LOS ANGELES, 4 December 2004 — America’s first English-language Muslim television channel has launched in the United States in a bid to improve the image of Muslims and provide programming suited to their tastes.
The venture, called Bridges TV, started broadcasting on Nov. 30, piped out over a satellite network that reaches a million homes with foreign channels.
It also reached a distribution deal with Comcast, America’s largest cable company, which has started rolling out the service in cities with large Muslim populations like Chicago.
Bridges TV was founded by former New York banker Muzzamil Hassan, who raised $1 million in seed capital from private investors, including 10,000 American Muslim families who paid $10 each a month for the past year and are the channel’s first subscribers.
Hassan admitted that the channel might start off small, but with an estimated 6 million to 8 million Muslims living in the United States, he said he believes the potential market is huge. But that, said the former money man, is only half the story. His real aim is to change America’s perception of Muslims.
“Every day on television, we are barraged by stories of a Muslim extremist, terrorist or insurgent,” he said, “but the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell.”
Hassan said the idea for the channel was born in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when Muslims around the country suffered under a shadow of guilt by association. While on a road trip with his wife, she urged him to do something about it.
“Some derogatory comments were being made about Muslims that offended her,” Hassan said “She was seven months’ pregnant, and she thought she didn’t want her kids growing up in this environment.”
Three years later, Hassan is busy presenting another image of American Muslims and also providing programming that helps his children appreciate their culture.
“American Muslim life is, for the most part, quite similar to mainstream American life,” said Hassan in one of many media interviews that accompanied the birth of the station this week.
“But for an American-born Muslim kid growing up in America, there are virtually no realistic portrayals of Muslims in dramas, sitcoms, soap operas or talk shows.”
Even though foreign Muslim-oriented stations like Al-Jazeera and Pakistan Television are available through satellite, Hassan said that his studies showed that while first-generation immigrants might tune in, their American-born children would likely leave the room and watch popular American shows like “The Apprentice” on regular channels.
Bridge TV hopes to remedy that with its own nightly news programs, shows made by independent producers and others bought from the BBC and from stations throughout the world.
“This is not the American Al-Jazeera,” noted a media critic in the Chicago Tribune. “Instead, call it Lifetime for Muslims with a dash of CNN,” referring to the leading cable channels for lifestyle and news.
The line-up includes a chef specializing in Indonesian, Middle Eastern and South Asian fare, a soap opera about an Egyptian father dealing with his daughter’s interfaith marriage and even a comedy show featuring shtick between a rabbi and a Palestinian-American.
There is also a nightly news show that Hassan said will have no political bias but that will clearly present an alternative to the gung-ho journalism of American networks.
The fledgling station is already attracting critics who are both ideological opponents and those who think that its odds of succeeding are slim.
Right-wing commentator Robert Spencer, who writes a column called Jihad Watch, which is highly critical of the Muslim mainstream, questioned Bridge TV’s aims and claimed that it was endorsed by radical groups who support “holy war on the West”.
“Will this channel do something truly positive, such as tell the truth about the elements of Islam that give rise to violence and discuss the hard choices Muslims must face in order to prevent the continued growth of jihad radicalism and terrorism among them?” he asked.
Media analysts also said Bridges TV has its work cut out for it if it wants to reach a national audience.
“Muslim and Arab Americans are concentrated in the top 20 cities, which are already saturated with cable stations,” said Mostapha Saout, president of the multicultural advertising agency Allied Media. Others said they believe most American Muslim will be unwilling to fork out an extra subscription just to see Bridges TV.
Worst of all, the very stereotypes that Hassan is trying to fight might prevent him from having a crossover impact like those enjoyed by the Hispanic Telemundo or African-American station Black Entertainment Television.
“When you approach the cable stations and tell them anything except Hispanic or African-American, they don’t really know what you are talking about,” Saout said. “They already have this whole host of stereotypes in their mind, and they may have in their mind something extreme.”