketing techniques

to lure the consumers (here readers) and increase its salability. In a
way, with advent of

this professionalism, a shift, though unacknowledged and not much
pronounced, takes place

in the approach of the madrasa journalism: from dawah-oriented to
economy oriented, though

in a limited sense. Thus, these new trends in this genre of journalism
don't signify a

paradigm shift, rather 'shifts within the paradigm'.


OTHER NEW  TRENDS


Maah-e-Noor, another praiseworthy adventure of the Ahl-e-Sunnat sect
into the madrasa

journalism, came into the picture in May, 2005. This monthly is
brought out by a publishing

house named Maktaba Maah-e-Noor, located in Matia Mahal, Jama Masjid,
Delhi. Though the

magazine has just celebrated its first birth anniversary, it has seen
more than one

reshuffling in its editorial board. From the 1st of June, 2006, Afzal
Misbahi has joined it

as the editor, a post which was lying vacant for months. A graduate of
Al Jamiatul Ashrafia

in 1997, Afzal has worked for 7 years with the Delhi and Gorakhpur
bureau of Rashtriya

Sahara, the largest Urdu daily of North India. Enrolled in the
University of Delhi as a PhD

candidate on the theme of "Urdu Journalism in India after
Independence", Afzal has

extensively interviewed veteran political leaders for and considerably
contributed to the

daily in his Sahara days.



As a madrasa monthly, Maah-e-Noor is no different from others of the
pack in any

considerable way when it comes to the content. However, what
distinguishes it from others,

including Jaam-e-Noor, is the remuneration it offers to everybody who
contributes to its

content. "This is the first magazine which pays to its contributors",
exclaims Afzal with

pride. According to the system of gradation it observes, it pays
Rs.300, Rs.400 and Rs.500

to respectively amateurs, regular and senior scribes. Though it's a
meager amount compared

to what a mainstream magazine offers, it is a pointer of the change
which is slowly

creeping in the sphere of madrasa journalism. Even the acquiring
services of someone like

Afzal who has experience of working for years in the mainstream media;
itself has no

parallel in the history of religious journals. As he is just one month
old in his new

office, his own vision of journalism is yet to be translated into the
reality. However, in

the very first issue of the journal under his editorship, under the
heading of Special

Articles, he has published on the contemporary reality of Muslims some
pieces by Dr.Mushtaq

Sadaf, Ahmed Javed and Mohd Aurangzeb Khan, all from the mainstream
media. Also, his

editorial on the controversial film The Da Vince Code reflects his
willingness to make his

magazine relevant to the modern time, not divorced from the current
issues. Though the

editorial is rich in its content, ideologically speaking it mirrors
the concerns of the

religious conservatives. Interestingly, Maulana Abul Hasan Ashrafi
Miyan, the editor

–in-chief cum proprietor of the magazine is based in London and makes
frequent visits to

India. Its finances are met with what Ashrafi Miyan manages to garner
from the Ahl-e-Sunnat

diaspora of UK. It also gets funded by Choksi Brothers & Sisters,
Toronto, a private firm

run by the Indian diaspora.




Unlike these two magazines, Tooba, the next one in this league is the
organ of an

Ahl-e-Hadis madrasa Jamia Ibn-e-Taimiya, Chandanwara, East Champaran
of Bihar and its

research wing Allama Abdul Aziz bin Baz Islamic Studies Centre, Darya
Ganj, Delhi. The

monthly is consistently in publication since it started in 2001.
Maulana Zillur Rehman

Taimi, associated with the magazine since its inception, has been
promoted to the post of

the editor in May, 2006. It is he who was instrumental in bringing the
editorial work of

the magazine to India from Riyadh, its former workplace. As he is
enrolled as a research

scholar with the department of Arabic in JNU, Zillur Rehman has a
degree of journalism from

the same university. In this way, he belongs to the new generation of
the madrasa editors

who, having received religious education in a proper madrasa went to
the government

universities for higher education and, also, have a degree in
journalism under their belt

from a reputed institution. Zillur Rehman says stressing on the fact
that it has the policy

of not publishing any thing which may lead to widening the
intra-community divide among

Muslims. This policy, according to him, "distinguishes Tooba from
other madrasa magazines".

Though the Ahl-e-Hadis have earned a reputation of being obsessed with
the rebuttal of

other Muslim sects, the magazine has, amazingly, sticked to the policy
in its five years of

life span. However, the magazine is open to any piece which observes
the academic

parameters to prove its hypotheses, irrespective of its being against
the popular practices

of the Ahl-e-Hadis. In this connection, Zillur Rehman narrates an
incident that once we

received an article in favor of calling two azans for the prayer of
Juma' .In stead of its

being against the common practice of the Ahl-e-Hadis, we published it.




Running into 66 pages, the magazine is strictly divided into more that
15 regular columns.

Unlike Jaam-e-Noor which has no fixed columnists for its regular
columns, Tooba has its

fixed columnists for all its columns. This column design is a
contributory factor to its

popularity as Shahnawaz Alam, a student of Jamia Salafia, Varanasi
puts it:  "It gives you

a sort of satisfaction to go through a range of information
encapsulated in a single issue.

To me it's possible only because of the meticulous column planning on
the part of its

editor". Interestingly, most of its columnists are those who teach at
Jamia Ibn-e-Taimiya,

Chandanwara. It's obligatory for them to contribute to the magazine
under their assigned

columns. However, couple of its columnists doesn't belong to the
teaching community of the

madrasa. For example, Yusuf Nazim, a celebrated satirist of Urdu,
regularly writes a column

for the magazine and is paid for the same, although a very meager
amount of money. In this

respect, Tooba has partial resemblance with Maah-e-Noor which pays for
every word published

in it. Zillur Rehman has been conducting interviews of the Muslim
celebrities for Tooba but

unlike Jaam-e-Noor, it is yet to maintain consistency in this regard.
The total circulation

of the Tooba stands at 3000. That its 1400 subscribers are the
students of Jamia

Ibn-e-Taimiya is an interesting feature of the magazine. Every student
has to subscribe it

as its subscription fee is included in the admission fee of the Jamia.
Though the

institution receives generous donations from the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, this unique

feature of Tooba is a step towards making it economically independent.


CONCLUDING REMARKS

In the light of what have been discussed till now, it would be fair to
conclude that:

1. Those youngsters who are university educated and trained in journalism are
     increasingly donning the cap of editors of madrasa journals.
 2. They are trying their best to observe the norms of mainstream
journalism in their
      respective journals.
3. They are taking measures to make the magazine more participatory
for the readers.
4. They tend to publish the writings of young ulema who are enrolled
in the government
     universities.
5 Some magazines have started paying a token amount of money to the scribes.
6. Self-correction is going to be the buzzword in the case of some of
the magazines,
    although the bashing of the 'others' has not lost all of its charm.

 arshad amanullah
35,masihgarh,
jamia nagar
new delhi-25.
_________________________________________
reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
Critiques & Collaborations
To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request@xxxxxxxxx with subscribe in 
the subject header.
List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>