TEEN MAG MELDS POP CULTURE, QURAN

Teenage girls are preoccupied with a lot of things: "The Gilmore Girls." Makeup tips. Burqas.

At least that's the teenager Muslim Girl magazine, a bimonthly aimed at 12- to 19-year-old Muslim females, is targeting.

The glossy, published by Toronto-based Execugo, is the ultimate hybrid: a mag for and about both regular teenagers and one of the country's least covered minorities.

It's not every mag that offers a "Relationship Reality Check" alongside "Qur'an Notes" ("Girls talk about the small kindnesses in their lives"); a Web feature called "Girl Space" that asks readers to "write in and tell us how girl-friendly your mosque is," or a "hot list" of pop-cultural trends ("Smallville," "Veronica Mars," and, of course, those "Gilmore" ladies).

The mag, which has already pubbed two issues and is aiming for a circulation of 50,000, does contain more straightforward features, like one about a Muslim girls basketball team.

It's not that the mag's readers don't read Seventeen, says editor-in-chief Ausma Khan; they're just deprived of mags with Muslim content.

But is there a conflict between trying to blend, say, gushings about Justin Timberlake and the teachings of Mohammed?

"It's a challenge because we're conscious of a deeper mission," says Khan. "But we also want girls to be attracted to the magazine."