Halal online

Tazeen Javed Published July 4, 2009

Tazeen Javed imagines the future of Islamic web browsing.

The Jews have beaten the more pious Muslims to it again. A new 'kosher' search engine called Koogle has been launched for orthodox Jews living in Israel, which will allow them to surf cyberspace without ever encountering unbecoming images or faith wavering text and keep the dangers of subversion and temptation at bay. Koogle will follow the religious standards set by the rabbis and is aimed at helping orthodox Jews stay on the stipulated path.

Apparently a jibe at Google, Koogle will filter out forbidden material and provide its consumers kosher bits and pieces from the net. This provides an impetus to our more religious-minded Muslim brothers to come up with a halal search engine or perhaps something even better: a halal browser. The halal browser could scan the web and act all big brotherly for the benefit of its devout and virtuous users.

Ideally, the halal browser will check out the halal quotient of the content in cyberspace. The browser could also label web content according to different levels of halalness. The varying degrees of halalness could range from barely halal to standard halal and extra or strictly halal and everything in between.

The barely halal version will only let the user know that there is dangerous content ahead and warn that if you want to keep your faith intact, browse no further. The standard halal version will not only warn you about dangerous content ahead, but will also distort the appearance of the browser and scream ‘haram haram!’ Anyone with even a remnant of faith will cease browsing non-halal content and will revert to halal content. The reward for clicking along the righteous path - Ovais Qadri naats in the background.

Meanwhile, the strictly halal version will not warn you about anything; instead, it will just obstruct the material deemed inappropriate by the maulanas. For instance, if you are on Facebook or blogging to your heart’s desire and you see adverts with a semi-nude woman with a lollipop (the ultimate test of your faith) asking you to buy this or that, fear no more. The new and improved halal browser, equipped with halal firewall, will take care of it for you. You can look forward to a situation in which only totally halal adverts for items such as halal chicken, halal chips, halal banking and Umrah tours pop on your browser.

If you are an online shopper and have indulged in shopping taboo items in the past, the new and improved halal browser will even curb your enthusiasm for all things forbidden and halt your purchase before you set up your Paypal account.

The only problem is that we do not have this halal browser right now. For a religious minded businessman, it is the best opportunity since halal foods and Shariah-compliant banking to make some solid dough. If Junaid Jamshed is done with modeling for a commercial in the guise of public service message, which, let's be honest, is really a fatwa in favour of a commercial product, he can now invest to develop the first-ever Shariah compliant halal browser.

Of course, if you were already using the halal browser, this blog would have been blocked at the get-go.

Tazeen Javed has lived most of her life in Karachi; so far no one has asked her to leave. She has worked as a journalist, teacher, salesperson, activist, tour guide, election observer, fruit vendor, copy writer and television producer in the past. She has wizened up since then and now only works for a living. She blogs at http://tazeen-tazeen.blogspot.com and can be contacted at tazeen@alumni.manchester.ac.uk.

Blogs

Tazeen Javed has lived most of her life in Karachi; she now lives elsewhere and misses Karachi. She has worked as a journalist, teacher, salesperson, activist, tour guide, election observer, fruit vendor, copy writer and television producer in the past.

She has wizened up since then and now only works for a living. She tweets at @tazeen

Rehman

Jul 04, 2009 12:26pm

makes sense.

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dede

Jul 04, 2009 07:00am

good one.

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Madan Lal

Jul 04, 2009 09:45am

Not a great piece of writing but criticism is justified. You need to add one more thing which would be 'Who would decide which is halal & what is not?' we would need several versions of Browser satisfying the needs of diffence of opinions of, which Tanzeen callss, "maulanas".

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Cidat

Jul 04, 2009 09:55am

Tazeen, Great to see some Mancunians writing thought-provoking articles. I would just like to bring to your attention a Halal version of Youtube called 'Halaltube' which might not be gigantic as You tube but has a collection of great talks+lectures by leading Islamic Scholars. Kind Regards Cidat

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Dipak Dholakia

Jul 04, 2009 10:56am

Very intelligenrly composed satirical piece of genuinely liberal mind.

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Sajid Ansari

Jul 04, 2009 11:22am

Good for Muslims as well because both the religions are most near to each other.

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khawar

Jul 04, 2009 11:33am

it was not a good one . i have tried to open but it did not work like google . i m nt satisfied . i thought that u should try to collapse it.

