Qaradawi: Marriage after meeting over Net permissible

The Peninsula Qatar, Qaradawi: Marriage after meeting over Net permissible, 10 Apr 2011 "Eminent Islamic scholar, Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi, has said that it is permissible in Islam for men and women who know each other through the Internet to get married.

"“I know people who came to know each other through the Internet. They met afterwards and got married. Thank God, they are having stable relations and leading a very happy family life,” said Al Qaradawi, a local Arabic daily reported yesterday."

Qaradawi on Mubarak.

الأخبار - عربي - القرضاوي يدعو مبارك للرحيل Qaradawi presents his opinion on the situation in Egypt

al-Qaradawi on flotilla 2?

Ikhwanweb, [Muslim Brotherhood Official Website], "Al-Qaradawi to participate in Freedom Flotilla 2", 17 Aug 2010

"According to the president of the Muslim Judicial Council of Cape Town, Ihsan Hendricks, the chairman of the international union of Muslim scholars (IUMS) Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradawi, would take part in a marine convoy to Gaza Strip""

I'd be interested to see verification of this.

WOCMES 3

Still in Barcelona. I missed the first part of Peripheries Become Centers: New Media Borderlands in the Middle East (chair: Dale Eickelman). I did catch Tsuyoshi Saito discussing “Homelands and Home Pages: Contemporary Amazigh Identity in Southern Morocco”; this is an important but under-represented area of research, so I hope to read more in due course. Then Heather Browne discussed aspects of Facebook in Cairo: there were some important updates on recent events (some of which I have blogged here). Yves Gonzalez-Quijano was the discussant, and provided an informed summary: he has edited a new book on Arabic cyberspace (in French) which I'll be reviewing here soon.

This afternoon, I chaired a session New Media in the Middle East Revisited: Networked Audiences and Digital Communities organized by Vit Sisler. We'd put this together over the past few months. It was a very hot lecture theatre! It was good to hear Jon Anderson on “Networked Audiences". Ho Wai-Yip talked about “Speaking to the Arab Street beyond the Great Fire Wall: China’s Arabic International Channel as a New Silk Road Station”: it included some discussion on al-Qaradawi's visit to China, and its representation on China TV, and some interesting material on the new international media approach of China. Vit gave a paper on “Digital Heroes: Video Games and Identity Construction in Iran”, with some important examples of Iranian computer games industry developments: I think his paper will be published somewhere in due course. I discussed in my paper some new elements of my research, focusing on mobile platforms and apps - my article on apps will be out in a couple of weeks time, I understand, on Cyber Orient. I'm thinking of putting a podcast of my presentation out on this site, probably next week (as I forgot the lead to my recorder - so much for digital immediacy!). It's been useful to find out the levels of interest in cyber-activities in this conference. The place has been very busy.

Islam Online update

MEMRI, The Islamonline Schism, 10 May 2010 "The Al-Balagh Society for the Service of Islam on the Internet, a Qatari association that owns Islamonline.net, recently decided to reorganize the popular Islamic website and to transfer supervision of its content and technology, as well as its administration, from its Cairo-based editors to the association's main headquarters in Doha. In response, some 300 of the website's Cairo employees who faced layoffs as a result of this decision launched a strike."

Background on MEMRI

Islam Online update

Heba El-Sherif, Daily News Egypt, Al-Balagh official says board only wanted to develop Islam Online, 2 Apr 2010 "The issue at popular Islamic resource Islam Online (IOL) was part of a “plan to diversify the website’s content and outreach” and not an attack on the website’s progressive approach to editorial content, according to Mohamed Badr El-Sada, one of IOL’s founders and current board member of Qatar’s Al-Balagh Foundation."

Islam Online "on-strike" [update]

صوت إسلام أون لاين
The above link goes to Voice of IslamOnline.net, a blog collecting videos, campaign information and news on this major story. Some recent 'catch-up' links are below:


Ramadan Al Sherbini, GulfNews, Website workers defiant after boss dismissed, 26 Mar 2010


Fox News, Moderates forced out of top Islam Web site, 26 Mar 2010


"The Qatari government has forced out the moderate leadership of a popular Islamic Web site and plans to reshape it into a more religiously conservative outlet, former employees of the site said Thursday.
Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, the widely respected cleric who co-founded IslamOnline and is known as a relative moderate, is no longer the head of al-Balagh, the company which funds the Web site, said his secretary, Youssef Aboul-Naga."

