BRUSSELS (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - An enthusiastic, young Dutch Muslim salesman of advertisemennt products has given up his job to devote his time and energy to Muslim media in order to correct the false and misrepresented image of Muslims in his country.
Josef Stevens who converted to Islam 15 years ago said in an interview that he established the company called Muslimmedia a year ago and last October the first newspaper Moslim Vandaaag in Dutch (Muslim today) was launched.
He explained that an Islamic paper has been a dream of all Dutch Muslims.
"They watch the TV and read newspapers which talk about Muslims but Muslims feel disappointed and misunderstood because they are attacking Islam and our Prophet," he said.
"We want to give a response so I think it is in the back of the Muslims that it will be very nice to have a Muslim media but what stands in the way is that people believe its not possible. So I decided to quit my job and do it," said Stevens who was in Belgium to attend an Islamic conference.
The second edition of the 16-page monthly paper was published recently and Stevens said he is also planning to create a Muslim news agency.
Moslim Vandaag is being distributed free as it receives advertisements and support from Muslim business and commercial houses in the Netherlands.
Up to 25,000 copies of the newspaper are being printed every month and for the moment it is mainly distributed in Amsterdam.
Stevens said when they succeed in stabilising in the market in Amsterdam they will start distributing the paper in other Dutch cities.
Asked what made him convert to Islam, Stevens said he had a lot of friends from Muslim countries but he was not interested in Islam as he thought it was all about violence and repression.
But when he started reading the Quran and the life of the Prophet and Islamic books it cleared his mind and removed the misunderstandings about Islam.
Stevens said he recently visited Kuwait on a training programme with a group of 22 European Muslims which was organised by the Islamic Presentation Committee of Kuwait.
"The IPC is training us for Dawah in the West. The purpose of this Dawah is to present Islam as an accepted and a popular religion because of the way we talk about it and the way we show it." "It is not only about giving information but showing and helping the society in Holland" he added.
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