The Centre For Social Cohesion

Seeking to avoid the shouting matches between big names that characterise many talk shows, Muslim Cafe recruits ordinary people as its guests - mostly young, articulate professionals.

"We are the arbitrators of 'Muslim Cool', says Akhtar proudly, explaining that Muslim Cafe aims to serve what he considers a neglected demographic: younger-generation Muslims who call Britain - and only Britain - home.

There were few old faces at a launch party for Muslim Cafe in London last week, where stylish twenty and thirty-somethings watched clips of the show, networked and heard a performance of Arab-inflected guitar.

"We're very confident about being British, and [Muslim Cafe] is a British gathering - what happens in Edgeware road on a Friday night," Akhtar says, referring to the London thoroughfare where cafe conversation ripples to the bubbling of shishas and the clack of backgammon.

Ideally, discussions explore where seemingly Muslim issues blur with those of wider society. Akhtar points to a debate about Harry Potter (implications of witchcraft) that broadened to a talk about "how the nature of childhood has become commercialised."

Although few non-Muslims have featured so far on Muslim Cafe, which has produced a handful of episodes, the show's producers are keen to get more aboard.

"We want to avoid it becoming an internal dialogue," Akhtar says. "We're not for the Muslim Community, we're for anyone interested in society."

Similarly, although the Muslim Cafe covers Muslim issues, producers have decided against the obvious tactic of advertising in mosques.

"We're not hear to teach people theology," Akhtar says. "We're here to understand people's problems and the realities of living in a secular community."