I was surprised to see Fox describe al-Qaradawi as 'relative moderate'(discuss) ...


Zawya, Negotiations beak down between IOL staff and Qatar, 26 Mar 2010

"Representatives of Abdullah El-Naggar, head of Media International's board and member of the board of Al-Balagh foundation, IOL's main funder, met Thursday afternoon with a team of lawyers headed by Yasser Fathy.  
""They demanded that all employees resign in order to receive their financial packages," Fathy told Daily News Egypt.

""This is a [classic] case of Egyptian employees being hampered at the hands of a foreign management.""

ikhwanWeb.com, A Statement Clarifying the Real Situation at IslamOnline.net, Mar 26, 2010‎

ikhwanWeb.com, Ousted Islamonline's employees launch new website, 26 Mar 2010  

"The launching of a new website project titled "Alam Al-Umma" or "Islamic Nation Information," was revealed after the website Islamonline's employees were unjustly relieved from their positions on the website earlier this month."

Diana Mukkaled, Asharq Alawsat, IslamOnline: What Moderation?, 26 Mar 2010

""Whatever the case may be, this is a crisis that raises a question that relates to all aspects of Islam in the post-9/11 era; what kind of media for what kind of Islam after more than a decade of crises where politicians, philosophers, and activists have explored and analyzed everything connected to Islam to the point that the media is leaning towards irrational fear rather than towards research and knowledge?""

Hadeel al-Shalchi, AP, Moderates forced out of top Islam Web site, 26 Mar 2010 "Fathi Abu Hatab, who has been with the company for 10 years, said repeated pressures from management to change the site's approach prompted them to go on strike.

""Our Doha correspondent wasn't allowed to cover the Doha Film Festival because it was deemed unIslamic. We were receiving complaints (from management) about our discussions on women's health, homosexuality, and films.""

Islam Online "on-strike" [update]

Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, Guardian, Comment is free, Why we're on strike at IslamOnline, 18 Mar 2010 "The dominoes came falling down as we learned that Qatar had blocked Egypt's access to the server. Then it was revealed that a contract – of which nobody seemed aware – between al-Balagh and Media International (which produces the website for al-Balagh) ends on 31 March and will not be renewed, and all employees will be released. The duplicity by Qatar persisted, with promises made to compensate those who resigned. They reneged on the deal a day later."

IOL update

almasryalyoum.com, Ashraf Khalil, Hossam el-Hamalawy,Islam Online staffers win?, 17 Mar 2010 "Strikers were informed around 9 PM that an emergency meeting had been held for the board and general assembly of the Islamic Message Society, the Qatar-based religious NGO that funds the site and which is headed by the influential Egyptian-born Sheikh Youssef el-Qaradawi. The attendees voted to suspend the authority of two new members, who striking staffers viewed as the primary reasons behind rising newsroom tensions that eventually led to the staff walk-out."

Abdel-Rahman Hussein, Daily News Egypt, zawya.com, Islam Online sit-in continues after mass resignation, 17 Mar 2010

Islam Online "on-strike" [update]

Comprehensive coverage of this from Eman AbdElRahman, Global Voices Online, Egypt: IslamOnline Employees Strike, 16 Mar 2010 "It is worth mentioning that this strike may be the first instance in which strikers use new media efficiently and effectively to draw all the attention needed to support their cause, from continuous Twitter updates to Live streaming."

There's a Facebook group: IslamOnline Supporters



Also see:

Ashraf Khalil, almasryalyoum.com, Islam On-Strike, 15 Mar 2010

"Hundreds of employees of the widely read Islamic news website Islam Online walked off their jobs Monday afternoon, plunging the organization into chaos and calling its future into question. As of Monday evening, several dozen employees were staging an angry sit-in at the website’s main office in 6th of October City.

