The Asian Today

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It is a community newspaper providing the region's south-Asian community access to important news stories, current events and encouraging community interaction and dialogie as well as provoking debate and discussion.

The Asian Today began in September 2002 under its original name, The Asian Leader, before briefly adopting 'Your Leader' in August 2005 and then permanently rebranding itself as "The Asian Today" in September 2005.

The newspaper is one of the few English language newspapers circulated in the Asian community but is said to be the widest read ethnic newspaper in the Midlands. Its distribution and readership spans Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Coventry, largely emcompassing areas with a high south-Asian population where it can be collected in takeaways, supermarkets, taxi ranks, community centres and entertainment and cultural outlets.

The newspaper has broke numerous national stories including an exclusive interview with Dr Mohammad Naseem on the subject of terrorism which was followed up by the mainstream press as well as shocking revelations of systematic abuse of a veiled Muslim woman, Mrs Mahfooz Bibi, at the hands of police officers, which was widely cited by national and international press and in religious and cultural forums and even picked up by the Muslim Voice UK. Most recently, the newspaper featured the threat of violent protests from prominent UK Sikh leader, Sewa Singh Mandla, after the Sikh community was angered by the a Bollywood film, Jo Bole So Nihaal, which they believed committed sacrilege and also exposed the case of a Blackheath imam who was suing a lottery-funded mosque.

The newspaper is published by Birmingham-based Urban Media Ltd. who also produce Desi Xpress. The editor of The Asian Today is Zakia Yousaf

Related links

* [http://www.theasiantoday.com The Asian Today]
* [http://www.desixpress.co.uk Desi Xpress]

Media Coverage

All of the stories relating to Mahfooz Bibi were published after the Asian Leader Midlands broke the story and the subsequent follow-up.
* [http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/05/311395.html West Midlands Police 'Racist' - Alleged Systematic Abuse] - IndyMedia UK
* [http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/birminghampost/news/tm_objectid=15579787%26method=full%26siteid=50002-name_page.html Police accused in veil dispute] - Evening Mail
* [http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=209834 West Midlands Police 'Racist' - Alleged Systematic Abuse] - Mathaba News
* [http://www.mvuk.co.uk/feature_view.asp?feature_id=29 Police force Muslim woman to remove veil] - Muslim Voice UK
* [http://www.islam4you.co.uk/news/articles/195/1/Police-force-Muslim-woman-to-remove-veil Police force Muslim woman to remove veil] - www.Islam4you.co.uk
* [http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=14160618%26method=full%26siteid=50002-name_page.html Government accused of 'creating' terror threat] - Evening Mail