Washington Post: A Place to Explore Muslim American Life: Altmuslim.com

Saturday, May 23, 2009

From his home in Austin, Shahed Amanullah, 41, runs six popular Web sites that explore topics of interest to Muslims -- with two more to go online shortly. A senior project manager at an engineering firm by day, the American-born Amanullah has built a mini-Internet empire. His sites include one that reviews restaurants that meet Islamic dietary restrictions and another that reviews mosques. On a more esoteric note, he has a Web site for the best Muslim writing on the Web and a site that explores gender issues in Islam. But his highest-profile Web site is

Alt.muslim.com, a forum for Muslims and non-Muslims to explore contemporary, often controversial, topics as they intersect with Islam: terrorism, politics, culture and comedy. Washington Post staff writer Jacqueline L. Salmon interviewed Amanullah about his work. Here is an edited transcript:

Millions of Young Muslims Online Generate a New Muslim Cool By Suad Abdul Khabeer

"Notably, M-team is one of many independent American Muslim artists who are using the web, through personal websites, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, iTunes, and now Twitter, not only to build their careers but to put forward their versions of America and Islam in a mixture of pride and self-critique. As they attract Muslim and non-Muslim fans online, the Internet is becoming a key location of a new "Muslim cool"-an accessible Islam that relates to the concerns of young people through an aesthetic that produces and is the product of popular culture."

Read the rest here