''The Asian Today'' is a free fortnightly community newspaper published and distributed in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is a community newspaper providing the region's

south-Asian South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and ethnic-cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's population. As commonly conceptualised, the m ...

community access to important news stories, current events and encouraging community interaction and dialogue 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 English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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 Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

and

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, largely encompassing 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 broken numerous national stories including an exclusive interview with Dr Mohammad Naseem on the subject of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

, 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 Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

community was angered by the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

film, Jo Bole So Nihaal, which they believed committed

sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical ...

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 ''Desi Xpress'' was a weekly national entertainment newspaper, published in the United Kingdom by Urban Media Limited. Background ''Desi Xpress'' was first launched in the Midlands region in England in September 2004 before becoming national in S ...

''. The editor of ''The Asian Today'' is Zakia Yousaf.

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.

IndyMedia UK

''Evening Mail'' *, Mathaba News
"Police force Muslim woman to remove veil"
Muslim Voice UK
"Police force Muslim woman to remove veil"
www.Islam4you.co.uk

''Evening Mail'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Asian Today Newspapers published in Birmingham, West Midlands 2002 establishments in England Newspapers established in 2002

Related links

Media coverage