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Jayant Arora

Jul 04, 2009 11:41am

I like the pun in case it is intended ! Well, for all you know the maulanas are already at it and you will see halal version of Google / Koogle and it better be called Hoogle. Cheers, Jayant Arora

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pinial

Jul 04, 2009 12:27pm

i support this gesture

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Amim Ehsan

Jul 04, 2009 12:29pm

There is no need to have new browser. Just write a plugin for firefox or modify hosts file in windows. The idea is to provide a hosts file which will have the most updated list of websites containing blocked content. Obivously there is Adblocker and other plugins muslims should have taken advantage of and as far as i know, many already do use them with a routine regularity.

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Sac

Jul 04, 2009 03:23pm

Good fun stuff. But I hope the satire carries on to the contributions in the comments section, because if not then we're all in trouble.

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Zaheer

Jul 04, 2009 04:29pm

Nice blog. Yes we need a Halal search engine or something that can keep us from the sins which are currently destroying our whole nation, especially internet users. We should do something like China and Iran to save people specially young ones from this.

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Hassan Javaid

Jul 04, 2009 04:37pm

Good idea! But the problem still is that what is actually 'halal' and what is not. Suppose one maulana says religious jokes are unislamic and the other one says they are okay. What would the browser do?!

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Anonymous

Jul 04, 2009 06:05pm

I think people need to evolve beyond the definitions. I think we need to enter the 21st century.

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Abdul G. Memon

Jul 04, 2009 06:20pm

Let us wait till we know how and when the programme works out to the entire satisfaction of the real pious ones. This problem has to be solved genuinely and at the earliest.

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Mir

Jul 04, 2009 06:58pm

Funny that how many commentators missed the satire in the article and naively assumed that she is proposing Halal Google.

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Vaibhav

Jul 04, 2009 07:32pm

Tazeen, I am a regular on your blog. The comments here show that majority is yet to grasp the concepts of sarcasm and satire. Doesn't say much about the intelligence of those who read this and think that this was written to encourage the creation of such a browser or search engine.

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Khurram

Jul 05, 2009 10:51am

To those who were able to appreciate Tazeen's satire, and are now (rather smugly) commenting on the inability of some others to appreciate the humour, you've got to see it happening to truly feel its pervasive power. And then it stops being funny. She's just being tongue-in-cheek, but there are others out there who've already stolen the march on her and done what she only (half) jokingly recommends. But this, too, shall come to pass, my friends, because we'll be sitting on our nethers scoring points on who ''got" the joke and who didn't.

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Wajahat

Jul 04, 2009 08:06pm

Good article. Food for thought. Interesting aspect of this article is that Muslims all over the world do not have any authentic website where they can surf for halal/haram information.

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Mrityunjay Tripathi

Jul 04, 2009 10:20pm

Good article! However, some people cannot even understand the satire!!

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Babar

Jul 04, 2009 11:24pm

Let's not forget halal cricket, halal traveling, halal reading, halaal photography etc. Wonder why can't we just simply enjoy things as they are and not complicate life.

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Maher Elahi

Jul 04, 2009 11:53pm

Writing a software programme for a search engine or a browser is a great headache. Just invoking heavenly names in the beginning and thanking them in the end is more than enough to morph everything and anything kosher or halal.

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Larry Stout

Jul 05, 2009 12:13pm

The halal browser is already up and running -- in the madrassahs. No computer required. No brain, either. Koogle, schmoogle....

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Rahul Malhotra

Jul 05, 2009 01:44am

I don't think many people who have left comments understand that the author is making fun of the moral police and not suggesting an actual halal browser! Tazeen, you are very right .. Moral policing is a pain in society.

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Dr Soosai

Jul 05, 2009 11:47am

Excellent article. One must understand that Halal is big business and one must also understand that there are certain vested interests that are twisting rules to turn unhalal things into halal; one must be careful of such people.

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akhtar

Jul 05, 2009 06:53am

Sorry to see this kind of paranoia. This halal business is only benefiting tradesmen selling poor quality expensive goods behind religious banners. Is this all about religion?

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akhtar

Jul 05, 2009 06:57am

why are people so afraid? have we lost all self confidence?

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Ali Abbas

Jul 05, 2009 09:12am

Half the people who read your articles miss the point, which is sad but not something you wouldn't expect.

