Qaradawi ousted from IslamOnline?!

[qatar]

Serious drama has been happening for the last two weeks over at IslamOnline, one of the most visited Muslim websites on the web, which is based here in Doha. I frequently visit IslamOnline when looking up different points of view on a topic in Islam, since it's a fairly pluralistic website that will show you a range of fatwas on a given topic

Comments

[dachte]

There are a million things I will miss about Qatar when we leave here in a few months, but one thing I do fervently look forward to is living in a country where the media are EXPECTED to talk about controversial issues, instead of quesadilla burgers.

[snark]So I guess you're not moving to the US...[/snark]

[qatar]

lol, I figured someone would say something like that and considered putting the counterargument in my post, but it seemed premature. :-)

American media frequently fails to be enlightening rather than merely entertaining... but at least it does so for fairly banal reasons, like ratings, rather than downright malignant ones, like fearing being jailed.

[dachte]

Fair. A lot of it is probably our relatively poor pre-university educational system and that people don't feel there's a lot of difference between candidates in most American elections. Or maybe our politics are strikingly bad for other reasons. It is incredibly rare that I have a good dicsussion on politics with someone born in the US, while people from other parts of the world seem so much better educated on those matters on average. I realise there's a selection bias from people I'm likely to bump into (come here for university, travelling for fun, people I meet online), but even taking that into account...

Someone from elsewhere might easily come to the US, look around at the people, and ask "so this is what the American notion of freedom looks like?"

[dubaiwalla]

I didn't realize you were leaving Qatar. May I ask why? Will you be going back to Pittsburgh?

[qatar]

Justin's done with his PhD, so it seems like the right time to move on. We do not yet know where we're heading next. :-)

[dubaiwalla]

I hope I can persuade you guys to visit Dubai again before leaving!

[anonymous]

Marjorie,

All is not what it appears. The Egyptian contingent is putting out lots of reckless unsubstantiated rumors because they don't want to lose editorial or news control to the Qatari faction, which really has all rights to shape the site as they see fit. The Egyptian employees are stating that Qatar wants to make the site more conservative when the opposite is true. They have finally decided to control the site to combat the growing concern over how it is becoming increasingly divisive and a tool in the so-called clash of civilizations.

Al-Qaradawi isn't being hung out to dry. He will stay involved in the capacity of religious scholarship I am sure, but he is 84 and no one wants to turn IOL over to the Egyptians just to be financed by Qataris.

Regards,
Lisa

[qatar]

Yeah, the first thing I read was an AP article that says that the Qatari government is cracking down on IslamOnline for being too liberal, and that just seemed weird. I tried to be vague above about what's going on because I DON'T KNOW what's going on, because it's not being reported. :-p

There is a short Al Jazeera piece on it, which doesn't shed much light, but otherwise everything out there is from sketchy sites who don't tell you their sources. Aggravating.

Yeah, I know what you mean

[anonymous]

I knew some of what is going on because of knowing some of the history at IOL and some of the people who have worked for them.

BTW, the article you linked to

[anonymous]

stating that the Ministry has kicked out Qaradawi is by one of the Egyptian employees

Re: BTW, the article you linked to

[rmitz]

But you still ought to know that there's this problem going on, right?

Yes, I agree

[anonymous]

but I am not sure how many corporations would report an internal power struggle and investigation of financial corruption at this stage.

Re: Yes, I agree

[qatar]

... which is why the media's job is to figure it out. :-p

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[anonymous]

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