IslamOnline website in crisis as employees in Egypt stage sit-in

[Al-khiyal]

Website workers defiant after boss dismissed

Cairo, March 27, 2010 -- Employees at a popular Cairo-based Islamic website have vowed to continue their strike and launch a fundraiser to build a new site "to promote moderate Islam" after Qatar installed an alleged conservative new board to run the 10-year-old IslamOnline. "We will launch a worldwide initiative to set up a new website to promote moderate Islam through an international contribution," the 340 employees, who have been on strike since March 15, said in a statement. "We are determined to continue our strike until we get our financial entitlements and to protect the intellectual mission for which IslamOnline was set up in 1999," they added in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News.

The employees were infuriated this week when they learnt Shaikh Yousuf Al Qaradawi, an eminent Egyptian-born Qatari Muslim cleric, was removed as chairman of the Al Balagh Society, which owns the site. "The dismissal of employees and the removal of Al Qaradawi actually target the moderate mission of IslamOnline," said Hesham Jafar, an editor at the site. "We have learnt that the new board is displeased with the editorial policy of the site, particularly topics addressing young people and women," he told Gulf News. He claimed that three Qatari members of the board were behind this turmoil, which started earlier this month by referring employees to a disciplinary action for alleged violations of editorial regulations. "They [the three Qataris] do not want IslamOnline to interact with issues of modern life. Since its launch in 1999, the website has adopted a line of [Islamic] moderation and [observed] high professionalism."

According to Jafar, the initiative to set up an alternative website will take the shape of a stock company. "Its stakes will be available for everyone. Employees will donate a portion of their still-withheld entitlements to this project. Islamic symbols and institutions should also support this idea." "This collective funding [of the suggested website] will block the repetition of the IslamOnline hijacking," said Adel Al Qadi, another editor at the troubled site.

[Al-khiyal]

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood refuses to get involved with IslamOnline crisis

CAIRO, March 28, 2010 -- Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to distance itself from the IslamOnline crisis. Spokesman and Executive Bureau member Mohamed Morsy said in a press statement that linking the country’s largest opposition group to the battle over the website is “an error.” Morsy said the group “rejected attempts to link the crisis of the IslamOnline website.” According to the group’s English language website Ikhwanweb, he rebuffed the attempt “by some to associate the MB in the issue,” stressing that they had “nothing to do with the matter.” However, while attempting to distance the Brotherhood from the crisis, he did give a show of support for the embattled workers from IOL. He called on the website’s management to “expedite steps to put an end to this crisis so that the news website may resume its activities.”

IslamOnline has been under fire since employees began a sit-in earlier this month demanding their editorial and contractual rights be upheld by the new al-Balagh board that had taken over the company. Morsy asserted that IOL was a “respectable website, which contributed much to the global Islamic media.” He added that the MB is always “working to expand and encourage media freedom through legitimate channels." “The Muslim Brotherhood expresses its utmost sympathy with the staff of Cairo-based IslamOnline website,” Morsy said. He noted the significance of preserving the material and moral rights of the employees who are still waiting to see the outcome of the crisis. He added that “MB policy opposes any attempts to harass individuals or destroy their means of livelihood.”

[Al-khiyal]

Egypt needs an IslamOnline

Cairo, March 29, 2010 -- The Qatari government's decision to remove Sheikh Youssef el-Qaradawi from his position as head of the Al-Balagh Cultural Society, which runs the IslamOnline website, is demonstrative of the failures crippling the Arab world. Qatar has blocked the most respected Islamic website across the Arab world, one which has kept a professional distance from both the Egyptian and Qatari governments, in turn giving it the independence to express its views. Additionally, IslamOnline had some of the most competent journalists in the Arab world.

The Qatari government's decision goes against several Islamic values - such as fraternity and solidarity - leaving us with savage conflicts of interest and bitter competition over power. Human values are part of our history and identity, but we have managed to transform all this positive heritage into another reason for fighting. This is our ingenious way of destroying our common ground, while other peoples in the world have managed to build a common present on the rubble of past conflicts. The miscalculations of our rulers, the ignorance of our elites, and the arrogance of our rich have turned the common ground we share into another reason for disagreement.

But Qatar can be excused for acting as a leading power, as genuine leading powers in the region have accepted being put in the shade. I still believe, though, that we should hold Qatar accountable for closing down IslamOnline, an objective and highly professional website. Is it a coincidence that the website was shut down after it very accurately managed to document Israeli crimes in Gaza and published them on its Arabic and English websites?

