By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Banglore: If you search for something on IslamSearch.org, the possibility of the results satisfying your Google seduced taste senses might turn out to be bleak. But search for the word ‘Islam’ or anything and everything related to Islam, then you can be rest assured to get the best possible results, something even Google would find hard to beat.
That’s because IslamSearch.org, is a recently launched search engine, which is primarily designed to provide information specifically related to Islam. It generates site links based on the content quality and strong meta data, among other indicators, which is painstaking culled by the site admin and volunteer editors.
Public Presentation of IslamSearch.org at Masjid-e-Ibadur-Rahman in Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad based website was started in March 2013, by Ashfaq uddin, who is an online Graphic and Web design tutor and who, simultaneously also heads IT at another Islamic venture AskIslamPedia.
“Islamsearch.org’s objective is to provide authentic Islamic information available on scattered websites to both Muslims and non- Muslims alike and to educate them with the authentic teachings of Islam,” says Ashfaq uddin.
Using a specialized structure of coding, the engine searches keywords entered only from a set of pre-approved sites, which Ashfaq refers to as, “Authentic Islamic websites.” Website owners and visitors can submit their site addresses to be included in IslamSearch.org, which would be approved, after it satisfies the search engine’s criteria.
Why an Islam centric search engine, when all one has to do to avoid un-islamic content is to stop searching for it?
The site creator answers that there is a tendency among Muslims to search for an Islamic answer to questions and issues they encounter in their daily lives, and the problem, he says with sites like Google and other search engines is that they link to sites, which provides biased and in-accurate information.
“Few months ago, there was an uproar through out the country, because a young woman was raped in Delhi, so people started searching what the religion has to say about this act and they were directed to a particular website, which is known for its anti-Islamic content,” says Ashfaq. “It is for this reason a necessity for a site like IslamSearch.org arises,” he points out.
The site assures that the links found on it, is from the best websites from across the web and pledges to remove any link, “which is not Islamic or goes against any law or personality.”
Ashfaq says that the response so far has been really good and “hundreds of new visitors are joining on a daily basis”. He recently held a presentation on IslamSearch.org at a Masjid in Hyderabad for a packed audience. He says, his team is now in talks with various Islamic scholars to promote the site among Muslims across the world.