Muslims will be able to surf the internet without the fear of accidentally encountering sinful material after a Dutch company launched the world’s first Islamic search engine.
The ImHalal service works like any other search facility until potentially illicit words are entered, when it rates the search from one to three on its risk of generating “haram” or forbidden material.
Reza Sardeha, founder of AZS Media Group which runs the search engine, said: “The idea grew up when some friends of mine complained that when they searched on Google or Yahoo once in a while they bumped into sexually explicit content.”
About 100,000 separate users have accessed the site since its launch on Wednesday, but this is small fry compared with Mr Sardeha’s ultimate ambition — to become the standard homepage for the world’s online Muslims, who number at least 100 million.
Seven months in development, the search is available in 15 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and Turkish, as well as English. The company expects its largest audience to develop in the Middle East.
When a search rates one or two on the haram scale, the user can still decide to take the risk and click through to the results. But a three-rated search yields no results, only the message: “Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again.”
Mr Sardeha said: “Before we started this, we got the feeling that a lot of people in the Middle East, a lot of Muslims, really avoided the internet and prevented their children from accessing the internet because they were afraid their children might come into contact with sexually explicit material.”
The filter works by examining the user’s search terms and the websites that come up, trawling for a “danger list” of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as “gay”, “lesbian” or simply “sexy” merit a haram level of three. But “beer” and “pork” only merit one point, while “drugs” earns two.
There is no restriction, however, on those interested in “dating” or “wrestling”, nor more abstract concepts generally held to be forbidden in Islam, such as “mortgages”, “suicide” or “magic”. “Hot pants” are also judged to be halal — although Mr Sardeha admits the mechanism needs fine-tuning.
“We are a social company — we have a feedback button and every two minutes someone gets in touch,” he said.. “Someone already pointed out the problem with ‘bikini’.”
AZS has developed the site in consultation with Islamic scholars, but says it will not be entering into theological disputes over the possible sinfulness of Facebook or rock music. Rather, it is aimed at “the moderate Muslim”.
It hopes soon to expand into Islamic widgets such as programmes to generate Koran quotes and prayer times, in which there is already a competitive online trade.
Days after launching, the search engine's founders are engaged in a fierce online debate with bloggers who claim it represents a form of censorship.
“It’s the people’s choice — anyone who actually wants explicit content can easily choose another search engine,” Mr Sardeha said.
He admits that to compile the haram list, he and his colleagues had to spend a long time collating illicit internet content. “What can you do?” he says. “That’s a fact of life.”
The ImHalal search engine warns users of potentially illicit words and material on the internet
Re: Islamic search engine ImHalal filters out potentially sinful material
Islamic search engine ImHalal hailed a success
The world’s first "Islamic orientated" internet search engine, which flags content that might be considered "haraam" – or forbidden – by Muslims, has been hailed a success by its creators after it attracted more than 500,000 users in its first two weeks on the web.
ImHalal.com has been designed to "help Muslims explore the internet in a safe and clean environment", according to Reza Sardeha, the 20-year-old business management student who runs it.
Mr Sardeha, who is based in Amsterdam, told The Times: "We already have received quite a number of positive feedback from Non-Muslims saying they have set ImHalal.com as their homepage so that their children can explore the internet without coming across ‘filth’ as well."
The site works by assigning the search terms that are plugged in by users a "haraam level", which indicates the likelihood of the results they bring up touching upon things forbidden under Islam.
If a term is deemed completely safe, the results pop up immediately.
By contrast, tapping in the search term "pig", an animal that Muslims are not allowed to eat, prompts a warning that the word has been assigned a "haraam level" of "1", and the user is alerted that the results may be offensive. The user is then given the choice of viewing the results regardless, or of abandoning his search.
The Satanic Verses, the Salman Rushdie novel that led to a fatwa being put on the author’s head, gets a haraam rating of two - suggesting there is a higher chance of running into dangerous content.
"Pornography" triggers a haraam rating of three – the highest score, which indicates the highest likelihood of finding forbidden material.
Mr Sardeha said: "We hope that in about one year time our search engine will be the most used search engine in the Middle East to start with and in the top three most used search engine in the world."
He added: "While our main product will always remain search we will roll out additional services in the near future like Islamic Widgets."
Re: Islamic search engine ImHalal filters out potentially sinful material
Ameen! JazakAllahu Khayran Ukhti.
I'm amazed that this is the brainchild of somebody who is only 20 years old. Masha'Allah! This is a great example of how Muslims can harness their skills and intelligence for the benefit and betterment of the Ummah.
Set it as your homepage, people!
"I spent thirty years learning manners, and I spent twenty years learning knowledge."
Re: Islamic search engine ImHalal filters out potentially sinful material
Oh wow. Thanks for sharing!
I was looking at myself talking to myself and I realized this conversation...I was having with myself looking at myself was a conversation with myself that I needed to have with myself.
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