A different take

By: Amy ShebeckAround the corner from a busy street on the West Side of Chicago, the three studios that make up WCEV-AM are perched above a dance studio. The mom-and-pop station’s call letters spell out the quaint motto, “We’re Chicagoland’s Ethnic Voice.” On any given day, listeners can tune into programs like the Father Justin Rosary Hour or the Happy Hearts Polka Show. They might also come across one of the station’s owners offering a live editorial against cellphone use in public.

WCEV is also home to a program that has attracted such distinguished guests as Noam Chomsky, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, and has been a sought-after source for both National Public Radio and the BBC. Since it began in the fall of 2004, Radio Islam, the only daily, English-language, Muslim talk radio program in the country, has generated a well-respected reputation despite its unlikely surroundings.

But, to Abdul Malik Mujahid, the program’s executive producer, Radio Islam is more than a token Muslim voice in the media. “Radio Islam is not out there to do public relations for Muslims,” he explains. “It’s more to develop conversation among our neighbors.”

Ever since Mujahid emigrated from Pakistan in 1981, he has been a leader in Muslim and interfaith communities, serving on both the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago and the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. With the goal of promoting communication across faiths, Mujahid founded Radio Islam as an Internet-streaming broadcast in 1999. Sound Vision, Mujahid’s company that produces multimedia educational materials, continues to fund the program.

In the past year and a half, Radio Islam has addressed everything from U.S. Supreme Court nominations to women’s health to Muslim professional wrestlers. This broad scope underscores the program’s commitment to presenting a more nuanced picture of Muslim American life, says Janaan Hashim, one of the show’s hosts. “It’s killing the stereotype that they are unique, they are mystical, they are different. And we’re not! We are American, we are normal, like you,” she says.

Hashim laughs at some of the misconceptions she has witnessed, including one caller who agreed with a guest’s opinion on “Gitmo” while making sure to clarify that he was not “an Islami.” But getting listeners, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, to talk openly about their misconceptions is the whole point of Radio Islam, Mujahid says. “There are multiple types of people, multiple types of perspectives, and different people feel strongly about different things,” he says. “And the person who considers our neighbors to be stupid people---he himself is very naïve. … And, if you don’t want to discuss it, then you are missing the boat, not the next person.”

Mujahid sat down recently with The Chicago Reporter to discuss Radio Islam.

Why is there a need for a Muslim voice in the mainstream media?
The challenge we have in the Muslim community is that people normally call us when they are looking for a reaction, and most of the time it is some international story. What we do here normally is not noticed. If something major is happening somewhere, some people will say, ‘Well, what do you think about this?’ But, when we create good news, it doesn’t go around.

So would you say that the bias in the media is more out of omission than actual criticism?
No, both! Both are there. Islamophobia is the only OK racism left. Islamophobia shows up by negative news. Islamophobia also shows up when positive news is nowhere to be found. [For example, the Radio Islam launch,] which Chicago Tribune saw worthy of news, National Public Radio thought was worthy of a news item, but the rest of the media completely was out of it.

Isn’t that frustrating to you?
It is; it is. But that’s why, you know, the argument that I make about the [Danish] cartoon [controversy]---it’s not cartoon; it’s essentially Islamophobia. Media missed the point. First one week they are saying, in Islam, depiction of the prophet is prohibited. Well, give me a break. Nobody was demonstrating because depiction was prohibited. The main thing was depicting him as a terrorist. And that not only hurt because of our love for the prophet, because we think how merciful he was, but also because you have been telling me for the last five years I’m a terrorist---now you tell the most loving person that he’s a terrorist. That’s where pain comes from.

Muslims either don’t exist, or they exist as a terrorist or as a stupid person. Now, having said that, there’s a lot of good people in our society. But the thing is, what Martin Luther King had to say about it---you know, the silence of the good people---and I consider that challenge is a Muslim challenge. Are Muslims doing enough? Are Muslims standing up enough for the other people? Are they speaking?

It sounds like you’re urging Muslims to stand up not only for themselves, but to be civil rights leaders for everybody.
Because the nature of peace and justice, the nature of poverty, of neighborly relations, the nature of faith---these things have nothing attached to it. Muslim or not, all people are the same.

One way of erasing that is when we become more concerned for the society at large: people who are hungry, people who are poor, people whose rights are not given to them. One way to fight Islamophobia is for us to become better human beings. Unless we become first-class citizens in terms of our commitment to people, we will not elevate ourselves to the level of humanity in which we will be true fighters for civil rights. There cannot be anything called ‘Muslim civil rights.’ Civil rights has to be for all. Similarly, fighting racism cannot be limited to Islamophobia; it should be for all forms of racism. How much is my contribution to fight racism for other people? That is as relevant a question as what I’m doing today to fight Islamophobia.

And that’s how the discourse on Radio Islam is. Radio Islam criticizes Muslims right and left. When we talk issues of poverty, it is not what someone might consider, ‘good public relations.’ On Radio Islam, you have a lot of this talk going on, critically as well as positively, bringing everybody on the air who is doing anything in the Muslim community for them to realize. And I’m glad that none of them are trying to create news out of it. They are doing it more because this has been a call of duty from which they have been absent.

I see that you’re not creating news out of your good deeds. Still, the media is ignoring you, and you don’t seem to be satisfied with that, either.
Right. But the main motive still is not public relations. The main motive is still to do the right thing and learn to do the right things. That’s where Radio Islam comes in. At least what we’re doing becomes the news and becomes part of the agenda of the community.

Given the mainstream media’s often critical coverage of Muslims, do people object to Radio Islam’s choice to avoid presenting only positive coverage of the Muslim community?
Oh yes. I have received calls criticizing, ‘How come Radio Islam is saying this?’ For example, the Chicago Tribune had a whole series of stories criticizing the Mosque Foundation on certain issues. Right then, we invited one of the reporters who wrote the story. And people talked about how come Radio Islam was providing opportunity for her---not only to have the Tribune available to her but now Radio Islam available for her to say what her opinions are. So our response was, ‘Of course, you can call in and say, “Hey, you messed up. You need to go back to journalism school.”’