I called the article Maniac Muslim: Muppet Fundamentalist and released it to close friends. I was hoping to do a series of articles under the Maniac Muslim name which at the time, was supposed to be extremely controversial. Why I wanted to be controversial? I have no idea. Perhaps I craved attention.
Seeing as how religious comedy was too difficult and risky and that Brown Time had a better response, I decided to write three more sequels for Brown Time instead before eventually unleashing the cult hit website, The Brown Times in September of 2002. I ran that site for almost two and a half years.
The Brown Times was at its peak in early 2004 and had a large following with Muslims in my geographic area. A relative of mine who was part of a magazine called The Muslim Voice asked me to write an article for them. I decided to dust off the old Maniac Muslim name and re-use it once again. This time, the article would be more outrageous and less risqué. It was basically a fictional story of strange things happening to me in prayer. I named the article “An Intrepid Prayer”.
Friends of mine who knew people on the advisory committee of the magazine said they’ve denied articles that were less controversial than mine before so it didn’t surprise me when they declined my article. I decided to use it again later for future use. I handed the article to some local Ohio community site which they put up (and subsequently put me on MilitantIslamMonitor.com).
My interest with The Brown Times started to dwindle in the midst of 2004. I found myself unable to relate to the “desi” community and it was true. I was definitely raised more Muslim than brown. I made a side page hosted on thebrowntimes.com that put up Muslim related articles, something I couldn't do on The Brown Times due to its secularist nature. I named the sub-section "Maniac Muslim" to revive the series that I started almost 3 years earlier.
I wanted to release Maniac Muslim as a full-fledged website on the side but I unfortunately didn't really have a flagship article that would make people go "damn this site rocks".
On December 21st, 2 days before my Microeconomics exam I was unable to sleep. I decided to write down an idea that was in my head for a long time. "What would happen if someone got married online through Islamic rulings?" The result: Online Nikkah. I uploaded it, advertised it on one message board and within a day, the Maniac Muslim sub-section tripled the one-day hits record of The Brown Times.
I attended an traditional Islamic dinner a day after the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference. The main goal of that dinner was to honour our teachers and scholars. One speaker spoke about how Muslims in the West should create a Muslim identity that Muslims can relate to and hold high. We must build a Muslim culture in the West so non-Muslims can see what Muslims are all about.
Three days later, I closed The Brown Times and opened Maniac Muslim to the world.