What My Reporting Award Means to Our Community

Written by Farkhunda Ali

Friday, 26 June 2009 00:00

While President Barack Obama spoke in Egypt, and televised on CNN for the first time about the Middle East leaders committing to a solution in the Israeli-Palestinian region, I was receiving the first place award in the category of international affairs for the story “Palestinians Remember Their Catastrophe” published in the Muslim Link in May 2008. The story was about the sixty years of sufferings of the Palestinians since Al-Nakba (the catastrophe) occurred.
It was ironic that President Obama asked for a peaceful process to address the Middle East conflict when that is what the Palestinians have been waiting for during the last sixty-one years.

It was an honor to be given the award by the famous CNN correspondent and anchor Richelle Carey. The awards banquet and the two-day expo were held in downtown Atlanta at the Regency Hyatt Hotel in downtown. The event was co-sponsored by the New America Media (NAM) and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

NAM is the nation’s first and largest national collaboration of over 2000 ethnic news organizations. Over 60 million ethnic adults connect to each other, to home countries and to America through more than 3,000 ethnic media, the fastest growing sector of American journalism.

The function of NAM is to bring the voices of the marginalized into the national discourse. The communities of the New America will then be better informed, better connected to one another, and better able to influence policy makers, according to its mission statement.

“Ten years from now, this won’t be ethnic media. These mediums will become more media outlets in mainstream media,” said Sandy Close, executive director of NAM and Founder of Pacifica News Service.

During my three-year tenure as the only staff reporter at the Muslim Link, many of our stories exposed similar themes, ideas, and issues as stories published in mainstream media. At the Muslim Link, every two weeks, we brainstormed creative story ideas that would benefit the community by serving as a link among Muslims in the tri-state region. Our stories created a dialogue about how to address community and personal dilemmas in immigrant Muslims, and American Muslim communities.

Ethnic communities’ stories have our personal touch to them. Ethnic mediums exist because people of different nationalities want to practice their right to reach out to people with special interests, needs, and sometimes a language barrier. I would say every story about the DC-Region Muslims is a unique story because it targets a special group with rare needs and therefore making it an exceptional story.

According to NAM, new research shows the number of adults reached by ethnic media increased by sixteen percent in four years.
I can start by saying there are many topics that are repeated in mainstream media such as elderly care, education, immigration reform, Middle East Conflict, healthcare, and immigrant civic & political engagement or lack thereof. Either way, a story published or broadcasted in an ethnic medium reveals the cultural sensitivities or barriers and presents a solution to the problem of getting the information across to a large group of Americans that speak different languages or have cultural differences.

A Muslim Link story written about elderly care opened up a dialogue between doctors and care takers to think about a Muslim nursing home. An immigration story about a three-year-old boy being separated from his Moroccan parents described the suffering of the family and recognized the emotional trauma of the mother being forced to leave her son in her native. The mother had to make the choice of fleeing to the US for better economic opportunities while leaving her loved one behind. In addition, another Muslim Link story about the Pandemic Flu (similar to the current outbreak of the swine flu) created a dialogue between faith-based leaders and the Fairfax County Government to educate their communities on disaster preparedness. Recently when I visited the Fairfax County Human Services Office to help a family member get information on immunization, I picked up a pamphlet on Pandemic Flu which was translated in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Spanish, Amharic, and other languages spoken by Muslims and other immigrants. During the Muslim Link’s coverage of immigration issues and high profile terrorism related issues, we established relationships with families and shared the missing parts of their stories that were not mentioned in mainstream reporting.

I am an avid reader of mainstream press. I also faithfully pay my cable bill to be able to have CSPAN, CNN, and BBC Channels because I respect these mediums and enjoy their news stories. I also read African American and Latino Newspapers so I can learn from them. I believe mainstream media are learning some basic aspects of foreign cultures such as the tactics and the manners of approaching sources of other ethnicities from ethnic reporters.

Just as mainstream journalists can learn from reporters and writers from various ethnicities, so can se learn from mainstream journalism. In my opinion, the three key elements that have led mainstream press to their success is foremost their readers’ support, their organization and networking skills, and their widespread ability to influence public opinion.

I’m trying to make my fellow Muslims think about their future in America. If we are here to stay, we must collaborate with one another, share our resources, and rethink the purpose for our existence. The younger generation is crying out for the older generation’s support in every realm of our lives. We need to be able to successfully establish and sustain our organizations. We can do it by making a little bit of sacrifice. I want my readers to open their eyes and realize that establishing Muslim mediums is a priority that has long been marginalized when other projects have been given precedence.