Egypt is in great need of a website as professional in tone as IslamOnline. But Egypt only seems to think about how much revenue it can make out of football shows and programs for the so-called new preachers. It is not ready to create the appropriate climate for launching a website like IslamOnline. Egypt, too, is responsible for driving el-Qaradawi out of the country. While Qatar gave him a home, his own country couldn't. El-Qaradawi is the author of 150 books and could have been appointed Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar had there been a mentality here that respects scientists. I believe it's time for the moderate Qaradawi to come back to Egypt, to his adherents and family.

[Al-khiyal]

The death and reincarnation of IslamOnline

April 5, 2010 -- It seems the IslamOnline saga is finally drawing to an end, although not necessarily the one hoped for by employees of its Cairo-based office. Reporters for the influential Islamic news website went on strike three weeks ago, protesting the “unethical involvement” and “lack of transparency” displayed by their parent organization’s newly-elected board of directors. The Islamic Message Society, based in Qatar, had apparently been pushing the website - previously known for its moderate tone and tolerant views - in a “more conservative direction,” according to a former employee of the organization. “The board of directors was not honest nor straightforward with us,” says Fathi Abu Hatab. “Instead of communicating with us, their attitude was ‘we are the owners, we can do anything we want.’ They don’t seem to realize that being financiers does not grant them the right to make editorial decisions.”

Apprehensive of the changes being made, employees of the Cairo office turned to Egyptian cleric Sheikh Youssef el-Qaradawi, who helped found the website in 1999 and has since remained a member of the Islamic Message Society’s board of directors. Insisting that the website would not be “hijacked,” Qaradawi did his best to reassure the reporters. However, the cleric’s words did little to calm the website’s staff. After several unsuccessful attempts at obtaining any explanation from their board of directors, reporters at the Cairo office were finally visited by representatives of the society - arriving in the form of an “investigation committee.” “They [the committee members] obviously had their own agenda,” says Abu Hatab of the visit, which suspiciously coincided with Qaradawi’s trip to Saudi Arabia for a medical procedure. “We met with the committee; we tried to talk to them and even gave them our notes on everything we wanted to discuss. They acted like they were very interested,” Abu Hatab recalls. “But when they left, they didn’t even take our notes with them. They left them behind in our office.”

The final straw came when one newly-elected board member, Ali el-Amadi, flew into Cairo on a weekend, “knowing that there would be much less people in the office,” explains Abu Hatab. Accompanied by an IT engineer from London, el-Amadi acquired the Cairo office’s administrative passwords and promptly returned to Qatar, using the newly obtained information to restrict reporters from accessing the server. The incident left employees at the Cairo office furious and confused. “[El-Amadi] claims he was acting as an owner,” says Abu Hatab. “If so, why sneak around like a thief?”

Subsequently, Cairo reporters staged a sit-in, held at their 6th of October city headquarters, which belong to Media International Misr - a Saudi-Qatari company independent from the Islamic Message Society. For a while, the strike seemed effective, with an emergency meeting of board members in Qatar resulting in the suspension of el-Amadi as well as Ibrahim el-Ansari - the two men widely believed to have instigated the whole controversial process of change. However, the decision did not last and following a series of murky events both el-Amadi and el-Ansari were reinstated. Most debilitating of all, however, was the sudden involvement of the Qatari Ministry of Social Affairs, which decided to remove Sheikh Youssef el-Qaradawi from the board of directors.

“It’s obvious now that there was a plan to move the whole site to Qatar from the very beginning,” says Abu Hatab. “Even Sheikh Qaradawi didn’t know about it, and that’s why he’s claiming now to have been betrayed.” The board of directors’ objective, explains Abu Hatab, is to distance any non-Qatari funding and contributions. That, and the desire to present a more conservative outlook, as Abu Hatab repeatedly states. “The English section [of the website] has not been updated for a while because of the strike,” he says. “But if you were to go onto the Arabic section, which is now being written by newly-employed reporters in Qatar, you’ll notice the difference. They’ve removed several of our older columns and features and even the layout is more conservative,” he claims. “In one photograph, they even removed the heads of the women.”

While it is clear that the IslamOnline painstakingly nurtured by the website’s Cairo reporters is no more, the controversy is far from over. “El-Ansari has been on Al Jazeera five times in the past week, stating that the issue has been settled and that the Cairo employees have received their settlement pay,” Abu Hatab angrily explains. “But they haven’t. In the meantime, we can’t get on Al Jazeera even once to state the truth, which is that the majority of us still haven’t received anything in terms of pay.” Our struggle was based on our jobs, as well as supporting moderate Islam,” Abu Hatab sighs.

