While driving one night last year, Muzzammil S. Hassan and his wife, Aasiya, were listening to a talk show that took an anti-Muslim turn. Aasiya turned to her husband and asked why there can’t be a way for American Muslim families to create a strong, safe and good environment for their children.

“In those days Muzzammil was preoccupied with writing for newspapers or doing interviews on radio stations. And I told him this is not our thing,” Aasiya recalls. She wanted something exclusively for Muslims that Muslims could create and control. “I wanted something entertaining and informative that [would show] we’re not an alien species.”

She suggested a 24/7 cable television channel where Muslim families could turn for quality programming and non-Muslims could learn something about Islam. And just like that, the seed for Bridges TV, a developing Muslim television channel set to air in 2004, was planted.

The conversation in many Muslim households these days is on Bridges TV. Discussions of the new cable channel are making the rounds through carpools and dinner table conversations across the country. But though most Muslims agree that the time has come for a proper fulltime Muslim presence on American television, many are skeptical on how Bridges TV will work, how it is being financed, and if it is in fact a viable plan.

Hassan, the chief executive officer of Bridges Network (the holding company that is developing the television station), says all those questions are valid. But the impetus behind the channel is real and every question has an answer, he says. Though Hassan acknowledges Muslim television programming is not new in the United States, the concept of a fulltime Muslim channel is.

“You’ve got other [Muslim or ethnic] channels - PTV, ZTV. The issue is that they’re in foreign languages,” Hassan says. “And secondly they’re about life back home. Our focus is about here and now.

“A lot of local [Islamic] programming still tends to be in foreign languages or talk show oriented,” Hassan adds. “We want to provide entertainment. But the idea also is this is programming with our Muslim values and our American experience.”

The channel will offer a mix of entertainment, news, sports, children’s and women’s programming, advice shows, family shows, arts and music, religious programming and movies and documentaries, according to the channel’s website (www.bridges.tv). The plan is to provide 4 to 6 hours of programming by 2004 and gradually build up to round-the-clock shows by 2008.

In developing its programming wheel, Bridges Network along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Cornell University, sent a survey in April 2002 to 5,000 American Muslim families asking numerous questions - from what cars they like to drive to their occupations to what dishwashing detergent they use. What Muslim programming they would like was also on the survey.

According to Hassan, such surveys normally receive a 3-5 percent response rate, while this survey had a 15 percent response rate. “And the call for a fulltime American Muslim channel was there,” he says. Such a channel at its very basic should “build bridges with mainstream media,” Hassan adds.

Programming, however, is one of the trickiest courses for Bridges to navigate, say a number of Muslims. For how do you provide “proper” Muslim shows that run the gamut of coverage when so many Muslims have different ideas on what is Islamically appropriate?

There are numerous ways to accomplish that, Hassan says. The holding company is putting together a broadcasting board of governors to develop a set of boundaries for the channel. “We’re inviting some prestigious Muslim leaders,” he says. “We’re in conversation with some; some are already on the board of governors.” He cites Imam Deen Mohammed, Sulayman Nyang from Howard University and Alex Kronemer (who co-produced the recent PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet) as board members.

Some Muslims, who chose not to give their names, also wonder if the channel has the financial backing to keep it in forward motion. The channel’s website cites the figure of $15 million in capital to launch and keep the channel running. Perpetual donations cannot provide such capital, while foreign investors are limited by requirement of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that 80 percent of media property be owned by American citizens.

So Hassan drew upon businessmen and people with cable television experience to create the holding company. According to the company’s prospectus, it has raised $100 million on Wall Street. The next step, Hassan says, is to gather community support - 10,000 members by Jan. 2004. “By having 10,000 members, it helps make an economic case [to the FCC] that the community wants to make this happen,” he adds.

Since April, when the channel launched its drive, 1,500 people have paid their $10 monthly dues to become members. The initial drive was through word-of-mouth, but the company now plans to start print and Internet advertising campaigns.

The project is daunting, Hassan concedes, but he is confident it will succeed. “We want to provide television programming consistent with the experience of the American Muslim community and build bridges of understanding with mainstream America.

“I personally look up to BET (Black Entertainment Television) as a good role model. Not necessarily the nature of the programming, but in terms of where the African-American community was back in the ‘70s. Acceptance was an issue. Then BET came on the scene and shows like The Cosby Show followed,” Hassan says. “What Bob Johnson did for BET, he lowered a lot of the barriers for African-Americans. I kind of look up to [BET] as a model to make American Muslims feel accepted as American Muslims. We deserve that.”

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