When I attended several protests and press conferences regarding the Al-Naka, the celebration of the sixtieth year of Israel, it never crossed my mind that my story in the Muslim Link would be considered for a nation award. But by the grace of Allah (God) this story was selected. For this recognition, I thank NAM and especially Sandy Close for allowing my work to be recognized. I think members of this foundation are honorable people working diligently day and night to provide specialized training and assistance for writers struggling to produce professional work just as mainstream reporters.

Furthermore, I give all compliments to my editor for allowing me to have the freedom to choose the angle of my stories. Secondly, I thank my sources for telling me their stories. I thank my supporters for their friendships and their prayers. Most of all, I pray that my late mother rests in Paradise. It is due to her that gave birth to my passion for writing the truth to even to make a small difference in my community. Although my mother was not educated beyond high school, she spoke to me like and adult over tea since I was eight years old. She taught me everything I know. Through the knowledge I have gained from my mother, I was influenced to use my skills to benefit myself, family, community members, and others.

As an Indo-Pakistani Muslim journalist, I was a bit disappointed to experience the loneliness that I did at the Expo. Among the representatives of 200 media outlets, I was the only one coming from a Muslim oriented paper in the nation. There were other Indian and Arab newspapers present that were impressed with the work of the Muslim Link.

My only constructive criticism to the Muslim journalists and Islamic oriented mediums is to get engaged in public discourse because our voice matters and will be high in demand as we progress as a nation under the presidency of President Obama. We need to jump on the bandwagon at a time when the competition is not as tough due to the harsh economic conditions. We need to support our ethnic mediums either by donating, recruiting advertisements, or writing on issues affecting us today in America.

If Muslims think we can mark the pages of history, then we need to become an integral part of the American society. Being a reporter at the Muslim Link has been a rewarding experience. Having said all of this, my humble editor does not like to coerce people into giving him money that is much needed. I don’t have a problem asking everyone to give whatever he or she can to the paper weekly, monthly, or yearly. Giving donations is the least we can do. We need more young writers getting educated in journalism, other creative writers to do some story writing, and documenting their history. No one else is going to write our history for us. We have to do it ourselves.
I was inspired by one of the speakers who represented a Hispanic newspaper in the West Coast, which will celebrate the hundred years of its existence. I realized it does not matter how small or large an organization is, the recognition is given to work which is exceptional. And small papers are doing respectable work because they have the ability to find those special stories that mainstream press does not have the time to search.

Ethnic media are on the rise. At the Expo, the Census Bureau representatives were reaching out to ethnic reporters with hope of building positive relationships with minority communities. The Census Bureau said they are willing to invest $145 million on media to promote the 2010 census, with more than half of that money going to local and regionally targeted media. This clearly justifies our right to a portion of the $72 million dollars.

NAM is tackling the issue of emergency communication within ethnic media. When a natural disaster hits an ethnic community, those with little or no English skills are at high risk because language barriers can prevent access to timely and correct information. Many of us might be at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving information on emergency and preparedness plans.

With this in mind, I perceive Muslim Link a necessity, not a privilege. As American Muslims, we need to think deeply about the prospects of our future in the U.S. Muslim media are as important as weekend Quran School or Islamic social services in the various Masajid. I am emphasizing that Islamic centers in the US step up and raise the importance for Muslims to practice their American right of freedom of speech. With this being said, we as readers can start donating to the Muslim Link and honorable organizations such as NAM for them to continue their work.

The DC Metro Muslims can easily loosen their pockets just a bit to save our voice, the Muslim Link, in a matter of weeks. This could be done with dedication to save something necessary for us. It is all about our perception. Are we going to complain about how mainstream media represent us all of the time, or are we going to do something about it? If we don’t define ourselves, then somebody else easily will. If we don’t say anything about others shaping and documenting our views without any of us refuting their description of us, then it is going to remain this way in history books. Right now the western philosophical term “survival of the fittest” comes to my mind where only the people who are standing up for their beliefs, Muslims raising awareness on their true identity, and the younger generation’s involvement in documenting their own history are going to determine whether we are included in the process of history making or excluded. It is truly all up to us and our level of interaction and extent of contribution.

Please help support our paper, and donate to the Muslim Link via online www.muslimlinkpaper.com.