Cable channel for Muslims: “Bridges” creates a safe space for Muslims<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two young Muslim entrepreneurs take a chance on an ambitious new cable channel that aims to serve the growing American Muslim community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/06\/bridges_creates_a_safe_space_for_muslims_on_tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cable channel for Muslims: “Bridges” creates a safe space for Muslims\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two young Muslim entrepreneurs take a chance on an ambitious new cable channel that aims to serve the growing American Muslim community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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And the only one, for now<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Last year Omar Amanat, a young American Muslim entrepreneur, had achieved a level of success rarely seen among Americans under 30. Having founded the online trading service Tradescape<\/a> at the age of 24, he survived the dot-com fiasco to end up selling the company to E*Trade<\/a> last year for a cool $280 million, making him E*Trade\u2019s largest individual shareholder. He could have plowed his time and money into his \u201cnext big thing\u201d, but Amanat had other plans. As a New Yorker with offices<\/a> in the World Trade Center, Amanat saw firsthand the devastation of September 11th. But in the wake of 9\/11 he was also tired of seeing constant headlines about Muslims that painted pictures that did not reflect the American Muslim community he knew so well, so Amanat and fellow entrepreneur Muzzammil Hassan<\/a> dreamed up Bridges TV<\/a>. Set to launch in the summer of 2004, Bridges is a cable and sattelite channel that aims to do for American Muslims what Al-Jazeera<\/a> did for the Arab world \u2013 shake up the media landscape<\/a> and provide a resonant community voice. Backed by a Cornell University study<\/a> that shows the American Muslim community to be more educated, fast growing, and in a higher income bracket than the average American (read: high advertising revenue), the duo have sought major investment and recruited<\/a> media and cable professionals (both Muslim and non) to make sure Bridges is professionally run. And as targeted channels such as Telemundo and BET have been successful, Amanat thinks there\u2019s a good shot for Bridges. \u201cI realised that the only way to undo misconceptions was to create our own media forum from which our stories and culture<\/a> would be shared with the world,\u201d says Amanat. \u201cOther cultural groups have gained acceptance and increased understanding through the media. Why can\u2019t Muslims do the same?\u201d Early indications are that they are on the right track. \u201cWe\u2019re already getting over 100 people<\/a> [subscribing] every day on our website and we don\u2019t even have a product yet,\u201d said co-founder Hassan.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n

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