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atif

Jul 05, 2009 11:10am

It's a good concept, but i hope whoever makes it, he or she keeps Islam in mind not the profit out of it.

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akhtar

Jul 05, 2009 11:22am

Well this is satire but Halal is big business in Europe. People sell Halal toot paste, Halal toothbrush, Halal soap and perfume and houses and insurance. This is extreme profiteering on the pretext of being Halal.

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Euceph Ahmed

Jul 05, 2009 02:15pm

How about "Veilbook" and "Qiratwitter" for an added dose of piety?

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tauk

Jul 05, 2009 02:22pm

There is already an Operating System which is halal. It has in built filter which will filter out most of the offending websites. Its called Sabily and its a derivative of Ubuntu. It uses DansGuardian open source software for filtering which is also used in Ubuntu Christian Edition and other safe operating systems Since Sabily is basically Linux you can still do things which a linux box is supposed to do - run servers, websites, etc Check it out

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zalim khan

Jul 05, 2009 02:32pm

LMAO...and lol @ the comments. You people are too much!

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Waseem

Jul 05, 2009 03:12pm

Tazeen, you have opened my eyes. After such a brilliant move of halal browser, I can see, the next step would be halal computer and then halal programming. Can you please go a step ahead and help me how to learn "halal programming" before it becomes industry standard and I loose my job?

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Saleem

Jul 05, 2009 03:52pm

Excellent article and some beautiful blogs. In my opinion we Muslims have gotten in the habit of taking things easy and do not want to be bothered by the details.

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Varinder Abrol

Jul 05, 2009 04:50pm

Wonder about the curiousity of human mind to sort thtough the trash.

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rkg

Jul 05, 2009 05:09pm

why some one else should decide whether a thing or an action is halal or haram. i think people are matured enough to make their own decisions. by branding something or some action as halal some one is creating a bias,(like a cpmpany advertised its toothpaste as vegetarian. immediately you start thinking whether all other toothpastes are non vegetarian) thereby not letting you take a decision which your heart feels is right.

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Madan Lal

Jul 05, 2009 05:27pm

Wow this was a kinda critic and humour and u ppl thinking Tanzeen is serious and encouraging such a product... come on, take it easy guys!! This is political humor .. hun, isn't it?

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Sabih

Jul 05, 2009 07:11pm

Since when has sarcasm and satire become a good thing on religiuos matters? Whats next?

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Saeed Ali

Jul 05, 2009 07:39pm

Nice effort, if we are unable to create the new trends then we copy the others and follow the excellent trends of west. Saeed, Sanaa, Yemn

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P. Harimohan

Jul 05, 2009 07:50pm

Completely endorse Mrityunjay Tripathi's comment July 5, 2009 3.20PM. Keep up the good work Ms. Javed. Pl include other religions in the follow up to Halal on line

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SIDu

Jul 05, 2009 09:18pm

Although hummer in the article is appreciable, Koogle is a reality that has not been criticized nor received any publicity in the media at large. I wonder if something of the same really comes into effect as per the article, then also wonder what response would it receive around the world. It is not hard to imagine. When we ran out of controversial topics, we tend to create one. No wonder there is a war between the liberals and a hard liners.

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peacesaint

Jul 05, 2009 09:34pm

Scientific Temperment should be encouraged in Islamic countries , that would lead to more progress. Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Economics should be thought in all Madrasas. Syllabus in Madrasas should be approved by a secular board.

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Irfan

Jul 05, 2009 10:11pm

And this new browser should also identify women who are surfing without a related male sitting next to them and block all internet activity.... well written piece lol

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profileae

Jul 06, 2009 02:56am

Ford motors should think about launching a Kosher car.

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Kamran

Jul 06, 2009 03:20am

All our Muslim folks should use their natural instinct before blindly accepting every thing halal as lot of people are running a business in the name of Halal, in fact they just label any thing halal to sell their products with no proof of being halal, plus they scare you from buying lots of products which dont have anything religiously objectionable.One should do extra research on his part before taking any thing for being granted as Halal.

