Source: Wired

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58773,00.html

On May 10, 2003 Wired reported that "about 6 million to 8 million Muslims currently reside in the United States, yet pop culture images of them are scant beyond the nightly news reports chronicling the war on terrorism... There isn't a single recurring Muslim character, for example, on a sitcom or drama... [Mohamed] Alaoui and some 1,500 other American Muslims like him are eager to change that -- so eager that they're willing to pay $10 a month for a fledgling cable television network that doesn't even exist yet... Mo Hassan, a New York banker and ex-Procter & Gamble marketer, and Omar Amanat, founder of the Tradescape Internet brokerage, are betting that many more people will do the same. The founders of the new Bridges TV network hope that by delivering 10,000 'pre-subscribers' they will convince major cable companies to take on the first nationwide English-language Muslim television channel in the United States by the summer of 2004. Hassan and Amanat say they plan to offer programming that resonates with the real-life experiences of moderate American Muslims."