Muslim Social Networking Sites

IkhwanBook is one of many social networking sites for Muslims that have recently sprung up. Photograph Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

Facebook has little to fear from muslim social networking sites. Sites like IkhwanBook.com and Muxlim fulfil a desire for more conservative forum but are regional and limited in scope. 

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's IkhwanBook states that it is "an islamic social networking website, committed to the principles of our religion". Finland-based muxlim consolidates a network of services which include a search engine, a torrents finder and a Muslim MySpace, and aims to "connect the world's muslim communities to each other, and to the wider world, through shared online experiences". South Africa's muslimbook defines its objective as being "to provide a platform for all muslims to create a quality network as an alternative to the anti muslim facebook".

The emergence of Muslim social networking websites, and there are more than those mentioned above, is an interesting phenomenon that can perhaps be attributed to both a desire to produce a more conservative forum for discussion with stricter regulations (read: monitoring) as well as, in the case of the muslim brotherhood, to create a familiar-looking forum for existing and new sympathisers.

It should come as no surprise that networks and websites would emerge to cater to a particular cultural group; after all, even global social networks customize their settings culturally. Timothy bataillie, of Belgium-based Netlog, explains that "there are some extra challenges in terms of content moderation in the Arab region. We installed a moderation team that monitors traffic coming from the Gulf region. If they check pages from people outside the region, the website will display a warning notification", to warn users that they may be exposed to content potentially deemed offensive for local standards.

Those muslim social networks are simply taking the logic a step further rather than hoping for the cultural localization and customization of the website, they are establishing new ones.

IkhwanBook, which belongs to Egypt's principal political opposition force, the Muslim brotherhood, is expressly - perhaps too bluntly - politically oriented, so much so that during its first months of operation, a banner on its homepage would take you to the website of the National Association for Change, a political opposition coalition, and ask you to sign the association's petition. Technology professional Tarek Shalaby was quick to point out to the weakness of online security on IkhwanBook "anyone, upon signing in, can have access to all details of users and group members". A fatal mistake for a website that would logically be  particularly keep on protecting the identities of its members, not only from malignant internet users, but also from political components who are likely to be interested in knowing what discussions might be taking place on an IkhwanBook website.

throughout the revolution and in its immediate aftermath, the discussions on IkhwanBook website were largely political, though not necessary geared towards the political participation of the Ikhwan. But since then the mundane has rapidly regained the member's attention.

IkhwanBook site was launched in early July 2010 as a beta version, and its original website, IkhwanFacebook, made no effort to conceal its inspiration. IkhwanBook sees itself more as a complement than a competitor to Facebook - it actually allows signing in via Facebook Connect for Facebook Users.

DEspite their claims and wishes to the contrary, these social networks are both regional and religiously limited in their scope. IkwanBook - with its subtitle of "One world unites us" - has a primarily Arab membership , with a strong showing from Indonesian users. And despite its assertions that "You don;t have to be a Muslim to be a Muxlim", discussions on Muxlim are overwhelmingly in English, and largely target Muslims living in Europe and the US, while MuslimBook finds its members from within its local South African market.

All things being equal, it's doubtful these websites are hoping to be the next big thing in social networking, the weak membership numbers make it quite obvious. Besides the lack of innovation - the only "new" aspect is the stricter moderation - the demand for "clean" social networking hasn't produced the kind of site the creators may have hoped for. Most users are quite happy to be part of a more open and less monitored social network such as Facebook, even if they are offended by some of the content. After all, it doesn't seem that the current 705 members of delete group fuck islam or we all will leave Facebook have followed up on their ultimatum - the objectionable group is still there.

Original tittle "Facebook has little to fear from Muslim social networking sites" from : http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/31/muslim-social-networking