"The dispute, according to current and former employees, stems from long-simmering tensions between the website’s Cairo newsroom and a new board of directors based in Qatar. Striking employee Fathi Abu Hatab said the site’s new directors had been interfering in editorial content and seeking to alter the moderate tone and diversity of that content, which he says are the site’s signatures."

Also see Joseph Mayton, bikyamasr.com, Islam Online in crisis as administration threatens to fire journalists, 15 Mar 2010 "Prominent Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawy, who is technically the owner of Islam Online, has been out of touch during the ordeal. Employees attempted to get in touch with him, but to no avail. HMLC said that the sheikh “had promised the workers all of their rights and the continuation of the Cairo branch or he would resign, but it seems the Qatari side has taken advantage of Qaradawy’s health and his trip to Saudi Arabia.”

"The law center said this was an attempt to take advantage of the situation while he is away.

"This left the Egyptian blogosphere up in arms over the development, which has been updating the situation constantly. According to reports, the new administration wants a more “conservative approach” to what has long been considered one of the few voices for moderate Islamic perspectives online in both English and Arabic."

One senses that a question to 'Ask the Scholar' on industrial action may be appropriate at this juncture. I will continue to follow this dispute and its ramifications.

Orient I 2010

Orient I, 2010 [links to PDF]

This contains research articles relating to this blog:

Eugenia Siapera, "Networked Palestine: Exploring Power in Online Palestinian Networks"

"As more and more Muslims come online, the new online Muslim publications are revealing a diversification of Islam and its interpretations, which are detached from authors and authorities, thereby in many ways echoing the operations of the public sphere in early (European) modernity. As Gary Bunt (2003) has shown, the internet has diffused and redistributed religious power, which has now left the confines of the famous madrasas and circulates in the various sites offering fatwas and other religious advice."

An interesting discussion about networking in Palestinian contexts. Scroll down to the section in the PDF.

The journal PDF also includes (in no particular order): a discussion by Bettina Gräf on "Media Fatwas, Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Media-Mediated Authority in Islam"; this on podcasts: Jan Scholz, Tobias Selge, Max Stille, Johannes Zimmermann, "Listening to more than Islam. Approaching identities through the auditive dimension of podcasts". There is also Carola Richter, "Virtual Mobilisation: The Internet and Political Activism in Egypt"

Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Marc Lynch, foreignpolicy.com, The Qaradawi Index, 21 Jan 2010 "Yusuf al-Qaradawi is in the news these days, denounced on a daily basis on Saudi, Palestinian and Egyptian op-ed pages, forums and TV over his stances on Gaza, on Hamas and Abu Mazen, on Yemen, and more. Following those controversies is an excellent window into what divides and arouses passion in Arab politics today. Hate him or love him, the man has a keen sense of Arab opinion -- whether he's following or leading it -- and has a proven track record of driving the debate. The fury of his adversaries on the other side of the so-called "new Arab cold war" is a pretty direct function of the fact that his opinions, aired on al-Jazeera and spread through multiple online and real-world networks, matter."

Commentary: al-Qaradawi and 'Fiqh al-Jihad'

Nelly Lahoud, Qaradawi on Jihad this is the first of a three parter available on jihadica.com "Youssef al-Qaradawi’s recent book Fiqh al-Jihad (Jurisprudential Reasoning and Jihad), excerpts of which are available here, has received considerable attention in the Arabic press and for good reason. Al-Qaradawi commands significant influence among Sunni Muslims in the Arab world and beyond, not least because he reaches a wider audience through his television shows on al-Jazeera (”Huda al-Islam” and “al-Shari‘a wa-al-Hayat”) and his two websites, one dedicated to his work, the other, Islamonline, designed to serve as a news service about the Muslim world, a religious guide to Muslims and a window to the Islamic faith and civilization to non-Muslims."

