IslamOnline

IslamOnline is a global Islamic website serving Muslims and others in Arabic and English. It was launched on 24 June 1997, with Yusuf al-Qaradawi among its founders. It is owned by the Al-Balagh Cultural Society, a non-profit in Doha, and its editorial team worked from Cairo. ^{1 2}

Qantara's report tells how the Al-Balagh society, with financial support from Shaykha Moza, wife of the Emir of Qatar, took over a university students' computer project that grew into the website, and quotes al-Qaradawi as saying at the time that it was "neither nationalistic nor one aiming at a grouping" but "a project for the entire Islamic community". ²

The site held forums and interactive sections, the best known being "Ask the Scholar", where visitors posted questions about Islam; the Arabic and English sections were each tailored to their audience. ¹ In the four years from 2000 to 2003 it published about 306,691 items, 233,223 in Arabic and 73,486 in English. ¹ Qantara describes it as one of the most successful websites in the Middle East, with some 120,000 daily visitors in early 2010, and as unafraid of topics the conservative mainstream treated as taboo. ²

Early in 2010 Qatar reshuffled the board of the Egyptian company that ran the site, and quarrels broke out between the editors and the board over article content; the head of the site's radio, Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, said it was the first time the board had interfered in editorial decisions. ² The Qatari management then decided to publish from Doha instead of Cairo and to end the contracts, and the staff (338 journalists, technicians, administrators and workers by Asharq Al-Awsat's count, about 350 by Qantara's) occupied their offices in 6 October City from 15 March 2010. ^{3 2}

The two sides told it differently. The lawyer of Qatar Media International, Muhammad Abdul-Karim, spoke of "suspicions of corruption within the company", said the management judged it better to publish from Qatar, and that those who wished to leave would get their dues and those who stayed were welcome; the staff denied the charge and asked for fair compensation, and the editor Abu Hattab said the fight was "about editorial independence and media ethics", not money. ^{3 2} The employees wrote to al-Qaradawi asking him to intervene and were referred to investigation; al-Qaradawi was then removed as chairman of the Al-Balagh society shortly before he left for Cairo to mediate. ^{3 2} Qantara frames the dispute as one between editors wanting a pluralistic, moderate Islam and backers in Qatar wanting a more conservative line; that is the report's framing, while the Qatari side presented it as a matter of management and money. ^{2 3} The museum does not judge between the accounts.

The site is online at islamonline.net and has articles in eight Wikipedia editions, among them Arabic, Bengali, Hindi and Chinese. ⁴

• English Wikipedia, "IslamOnline", revision 1376128227. ¹
• Wikidata Q4120450. ⁴
• Alfred Hackensberger, Qantara.de, 23 April 2010. ²
• Asharq Al-Awsat (English), 18 March 2010. ³