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Hamara Pakistan

Jul 06, 2009 03:55am

I think it is good that we don't have a "Halaal Google." Because then people will be talking about "censorship" and different sects will try to have their own, and it will be a mess. What Muslims need is to be innovative in thinking, rather than copy or "Islamizing" everything that now originates from "the West." The government of Pakistan has the powers and access to block the porn sites. Muslims have studied Greek and Romans and took what was right and in accordance with Islam, added and edited to the things that were "theories" and eradicated and refuted intellectually that were against the sciences revealed by the Holy Quran. Muslims need to educated themselves and thats all. Be educated, innovative and we absolutely should stop this mentality of copy pasting!!! Halaal Tube after You Tube! Halaal Google now! what is next? Halaal Twitter, Halaal Facebook, wordpress, blogger, Windows!!! I mean common!

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Raja Akbar

Jul 06, 2009 04:12am

Lets have Sunni Halal, Shia Halal, Wahabi Halal, Deoband Halal, Barelavi Halal, India Halal, Pak Halal and so on.....

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Saeed K

Jul 06, 2009 05:33am

Hats off to you ! one thought for your article, ' A knife is not only a weapon, it is also used as surgical instrument to save lives. '

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Hamid Nilnagi

Jul 06, 2009 06:35am

Good thought provoking article. Any software developer can have que from this write up who can have requirements for developing a Halal Browser. There is badly a need of Halal browser in absence of world wide absence of will of our Governments to control the illicit use of web. Hope Pakistan too will be benefited by it. Hamid Nilnagi Srinagar

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Abizaib

Jul 06, 2009 06:45am

Halal browsing is a personal responsibility. Lets not dumb down people who are already dumber than a door knob... Practically its impossible. And wow, "Kroogle" - how original!

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Zain

Jul 06, 2009 06:57am

Actually, this idea not a new one. CHINA has been very active on what the young generation surfs on the net, for a very long time. They have introduce the "Green Dam" filter to block the dirty websites, and even vulgar language to be blocked from all the computers sold in China from this year onward, but there are some delays, and so far, only Acer and another computer maker have shipped new computer with clean filtering technology, but Chinese officials has said that they will certainly make sure their public specially youth does not access mentally contaminated dirty websites, etc. online. Its a shame our Muslim countries are doing nothing about what is accessed online, specially by young and impressionable minds. We can learn alot from Non-Muslims, when it comes to avoiding dirty websites.

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Mehwish

Jul 06, 2009 07:26am

Is our faith so weak that if see these so called" Haram" things, our faith will weaken? There are so many wrong things going on around us, so should we closed our eyes everytime we see something. Muslims need to wake up and get of this utopia that we have created. Yes go ahead and practice ur religion but stop creating an issue about everything.

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Naveed Afzal

Jul 06, 2009 07:46am

Firstly, satire or not, I find that this article has given me several ideas on businesses which can in fact, provide substantial benefits for the muslim, and heck, even the non muslim society. Good article. Well written, interesting, and through provoking ideas. My comments on the article and some other comments made by readers: 1. To invest in any venture, be it google,koogle, what not... needs finances. Secondly, it needs to be sustainable i.e. generate enough funds by itself to survive and not require investments from other sources (Mind you, if it did, then the content and policy would be persuaded towards the ideology of the (max) fund providers. Thus, this venture needs to grow in itself. 2. It is unfair to generalize..."all" halal business is for profiteering. The "Muslim" market, in my opinion is largely still untapped and many have realized this. It is a tremendous 'business' oppoortunity, and in order to properly root out and redirect organizations selling halal goods / services is by challenging them, and providng sincere value and ideal (ofcourse,I never said its easy - but thats whats beautiful about the right path) 3. I find very interesting the differentiating thoughts on a Halal browser, or a Halal search engine. A browser will link to the content on net, but a engine will in fact become a centralized storage of Islamic content. I feel we need both. In fact, regaring the browser, perhaps the firefox idea of would suffice, maybe, maybe not. There is an 'Adult' safety on current browers in the world today. I would initially suggest first establishing a search engine or portal, such as Islam.com, which in my opinion, since its inception 2000, perhaps has not really moved as much as it could have. Google started later. 3. The core and self-destructive challenge would be who's ideals to listen to, and on who's rules to abide with. This is why I suggest this be an independant organization and establish itself as self sufficient as possible. (How to get there? Oh boy, tell me when you find out) It should try to be autonomous, and honestly, as perhaps the Islamic Finance Industry which is at least on its way to maturing to a certain degree perhaps we can gain guidance from there. Perhaps we need to really look past the satirical theology of the author and actually look at what is really possible, including the challenges (the author has brilliantly given many examples), and instead of simply talking about it, actively decide what can be possibly done. I know I will. Anyways, I think I can go on for a while, but will stop here for now... Thank you Tazeen. It was a very interesting read and tremendous food for thought. Wish all your readers the best :) Naveed

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Saleem

Jul 06, 2009 10:03am

How about burqabook, now that would be interesting

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ken

Jul 06, 2009 10:28am

It should not end at internet. As a matter of principle, it should also conver the entire media and entertainment like TV programs, news, documentary, radio and cinema. As an example halal TV and cinema should only show women with hijab.