Ultimately, though, despite the disappointment over the changes that essentially forced them out of a job, former employees of IslamOnline have not given up on the vision that has been fuelling their work for the past decade. “We’re going to start a new project, a new website in the spirit of IslamOnline,” Abu Hatab explains, claiming to have already received the blessings and promises of support from both Sheikh Qaradawi as well as Media International Misr, enabling employees the opportunity to pick up exactly where they left off--in their own offices. “We will no longer be under the mercy of a single funder,” Abu Hatab says. “And it will reach out to the whole world, instead of limiting its scope.” The as-yet-unnamed website is set to be launched within the coming two weeks.

[Al-khiyal]

IslamOnline is offline

April 5, 2010 -- Not many people thought that events at the IslamOnline foundation would evolve in such a dramatic way. While many viewers of this colossal site are saddened as a result of the current crisis on the website, others are trying to hide their apparent gloating. IslamOnline was not just a cultural website; IOL was according to Antonio Gramsci’s definition of 'organic intellectuals' a ‘completely organic website’.

IOL interacted with issues of peoples in the Muslim world; contrary to some passive websites which are primarily preoccupied with ineffective or unrealistic issues. In other words, IOL was not characterized with adhering to ’safe’ issues so as not to anger the Middle Eastern governments, movements and regimes. This leading site shifted some tabooed issues from the basement of oblivion into the public arena. Issues such as the handling of authority and western modernity were openly discussed putting forward very serious questions about the nature of the Islamic state.

Islamyoon domain was arguably the most exciting. It brought to mind great intellectual battles that were in topics including the Islamic Left (Contemporary Muslim, Almoslem Almoa’aser 1977), Originality and Contemporary (The Nation magazine, Mejalat Alo’mma in 1982) and the East-West Dialogue between the two thinkers Hassan Hanafi, and Abed al-Jabri (Journal of the Seventh Day, Mejalat Alyoum Alsabea’ 1986). IOL restored this intellectual atmosphere after it had long disappeared.

IslamOnline’s task was not only to re-establish these ideas and arguments, it also geniusly employed neo-media enabling Muslim readers to interact with very serious and pivotal issues such as Globalization, Americanization, Islamophobia and Arguing the New Orientalists. In fact, the many intense and serious issues that were produced by the outstanding team which stands behind IslamOnline cannot be tallied.

IslamOnline’s trend in radical constructive criticism of the Islamism phenomenon was mainly the reason for me to evaluate the site. And this is because the website could not differentiate between its main role as an organic intellectual website, its association in the political world and its direct connection of the internal problems of the Islamic organizations. However this does not justify the terminating of this rich experience in such a way.

I believe that the crisis of IOL has uncovered many things:

- IOL was not a regular website, it was an exceptional experience which lasted for more than 10 years, and destructing it in this way, will lead to a significant gap on the contemporary Islamic intellectual scene.

- Aljazeera channel did not succeed in the test making a resounding professional mistake, in its coverage; it was similar to the Egyptian state channels, if not worse. Aljazeera disregarded the significant news of the overthrowing of Dr. Yusuf Al -Qaradawi, by his rivals who oppose moderate Islam hence Aljazeera lost much of its credibility, which will take a long time to be redeemed.

- Although I disagree with some of the concepts posted on IslamOnline, I must express that I oppose the displacement and destruction of one of the world’s leading media establishments and intellectuals on the contemporary Islamic scene.

Qatar is attempting to assume a much greater role than it can handle, by employing multi-media to serve Qatari politics, after Aljazeera. Qatari officials believed that they could have a role in international politics by employing another media institution such as IslamOnline; however I believe that these actions will only cause major internal problems on the national level.

The crisis has also revealed that there is no connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and the IOL institution. The Brotherhood through its media spokesman Dr Mohamed Morsy asserted that the crisis does not involve the Brotherhood in any way however the MB emphasize they support the rights of the employees of this outstanding institution. At the end of my article, I am sure that IOL’s experience was effective enough in the contemporary Islamists’ minds and will not be easily forgotten. I also believe that the serious issues discussed and raised by the IOL team, will remain in the Islamic intellectual scene in the upcoming decades

[Al-khiyal]

Caught in the Web

April 6, 2010 -- A widely popular Islamic website has been, until very recently, an undisputed success story. IslamOnline arrived at a time that millions of Muslims needed a common platform and a unifying outlet. Here was a website that neither shunned nor alienated. Its influence was upbeat and positive, rather than destructive or divisive. While it wasn’t an apologetic outlet, it reached out to patiently and progressively present Islam and Muslim issues to the world. These were understood and communicated by hundreds of scholars and qualified journalists, who toiled day and night from their Cairo offices.