I haven't read this closely yet, but it looks useful. The article links through to the other two sections.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi

MEMRI, Scandinavian Islamic Groups Distance Themselves from Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, Following MEMRI Translation of His Statements on Al-Jazeera TV Calling Holocaust "Divine Punishment" For Jews," Warning "Allah Willing, The Next Time Will Be At The Hand of the Believers", MEMRI Special Dispatch - No. 2277, 11 Mar 09 "In response to MEMRI TV's February 1, 2009 release of a translated and subtitled clip capturing prominent Sunni sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi on Al-Jazeera TV in January 2009 calling the Holocaust "divine punishment" for the Jews and warning that "Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers [i.e. Muslims]," and also saying that he would "shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews," it was reported that Muslim Imams and Islamic groups in Scandinavia have distanced themselves from the remarks and are questioning association with Al-Qaradhawi." [footnotes/refs can be found in original article]

Info on MEMRI

Wikipedia MEMRI [article includes discussions on controversial aspects/allegations re MEMRI]

Abdul-Rahman Yusuf

alarabiya.net, Poem denies Shiite conversion, calls for Muslim unity, 15 Oct 08

"Poet Abdul-Rahman Yusuf, son of prominent Egyptian preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, denied rumors circulating on several websites that he had converted to the Shiite faith.

"In a poem entitled "Too Much for You," published Tuesday in the Egyptian independent al-Dostor, Yusuf called for the unity of the Muslim nation in the face of a common enemy that does not distinguish between sects and which strives to destroy both Sunnis and Shiites while they are busy fighting each other.

"Some websites attributed to Lebanese preacher Ali al-Kourani statements indicating that Qaradwi lashed out at what he called "the Shiite infiltration" because of his indignation at his son's conversion to the Shiite faith."

See earlier posts on Yusuf al-Qaradawi's recent statements (and associated allegations)

Hacking

alarabiya, Al Arabiya hit by Sunni-Shiite hacking war, 10 Oct 08

"Hackers accusing Saudi-owned Al Arabiya of being pro-Sunni shut down the channel's news website shortly after midnight on Thursday in a cyber attack, claiming to be in retaliation for the recent attacks on Shiite websites.

"Al Arabiya's news website was forced to change it's domain to www.alarabiya.tv after its main page was hacked and displayed with a message that warned "if attacks on Shiite websites continue, none of your websites will be safe."

AKI say "One possible reason for Friday's attack is that Al-Arabiya's website has recently given a lot of coverage to remarks by Sunni theologian Yusuf Qaradawi, denouncing what he calls the danger of converting to Shiism." AKI, UAE: 'Shia hackers' hit the Internet, 10 Oct 08

Yusuf al-Qaradawi Interview

Asharq Alawsat, Al-Qaradawi Speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat, 29 Sep 08 "I do not like to raise controversies and I hate arguments. This is my principle in teaching and in fatwa. I have adopted the principle of innovation and facilitation and this does not suit everyone. My fatwa and writings in general disturb two kinds of people; those who are against any change whatsoever, and those who are ultra-liberal. I always tend to discipline myself, my thoughts and my fatwa with the Sharia rules and principles, in addition to sound logic which should be in conformity with sound reason. No religion can come up with anything that stands contrary to reason." Wide ranging (and lengthy) answers.

London Elections

thisislondon.co.uk, Suicide bomb backer runs Ken's campaign, 16 Apr 08 "It includes a campaign of vilification aimed at his Conservative rival, Boris Johnson. It is being waged by Muslims 4 Ken, led by 39-year-old lecturer Anas Altikriti and Palestinian-born Azzam Tamimi, a supporter of Hamas, the militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic state of Palestine." Commentary/opinion on politics in London. The net has been central to this campaigning. More at Muslims 4 Ken. Other parties are available, etc. There is a Qaradawi link to this story.

Qaradawi denied visa

Sky News, Yusuf Al Qaradawi Denied UK Entry Visa, 7 Feb 08 "The MCB's Muhammed Abdul Bari said: "I am afraid this decision will send the wrong message to Muslims everywhere about the state of British society and culture."

thepeninsulaqatar.com, Islam against citizenship in ‘hostile state’, 8 Oct 07 "Prominent Islamic cleric Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi has said that Muslims accepting the nationality of non-Islamic countries in times of war is against the teachings and tenets of Islam." Also a brief reference to the issue of 'internet marriage'.