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ken

Jul 06, 2009 10:40am

I think the idea of halal should apply to life insurance policies, other insurance policies, saving accounts, car loans, etc. We already have halal mortgage, but it is financed by banks,which deals in interest, so much so they use the same annuity table. But Muslim consumers think it is not their responsiblity to know how it was financed and that they have done their part. They pay an amount based on the rental value, which is actually equal to the monthly payment amount paid on traditional mortgages. Similary, some Muslims try to lease cars to avoid interest payments, but the cars are financed through banks. I think the concept of halal should be used more comprehensively.

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abdul

Jul 06, 2009 11:09am

In UK some muslim channels have started HALAL DATING.. some shopkeepers buy meat from white people and sell it at a premium saying it is halal.. muslims are obsessed with religion and some crooks exploit them.. but then for many muslims concept of halal ends with the meat shop.. there is nothing halal in their daily lives.. they can stoop to any low level when money is concerned.. to get few extra pounds they lie right and left..

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Reyaz

Jul 06, 2009 12:31pm

Hahahahahaaa....hilarious....I see Addisson, Swift and Pope coming back to life....Good piece (feeling of an Indian Muslim)

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Divya

Jul 06, 2009 01:00pm

Tazeen, By grace of the Lord, I was saved from corrupting influence of this article, as my Halaal browser classified it as Haraam at the opening phrase "Jews have beaten .. Muslims.... Thank God.

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Salman Raza

Jul 06, 2009 03:30pm

As the article was meant was satire and sarcasm which, sorry to say is missing from our 'conservative society'. I would like to build on some of the comments which propose a Halaal version of YouTube. It should contain talkshows and lecture of only those maulanas/commentators who propose the end to the world, the great Jewish-Hindu-Christian conspiracies against Islam, s seperate section for just halaal/haraam. We recently held a birthday party for our 2 year old son and had to hear lectures from the Halaal types of how we are practising haraam rituals. The list just goes on but it will sure be a hit. SALMAN RAZA

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Udayan

Jul 06, 2009 04:24pm

I don't see the need to have another thing that divides in the name of religion!

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Dr Gopinath

Jul 06, 2009 04:41pm

Actually it isnt such a new concept. Maybe some of you have worked in Saudi Arabia. There is strict web filtering here using a proxy server and many URL's are blocked.

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Nadeem Hassan

Jul 06, 2009 05:19pm

Who would define halaal?

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Riaz Haq

Jul 06, 2009 05:57pm

Vertical search engines and web filters are nothing new, although their use by orthodox Jews appears to be quite creative. As the world moves from broadcast to narrowcast, we are likely to see a lot more customized content for even narrow groups, religious or otherwise, that satisfies their own unique needs and tastes. I think comparing 1.5 billion global and divesrse Muslims with a small number of Jews defies all logic, to say the least. There are far too many nationalities, elasticities, denominations, thought patterns and cultures in the vast world of Islam than the fairly small world of Judaism. Halal market, on the other hand, is real and large, and it attracts investors and businesses based simply upon the opportunity for significant returns. I say this with experience of extensive travels and many visits to Israel, Palestine and many Muslim nations in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

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Abdul G. Memon

Jul 06, 2009 06:29pm

I was talking about halal/haram matters with a prominent imam of a prominent islamic center here in America. He remarked "what are you talking about"? further saying "do you know that the carpet you are praying on in this masjid, enjoying the air conditioning/heating in this masjid, food you are eating in this masjid specially in Ramdhan etc. is either haram or doubtful." What the imam wanted to point out was that in his opinion, one can not escape haram while living in America. In my opinion even while living in islamic countries, one can hardly avoid haram. I believe the eeman of muslims is getting weaker and weaker day by day. May Almighty Allah guide us.

