Funding and ownership

That is the plain version. The more human version is this: this site was built with a lot of late nights, a couple of AI chatbots, more than 30 years of writing experience, and about $130. I have been writing, editing and publishing for most of my adult life. Artificial intelligence did not make me a writer, but it has finally helped drag me out of typo territory.

Ownership

Texas Muslim was founded by Omar Afra and is owned by him. He serves as editor.

There is no hidden board, no quiet institutional sponsor, no political committee and no donor class steering the thing from behind the curtain. If there is a mistake here, it is our mistake. If there is a point of view here, it is disclosed rather than disguised.

Funding

Texas Muslim was initially financed personally by Omar Afra. At this time, the publication has no grant funding, no institutional backer, no advertising revenue and no subscription revenue.

If that changes, this page will change with it, with the date of the change.

Texas Muslim does not claim nonprofit status. It is not a registered charity, not an accredited institution, and has no connection to the government of Texas or any Texas agency. The name means what it says: a publication about Muslim life, civic belonging, public affairs and community in Texas.

Affiliated publications

Omar Afra also publishes Testset and Live Index, and founded Free Press Houston. Those are affiliated publications under common ownership.

When Texas Muslim links to those sites, we label the relationship. We do not treat our own affiliated publications as independent corroboration for our reporting. If something needs outside support, it should have outside support.

Conflicts of interest

If a story touches a business, organization, publication, campaign, public figure or person connected to the owner, that connection should be disclosed in the story itself, not buried only on this page.

Coverage of the owner’s own work or ventures is labelled as such. Readers should not have to guess where the relationships are.

On independence

A one-person-funded publication cannot claim the same structural independence as a newsroom with a board, a large staff and diversified revenue. Pretending otherwise would be silly.

What we can do is be unusually clear about how the work is made. We can show sources. We can mark review status. We can correct mistakes in public. We can separate reporting from opinion. We can tell readers when something is ours, when something is affiliated, and when something needs more review.

That is the standard we are trying to meet. For more on that, see our editorial standards.