The Hummus, a satirical news website for Muslims, was founded in December 2013 by three twenty-something Muslim guys from Silicon Valley who wish to remain anonymous.
The Hummus is being hailed by some Muslims on social media as "The Onion for Muslims."
In an email to BuzzFeed, the founders described the website as "satire for Muslims who agree that the world is a complicated but manageable place."
The Hummus was inspired by a blog of the same name created by one of the founders last July.
The three friends decided the blog "could be an outlet for expressing the frustrations that we had as Muslims in America experiencing Islamophobia, the conflation of culture with religion (both here and oversees), and the funny results that we can all relate to."
The founders say their stories are connecting not only with Muslims, but are also educating non-Muslims about "their conflation of Islam and the cultural oddities/absurdities" of the Islamic world through satire.
The website is not averse to writing about sensitive issues, but say they tread with caution.
The founders believe The Hummus is a place for Muslims to laugh about and relate to one another in terms of common experiences such as "the Islamophobic politician," or "the self-serving cultural practice."
Their hope is that, "Maybe, just maybe, they'll notice something in themselves through the soft medium of satire and improve their own behaviors."
Being practicing Muslims themselves, the founders said they try hard "not to criticize Islam itself, the pure religion."
They said they don't criticize God, the Prophet and other debatable religious figures. They also don't use the name Mohammad (or any variation) for any of their characters out of respect for the Prophet.
"Despite being a satirical website, we have our own values to contend with," they said.
The website targets younger, English-speaking Muslim Americans.
While their content deals with difficult topics, and often borders on the irreverent, the team said it is aware that some groups of Muslims could be more sensitive to certain issues because of their personal convictions and interpretations.
"We try to find the right balance. We are always cognizant of the fact that our articles might mean different things to Muslims from backgrounds other than ours," they said.
