Chicago, USA - They critique foreign policy, discuss teen fashion and deal with women's empowerment, just like so many other magazines fanned across the shelves of American newsstands.
These, however, have names like Islamica, Muslim Girl and Azizah. High-quality, with glossy covers, modern layouts and polished writing, the publications represent the rising voices of American Muslims eager to participate in Western society's media dialogue.
Observers say these new Muslim-American publications, both online and print, point to a maturity in the community and a desire to address what it views as imperfect representation in the mainstream media.
"There is a tendency on the part of non-Muslims to view Muslims as a monolithic 'other,' and the need to exhibit the many dimensions of Muslims was very important to me," said M. Salahuddin Khan, the Chicago area-based publisher of Islamica. "In so doing, we are communicating the essential humanity of Muslims."
The publications and Web sites, which also include Muslim Family and Islamic Horizons, are trying to discuss Muslim culture in the intellectual and social contexts of the West.
"I think there is a whole wave of new publications that are arriving from the second generation with a great urge to express themselves," said Ihsan Bagby, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. "They're trying to lay out a viewpoint that corresponds to that second-generation mentality: more moderate, more engaged in society."
A recent issue of Islamica, which is produced internationally and is available at Barnes and Noble and Borders, looks at the impact of Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern TV news station, on the global media market. In the style of Atlantic Monthly, the quarterly magazine was launched as an academic journal at the London School of Economics before it was reinvented as a more mainstream publication in 2004.
"The goal is to take a multidimensional view of Muslims and Muslim culture and present it in a format that is appealing, to kind of broaden the way people think about issues related to Muslim culture, religion and thought," deputy editor Firas Ahmad said. "We are trying to do it in a holistic way ... and we try and balance the content of each issue with things like travel writing and pictorial essays."
The magazine's design is eye-catching and sophisticated, with contemporary typefaces and high-quality photographs. The content, more academic than journalistic at times, is meant to prompt dialogue and discussion; it includes an interview with Samuel Huntington, the Harvard University scholar best known for his "clash of civilizations" theory, and pieces that reject suicide bombing and terrorism as means of resolving intractable conflicts.
The latest of the new magazines, Muslim Girl, is fashioned in the mold of Cosmo Girl! or Seventeen, but it shares the other publications' cross-cultural mission.
"I saw the magazine as this forum for young Muslims to come together and tell their stories, and as a way to open up this larger space for Muslims in America," said Ausma Khan, editor in chief of the bimonthly publication, based in Evanston.
The most recent issue shows two smiling young girls side by side, one with hijab and the other without. Topics range from "the spirit of Ramadan" to fashion's "fab fall trends."
"Normally, what we try to do is look at girls who are role models in a particular field, who are doing something for their community and who embrace American values as much as Muslim values," said Khan, a former law professor at Northwestern University.
The magazine has grown steadily since it first appeared in January; circulation is approaching 25,000, she said. Still, Khan acknowledges that making progress has been tough.
"It's been a challenge because ... there's a lot of suspicion about what a Muslim magazine might be," she said.
Muslim Girl follows in the footsteps of the Atlanta-based Azizah magazine, founded in 2002 and aimed at contemporary Muslim women. A recent special report profiled women who have tapped their spiritual power to survive tragedy. Also a glossy-cover magazine, Azizah has a circulation of about 45,000.
Experts say the emergence of Muslim publications says more about Muslims wanting to have a voice than about the commercial viability of the magazines.
Revenue is growing but remains unsteady, since advertisers can grow leery when turmoil permeates the Muslim world, editors and publishers say. Several Islamic-American publications have folded in recent years, most notably Arabica, a predecessor to Islamica and similar magazines.
Khan said Muslim Girl has had "mixed success" with advertising. "But obviously with the low circulation it's not the first go-to publication for advertisers," she said.
The deeper the pockets of advertisers, the more sustainable the magazine. Advertisers in Islamica, whose current global circulation is just 14,000, include the Department of Homeland Security, global banking giant HSBC and Kraft Foods.
Muslim publications have a rich history in America, said Sally Howell of the University of Michigan's Program in American Culture. Many started up in Michigan, home to one of the nation's largest Muslim populations.
In 1964, the Federation of Islamic Associations in America and Canada began publishing the FIA Journal, a quarterly that offered essays on Islamic history and commentary on U.S. policies and that stressed the responsibility of U.S. Muslims to educate others about Islam.
"In many ways the new publications, especially Islamica, parallel this history from the 1970s," Howell said. "Another generation of Muslims has come of age in America, while new intellectuals and new political crises continue to overwhelm and enliven an ever more diverse and ever more at-home-in-America population."
Muslim publications in the U.S. date back as far as 1921, when Mufti Muhammad Saddiq founded the Moslem Sunrise in Detroit. Saddiq came to the U.S. as a missionary and was confined at Ellis Island for fear he would spread belief in polygamy, Howell said.
"He vowed he would not teach polygamy and was released," she said. "He later talked about living by the rules of the society in which you reside."
The newest crop of magazines are trying to do more than live by society's rules; they are trying to help define those rules.
"We see the magazine as more of a thought leader," said Ahmad of Islamica. "We're really writing more to professionals, journalists, academics, policymakers and think-tanks."