Lifestyle magazine for young Finnish Muslims to debut

[Eldritch]

Editor-in-chief Bilal Sehli (right) is planning fashion and sport as features in the new magazine.

Finland will see a new magazine created by young Muslims in August. The magazine will include matters of daily interest and features ranging from fashion to sport as seen from a Muslim perspective. The staff of the magazine, Umma, says they also want to reach young ethnic Finnish readers.

The idea of a magazine targeted at Muslim youth was generated by the youth committee of Finland's Muslim Council about a year ago. Its editor-in-chief, Bilal Sehli, has been involved from the start. The first issue will appear in August.

"There are a lot of foreigners in Finland and there are also Finnish young Muslims. But they don't have an activity where they could talk about themselves, about their lives, their stories," says Sehli.

Since the purpose of Umma is to give the young a chance to tell about their own lives, day-to-day affairs have a major role in the publication. Writers also hope to broaden the picture of Muslims for the majority of the population.

"Our magazine is a Muslim lifestyle magazine, so in there you can find sports, you can find fashion, you can find articles about history, about young Muslims and also you can find some news," Sehli explains.

The August issue will contain articles including items about successful Muslim karate competitors and about fashion, for example, scarf styles.

The first issue of Umma will be free, but the magazine is intended to be put on sale in future. Finland's Muslim Council is the publisher, with some financial support provided by the EU's youth activities programme.

Although published in Finnish, the editorial staff is international. The ten-person team includes both young men and women from Somalia, Arab countries, Kosovo and Finland.

"We need to show to the Finnish youth, that we are together, but also we have something to show you, something new, like our cultures. But from our way, the youth way, from the youth vision," says Sehli.

Link.

[Vasconcelos]

Fashion?