''Southern California InFocus'' is a free monthly tabloid-format newspaper serving the Muslim community in Southern California. Its offices are in

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

. ''InFocus'' was started in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on February 4, 2005."Muslim Newspaper," ''City News Service'' (4 February 2005) It is the largest Muslim newspaper in Southern California. Asma Ahmad, a

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

citizen who grew up in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

attending American-run schools and formerly edited the national newsletter of the

Muslim Students Association The Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United Sta ...

, is the paper's managing editor and only full-timer staffer. Its deputy editor is Muneer Adhami. The

Council on American Islamic Relations A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

financially subsidizes and provides office space for the newspaper, but the managing editor states that the paper is "editorially independent from CAIR". 20,000 copies of the paper are printed monthly; 500 copies are mailed to paid subscribers and the remainder are distributed free through Muslim-owned businesses and mosques in Southern California. The paper "covers a large variety of local, national, and international events, features, profiles, and has the following sections: arts, book review, restaurant review, Islam, money, legal, kids, travel, interfaith, commentary, and opinion." The paper describes its mission as:

"... serving to document the rich history of Muslims in the Southland – past and present. Through feature stories, mosque profiles, interviews of individuals who have made a difference, and in-depth coverage of news stories affecting Muslims, ''InFocus'' is the first localized effort in Southern California to record the American Muslim experience. For American Muslims, it is a platform which brings forth issues of their concern. For the larger community, it is a window into the Muslim world right here in California".

Managing editor Ahmad describes the paper as, "an Islamic newspaper but not a publication about Islam," and says she wants, "In Focus to concentrate on issues important to Muslims, such as civil rights and discrimination, which she says are largely ignored by the mainstream media in the post-Sept. 11 world." Ahmad said the community is committed to democracy. An editorial in the March issue offered qualified support for President Bush's Middle East policy and called for the democratization of Arab countries, urging Muslims to turn the "breeze of democracy into an unstoppable wind." More than anything, Ahmad said, she wants the newspaper to pull American Muslims into the mainstream. "We can keep our religion and not have an isolationist approach. We can do this in America," she said.

Notes

External links

{{Portal, Greater Los Angeles, Islam, Journalism
Southern California InFocus
website Newspapers published in California Publications established in 2005 Islam in California