Then something happened to abruptly bring the noble mission to an end. The success story suddenly became a terrible nightmare for hundreds of IslamOnline’s principled employees. The website (IslamOnline.net) remained online, but it was barely updated. Instead, videos were circulated on youTube, showing tired-looking IslamOnline staff chanting in the lobby of their building in Cairo. They were demanding the return of their editorial freedom and rights. They were calling for justice. These bright journalists, some of the finest in the region, should have been sitting behind their computers screens writing, editing and managing “live dialogues” between inquisitive readers and learned scholars. Instead they were seated on the floor with signs and banners, shouting in coarse voices. Something had gone horribly wrong. Hadeel Al-Shalchi tried to explain in a recent Associated Press report: “The site was thrown into turmoil…when the owners attempted to change its approach, prompting 350 of its workers in Cairo to go on strike. Management in Doha then cut off their access to the site and have been updating it with news articles but not the diverse content IslamOnline is known for, said the former employees.”

IslamOnline is funded by Al-Balagh, a Doha-based company. Al-Balagh was headed by well-respected Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a most sensible and judicious religious authority. He is known, and much liked, for his progressive views on Islam. Al-Qaradawi is also very popular among Muslims around the world, not least because of his daring political views, his strong anti-war, pro-resistance stances and moral clarity on many issues. In short, Al-Qaradawi is the antithesis of religious clerics who would do as they are told. A striking IslamOnline editor described to me how the crisis developed. It sounded something similar to a coup: the Sheik was removed from Al-Balagh, the site’s directors were relegated, a new management was installed (in fact imposed), and even the website passwords were changed so that employees could no longer access it. Devastated and enraged by the unwarranted moves, about 350 employees went on strike — only to find themselves subject to legal investigation by some company lawyers for exercising what is universally accepted as a fundamental right. The editor tells me that they were harshly criticized in particular for their uncompromisingly courageous coverage on Palestine and Gaza. Indeed, IslamOnline had worked tirelessly to bring greater awareness of the struggle in Palestine, to Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike.

Following the tragic events of September 11, few websites have played the vital role that IslamOnline has. Its editors did not serve the cause of fanatics, with their dreadful interpretation of the world and themselves, and nor did they adopt the mouthpiece position in favor of Arab governments. Equally important, they did not try to falsify a ‘moderate’ position to please any government — Arab or any other. Instead, they truly reflected and genuinely expressed the views of mainstream Muslims from all walks of life, and from all over the world. It was truly an impressive feat to see such an independent editorial line emerging from one Arab capital and largely funded by another. But it seemed too good to be true — thus the terrible, chaotic and devastating changes that brought this vital project to a standstill. The very means of presenting an eloquent Muslim voice to the world has been threatened.

The story of IslamOnline is being presented as that between rival Arabs: governments, groups and individuals. Reductionist terminologies — such as conservatives versus moderates — are once again permeating the often predictable Middle East discourse. Many questions still remain unanswered. In fact, the story of IslamOnline pertains more to media freedom and editorial independence in Arab countries than much of the above. The struggle is between the self-serving politicking few, and hundreds of media professionals - brilliant and inspiring young women and men who made up the staff at IslamOnline. For them, IslamOnline was not just another job. It was a mission, a calling even, and millions of readers around the world appreciated their work, every word of it. One can only hope that IslamOnline will find its way back, with its current employees and current editorial line intact. The success story must not be allowed to end. Individual ambitions cannot stand in the way of this rare generational mission that is now simply indispensable.

[Al-khiyal]

End of the dialogue?

April 24, 2010 -- The 120,000 daily visitors to IslamOnline.net must have wondered what had happened to their favourite website. Day after day, they found the same news and the same error message: "Please try again later." The entire 350-strong workforce has been on a sit-in in the office building to the west of Cairo since March 15. The owners of IOL, the Al Balagh Cultural Society, based in Qatar, had, apparently for financial reasons, decided to transfer to a smaller, but also slower server, and changed the passwords. It became a case of "access denied" for the Cairo editorial staff, who found themselves shut out from their own newspaper. They would, some employees asserted, have been very happy to have gone on reporting, "particularly about the Israeli bomb attack on Gaza that was going on at that time." At the same time, of course, they would have kept us informed about their own cause. As it was, they had to switch to Twitter, YouTube, live streams and their own specially created blog, a tactic no less successful in terms of media coverage. The Arab media gave extensive coverage to the strike and the reasons behind it.