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Bindu Rama Rao

Jul 06, 2009 06:36pm

Hello All: And there is a Halal Street, a better version of Wall Street. Also a a Halal Potter, a better version of Harry Potter. Finally, a Halal Airlines, a better version of PIA. Soon, the whole world will be halal. Bindu Rama Rao

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Ravi

Jul 06, 2009 07:54pm

Super Satire. I just fell of my chair laughing.

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Kiv

Jul 06, 2009 09:17pm

Ha! Clever indeed! Very well done.... I would add one enhancement for Ms Javed's considersation: The browser should pass a jolt of electricity at the user who commits blasphemy (hudood ordinance aware browser). Or maybe, that is the job of "Halaal Windows" OS??

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Hussain Mandviwala

Jul 06, 2009 09:51pm

I don't get it, why do we need a Halal browser to keep us at bay from Haram things. As Muslims, we should have the power to resist temptation and illicit material over the internet. We have the force within us to keep evil at bay... we don't need a browser to keep us away from it all.. Think about it. It's like saying I will only pray Zohar on Friday because all my co-workers go, the other days well nobody goes, should I don't go also... its crazy

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Sood

Jul 06, 2009 10:30pm

I was at one time doing research in humane killing of animals. No matter which way you kill them, just look into their sad eyes you will give up eating meat, halal or haram.

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Aliarqam

Jul 07, 2009 03:50am

Nice post....Bitter Yet procrusteanation Of each and everything is going to happen.. Islamic banking is the new thread....In Karachi,Various Madressas are on a verbal War for declaring it Halal and Haram.... Hundreds of pages are written in cross argumentations... One group(The Benefeciaries of that Convert) is advocating it....Other is against it...

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Tarik Jaffery

Jul 07, 2009 04:24am

Islamization of the web through designing a halal browser is another novel concept to ridicule the "righteous" and "pious" surfers. A good piece of satire.

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Yassiah Yasser

Jul 07, 2009 04:29am

Well written and thought provoking article. There are many sites and organizations for whom it is a big income generating business. ICNA and ISNA are two of those here in Canada. These two issue certficates to meet and poultry processors for financial reward and these businesses label their products " Halal" and mark up the price. All of them are taking advatage of unsuspecting , ignorant Muslims.

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Irfan Mahmood

Jul 07, 2009 04:39am

Good stuff. We need it.

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Zoobee

Jul 07, 2009 04:43am

Tez, Down with moral policing indeed! -Zoobee

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Quratulain

Jul 07, 2009 06:00am

Good satire! and an impressive one.

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Sajjad

Jul 07, 2009 06:18am

gr8 idea.Needs to be materialized by our IT companies.

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Rauf Khan

Jul 07, 2009 08:46am

Excellent article!!If we truely will to develop a Halal browser we can. Ulama of all School Of Thoughts agree upon many HARAAM things, so there wudn't be much disagreement. And if there is, then make two Halal Browsers, no problem:) by day way Tazeen... The reward is fantastic: :) The reward for clicking along the righteous path - Ovais Qadri naats in the background.

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Vijay

Jul 07, 2009 09:19am

I dont have to repeat that has already been said about sarcasm. :-) I wonder why the so called religious people want a "halal" version of the browser or search engine??? Cant they simply skip those pages. I am sure today's generation knows which pages are "halal" and which are not.

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Tanvir

Jul 07, 2009 11:49am

1. There will be several version of Halal browser, each for every sect.. 2. The Halal browser will cease during prayers times 3. The Halal browser will only work if the user's look is complaint with shariah, i.e. if male, should have beard, if female, should be covered, This will be detected by intelligent image recognition algorithms.

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Sabih

Jul 07, 2009 04:50pm

To add to my earlier comment, fact of the matter is that, bringing up a religious doctrine for the amusement of a people to vent frustrations against what is going on in our societies is outrageous. If there are any direct examples present in this article of enjoining of good then please point it out!

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Zeeba

Jul 07, 2009 09:43pm

In remembrance of our recently Halal pop khalifa the (late) Meekaal Jackson, let me dedicate this song as his contribution to a trillion dollar market that you're talking about here. The song is "Halal the World" (read in Urdu--Dunya Halal Karo) - For you and for me and for the entire Human Race. Ameen--Sum Ameen BTW, I really enjoyed reading your post.

