BURLINGTON, Vt. — As political turmoil spread throughout the Middle East in recent weeks, from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya, Mousa Ishaq and his wife, Kristin Peterson-Ishaq, began hearing from friends who know the Ishaqs follow overseas news closely, and who wanted their thoughts on what might happen next in that volatile part of the world.

Their opinions are not just highly informed ones. The couple have a personal connection to the region, having met in Cairo in the 1970s. He’s Palestinian-American; she holds a master’s degree in Arabic literature. In addition, unlike the vast majority of Americans, their primary news sources go beyond American newspapers, television networks, and websites to include Al Jazeera English, an offshoot of the Arabic-language news channel. The Ishaqs regularly turn to the station for boots-on-the-ground reporting and analysis.

Based in Qatar, Al Jazeera English reaches 220 million house holds in more than 100 countries, yet it is available on a full-time basis to only a tiny sliver of US cable TV subscribers in three domestic markets: Toledo, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and Burlington, Vt., a modest-sized (population 42,400), university-centric city in the northwestern corner of the state.

Known for its citizens’ progressive political views and interest in global issues, Burlington is nevertheless an odd candidate to have made Al Jazeera a staple of its broadcast news diet. For starters, few Arab-Americans live there.

Yet as Al Jazeera’s profile continues to rise, both in the United States and abroad — news analysts and diplomats regularly cite the “Al Jazeera effect’’ behind media-fueled uprisings in the Arab world — Burlington viewers can claim credit for being ahead of the curve.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera has been expanding its US operations, which are based in the nation’s capital, and recently added a Los Angeles bureau. On its website, visitors are urged to lobby their own cable providers to add the news channel to their programming menus. Over the past several weeks, tens of thousands of such e-mails have poured in, according to an Al Jazeera English spokesperson.

Burlington Telecom, which reaches 15,000 households, began carrying Al Jazeera in 2006 — making Burlington the first US city to offer subscribers 24-hour access to the channel, which is available in two of its premium-channel packages. Other cable carriers provide a condensed version of Al Jazeera’s broadcast, typically an hour or two daily. Al Jazeera is available on the Web, where it is the third most-popular channel on YouTube.

For the Ishaqs, watching Al Jazeera instead of, say, CNN or NBC has been an easy call.