Red roses and moral decline

The hardware lockout is symbolic of the conflict between the editorial staff in Cairo and the financiers in Qatar. There is a clash of ideologies involved. The editorial staff claim that they want to continue to present a pluralistic and moderate Islam, while in Qatar it is an ultra-conservative approach that is desired. The gulf is best illustrated by the initial incident that led to the quarrel. The power struggle between the owners and those who run IslamOnline was sparked off by an article about Valentine's Day, which is regarded as "immoral" by conservative Muslims. After Qatar carried out a reshuffle of the board of the Egyptian company in January, a series of quarrels broke out with the editorial staff over the content of articles. "It was the first time," said Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, the South African-born head of Radio IOL, "that the board had interfered in editorial decisions." In February, IOL editors wanted to use a text about St Valentines Day on February 14, which had appeared in a local Egyptian newspaper, recalls Abu Hattab, one of the editors. "The board, however, rejected this point blank." An action that may well not seem strange to traditionalist Muslims. The day dedicated to love in the West is immoral in their eyes. The sale of red roses for Valentine's Day is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest places and, should you get your hands on one of the "immoral" plants in the first place, it is likely to be seized by the religious police.

A timely excuse

When the IOL editors decided to stand their ground, the response from Qatar was to announce the termination of all contracts in Cairo on March 31. The employees were promised that they would receive a severance payment of six months salary, plus an additional payment based on length of service. The Valentine's Day protest, IOL editor Abu Hattab believes, was simply a timely excuse as far as Qatar was concerned. "They wanted to get rid of all of us and would have been glad to see all 300 of the staff leaving." He is sure of one thing, the Qatar move was intended to give the website over to a traditionalist religious agenda. In the meantime, something like normal service has been resumed at IslamOnline.net, with recent developments from the likes of Indonesia, Pakistan and Jerusalem being reported on. But there are certain topic areas where error messages are still encountered, this being particularly the case in what were previously the most popular sections of the online magazine. In "Ask the Scholar" or "Cyber Counselor" no new questions have been published since late February. Normally, questions and answers are exchanged on a daily basis.

Modern jihad, modern aspirations

Meanwhile, the editors received the backing of Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, host of the Al Jazeera TV programme "Sharia and Life". The Egyptian cleric was one of the founders of IOL in 1997. With financial support from Sheika Mozah, wife of the Emir of Qatar, the Al Balagh Cultural Society took over a university student computer project which would eventually grow into the website. "This project is neither nationalistic nor one aiming at a grouping," said the Islamic scholar at the time. "It is a project for the entire Islamic community. It is the jihad of our era." In other words, a contemporary advert for Islam. From this notion of the mission, however, there grew a relatively undogmatic website that was interested in exchange of opinions and not afraid of taking up taboo topics such as pornography or homosexuality, rather unusual within the conservative mainstream context.

Showing who is boss

Youssef al-Qaradawi's support was not enough, however. He wanted to negotiate a solution with the IOL employees, but, shortly before his departure for Cairo, found himself unceremoniously removed from his position as chairman of the Al Balagh Cultural Society. It was a clear affront to the 84-year-old, who, despite his often controversial statements and fatwas, is one of the most influential of Islamic scholars, with over 80 books to his credit. It was Qatar's way of making absolutely clear who is boss. With little effect however. The IOL workers decided to continue their fight by going on with the sit-ins. Resistance to authority and civil disobedience are not the sort of thing that tend to happen much in most Arab countries – least of all in the Gulf, the region of emirs and kings.

Resistance and legal protest

The initial offer of full severance pay for all was later withdrawn by Qatar, it was then later contractually agreed upon, but so far this has not been honoured. It is an emotional roller coaster for the 350 or so IOL employees who are fighting for their livelihoods. In Qatar, it seems, they believe that money is a more powerful argument than solidarity. "But this is not about money," IOL editor Abu Hattab claims. "It is about editorial independence and media ethics. We won't give in. They are trying to grab IOL from us, but we are putting up a fight!" Lawyer for the staff, Yasser Fathi, filed a complaint with the International Labour Organisation of the UNO last week. The managers from Qatar who administer IOL funds in Egypt had broken the law and violated the rights of the workers, he claimed. A report was submitted to the public prosecutor's office in Cairo and legal action instigated. The negotiated contract on severance pay had not been honoured. The administration owes 12 million Egyptian pounds (1.6 million euros) to the more than 270 IOL employees. The money is supposed to be paid out soon, but with the events of the past four weeks in mind, it would be foolhardy to think that the matter is done and dusted just yet.