DOHA, Qatar-The spacious
headquarters in Doha, Qatar, of the new
news outlet, Islam Online (IOL), has a
separate room designated for women only.
Islam online.net is the one media outlet
that takes Muslim sensitivities into account.
The site that offers cultural, social,
political and religious reportage was launched
in 1999 and uses the Internet as an interactive
tool to introduce Islam, according to co-founder
Dr. Homed Al-Ansary.
Eighty
percent of their news is original within three main
bureaus in Qatar, Cairo and Washington. It also has
two correspondents reporting from Afghanistan. Stroking
his amber prayer beads throughout an interview with
this newspaper, Al-Ansary, said that in the past 10
months the site has received cumulatively three hundred
million hits.
"Islam Online.net is covering the WTO to
raise awareness," said Lobna Said Abdel Wahab,
the Economics Editor. "We work to reflect
in news everything that's happening."
Although
they see their service bridging cultural, religious
and
national gaps, the site is by no
means for Muslims only, said Abdel Wahab. "After
September 11 the amount of daily hits doubled."
Al-Ansary
added: "A lot of people wanted
to learn more about Islam and understand what it
is." Islam is not just a way of religion,
but a way of life and the web site reflects that.
The news is also according to Islam, and for the
staff to IOL that means, "not lying, being
objective, not using bad words." Said Delia
Yousef, the Social Editor: "We Arabs, have
many Christians among us, and like others, we want
an answer, we want to know what's happening in
the world."
The Islam Online.net site has the majority of
its content in Arabic, but it also has a section
in English, to better serve the 55 Muslim countries
and the 1.3 billion Muslim diaspora, she said.
The Arab news differs little from the English news,
but all news is selected according to the local
significance to its audience.
"As a Muslim I have to live my life according
to Islam," Al-Ansary said. "It's not
only a theology-it's every day tasks according
to Islam." The web site is an extension of
that belief, and the news, too, is according to
Islam. IOL Economic Editor from Cairo, Lobna Said
Abd-el Wahab, said that the news is "defiantly" where
you see the least amount of distinction based on
cultural influences.
But religion does influence people's political
and economic perspectives, Abdel-Wahab said. Fatwa,
the distinction between right from wrong according
to the scripture of the Koran, plays a role in
some people's view on WTO issues. There is fatwa
on the intellectual property rights, for example,
she said.
The
influence of cultural perceptions on coverage
is particularly
prominent when reporting on social
issues, Yousef said. She used the issue of women's
right to illustrate her point, by saying: "The
way we cover women's issues is very different than
how it is covered in the West. We agree, that there
is some oppression-but we relate women's problems
to the whole of society, not separate from Islam."
The vision of Islam Online.net hopes to convey
that all human beings have a common denominator
and at the same time we have our identity, said
Yousef.
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