[Reader-list] 4th Posting:NEW TRENDS IN MADRASA JOURNALISM

[mohd arshad]

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.
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