The Milli Gazette (MG) is an English language newspaper of the 170 million Indian Muslim community. It is speaking for the whole Ummah and is in the forefront of fighting against the terrorism libel against Muslims.
Thirteen years ago when it started the publication, it was a 16 pages issue which steadily progressed to 32 pages. Currently it is a bi-monthly newspaper which they are aspiring to bring it as a weekly and adding more pages as they progress – insha-Allah.
However, the gross lack of financial support from Muslim advertisers and Muslims who could become paid subscribers of MG, is so total that MG has been loosing big money for the last few years. Also they have reduced the number of its pages. Due to continued big losses, MG’s print edition may be forced to shut down about the end of the year 2012. Zafarul-Islam Khan, the editor of MG, mentioned in his email to me that, “we are now in the 13th year yet incurring serious losses month after month. We are thinking of two options: either to close down or to further reduce our pages to 16 pages per issue which will further restrict our ability to cover the issues of our community (we had 32 pages/issue which we reduced to 24 pages some time back).“
That will be a huge setback for the Muslims of India, since in 65 years (i.e. since Indian independence), MG is the ONLY English newspaper of the Muslim community and the only vehicle to convey the community’s news in a language that most literate Indians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, can read.
Most of us can not advertise but certainly most of us can become paid subscribers of MG. Especially for NRI Muslims, the annual subscription is a very small amount. For a mere US $6 (INR 240) you can subscribe for one year to a local address. In case you do not know of any Indian address please send me an email, I can provide you with one, for which you can sponsor your subscription.
Please do not let the only lifeline of Indian Muslims to dry up. You can subscribe to MG by going to its website – http://www.milligazette.com/pages/subscribe. It is a reader supported newspaper. By supporting MG you will be supporting your own voice!
– Nooruddin
nooruddin@darulislamfamily.com