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Tariq Mian, Canada

Jul 08, 2009 02:02am

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Ven

Jul 08, 2009 06:13am

A halal browser!!!! This is not a revolution but indeed a naive thinking. All religions teach that humans have the mind to decide between right and wrong. We need to stop unifying everything to Islam but instead change it in a manner that people with their own free will want to follow their religion. All countries in the world are facing similar issues on the web but none have come up with this conclusion.. Please open your minds instead of acting foolishly! Kookle.. I just cant get over it lolzz...

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Vicky

Jul 08, 2009 07:32am

People will never understand that censoring or restricting on Haram or Hilal content is useless. Haram & Hilal are two sides of one coin so how can you drop one of them and carry other side. For whole life, you try to differentiate and choose betweem Haram & Hilal which is not possible. People think that being a Muslim, Hindu, Christian Or Jan and following their respective path properly is religiousness. But they deceive them self by trying to get social respect. Religiousness comes from inside oneself - from having faith and acting in a moral way. I think this shows religiosity better than outward appearances and actions. Anyway, We are talking about Koogle or Hilal browser. This will not make any progress in religiousness but they will surely make their way of income for them self by deceiving in the name of HARAM, HILAL and religiousness.

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Salman Latif

Jul 08, 2009 10:21am

Hahaha!!! Nice one. That's such a fine business idea :D Plus, let's see how many version we'll have to launch. The wahabi version, the deobandi version, the brailvi version and the shi'ite version. Lolz! Now that's gonna add a fine spice of diversity to it. :D

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ibteda

Jul 09, 2009 10:34am

Lol, Tazeen, atleast they are taking you seriously. :D

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DMA

Jul 13, 2009 04:03pm

What a note this blog begins with: "The Jews have beaten the more pious Muslims to it again." Why so much hatred towards another religion and will this stop??? I do not understand! The core practices and beliefs of Islam are borrowed from the Jews and still hatred preached!

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Anees

Jul 12, 2009 07:32am

A good one as "dede' has commented. Now some qualifiers: The Halal browser cannot be evoked by Ladies unless they are in Hijab and men without proper Islamic Attire. No T shirts and Shorts. And unless you invoke the name of the God or the Guru, (I hear that the Sikhs are looking for one too) you can't open the browser. The Halal browser will only accept ads from Halal sellers of Halal food. This good news particularly for the residents of Canadian Mississauga. Their search for Halal Milk and Halal shaving erasers will be over. The halal browser will have one section devoted to taliban news. One section each for our CJ, President and of course Nawaz Sharif. They will now provide columnized entertainment. our PM. Oh he doesn't count. He's carbon tax. And let's not forget our very own Imran Khan. The browser will have link WWW. Complaints. com hyperlinked to our supercap. More Pen to you Ms. Tazeeen

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Jul 12, 2009 03:39pm

I second to Mr Sabih's comment, this blog post lost is objectivity way before its taste. On a lighter note , hope to see better one's next time.

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Ammar

Jul 13, 2009 05:02am

As a business student I would like to say it's a great idea that would cater those people who are very much religious conscious. There was a space to come up with different ideas like this; meanwhile Internet is also used in our Islamic institutions that would be a good market for Koogle.. SimplY marketers are MINDBLOWING!!

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BulBul

Jul 13, 2009 07:04am

Good Job at the article! I even liked your description in the end. 'No one has asked you leave Karachi' and worked as a 'Fruit Vendor' Simply love it!

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Realities, Myths, Fantasies & Paranoias: The Muslims – Get To Know Them Series « The Spinning Head

Jul 17, 2009 04:30pm

[...] Koogle a Kosher browser – no, I kid you not! The Halal browser drew some comments from Karachi blogger Tazeen Javed about its seductive features for the [...]

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Ali

Jul 18, 2009 10:03pm

@DMA: Stay cool, it was just light hearted sarcasm

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Mohammad Nisar

Jul 21, 2009 10:56am

Hello Miss Tazeen, I think, the halal browser is an activity in futility for if one has takhwa does one actually need a Halal browser and if we did see something obnoxious on the Net we showed lower the gaze and guard our modesty (chap 21 quran) and well that should do, but just four the heck of it, one can make a halal browser if it can help search restaurants that serve halal food just like zabiha.com here in US

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Bangash

Sep 09, 2009 06:14am

Excellent satire !!

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Al Sunna

Nov 10, 2009 04:04am

Assalam walakum, This blog is a very nice blog, I have found it very beneficial to know more about Islam. Thanks for sharing the information.

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