IslamOnline employees will continue their strike. So what's next, asks Mohamed Abdel-Baky For the past 10 years there were no competitors for IslamOnline (IOL) website on the Internet, in providing information for millions of Muslims around the world about religious issues and help them to be moderates and positive elements in their societies as Islam teaches. The future of IOL, the largest Islamic virtual gate on the Internet, remains unclear as the strike by more than 350 of its employees over decisions taken by senior management in Qatar enters its third week. The turmoil began when Al-Balagh Cultural Society, the Qatari-based NGO that has funded the website for the last 10 years, announced on 15 March, without prior notice, that 250 journalists, editors and others workers had been sacked. The group's Qatari managers also cut access to the website server at IOL's headquarters in Cairo, removing archive files from its data base, and began updating contents from Doha. IOL's founder, Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, the well known Egyptian religious scholar, soon entered the fray, cancelling the decisions taken by Al-Balagh board members Ibrahim Al-Ansari, Ali Al-Emadi and Mohamed Badr Al-Sada and suspending their membership. In a surprise response the Qatari government removed Al-Qaradawi from his post by dissolving the NGO's board of directors and appointing a temporary board which included the three members earlier suspended by Al-Qaradawi. Following massive media coverage and pressure from the Ministry of Labour in Egypt, IOL's managers in Qatar last week struck a deal with the lawyer representing the strikers, agreeing to pay their March salaries. In a statement on Sunday the striking workers said they would continue with their action. "Our project has been hijacked by people who do not know anything about it. Money is the last item on our list of demands," Hisham Gaffer, IOL's editor-in-chief, told Al Ahram Weekly. IOL employees are demanding that management in Qatar abandons moves to base the website's editorial team to Doha and halts all interference in editorial policy. Alternatively, they could "simply leave IOL's building in Cairo to Media International, the company that runs the website in Egypt". The website was launched in 1999, sponsored by Al-Balagh, which assumed responsibility for auditing and approving the budget. The Cairo office was responsible for the production and management of the editorial content of the website under the auspices of Media International, an Egyptian joint-stock company. Over 10 years the website, which is in English and Arabic, has maintained a high level of editorial independence, gaining the respect of millions of Muslims around the world and earning more than 350,000 hits a day. IOL quickly established itself as a moderate voice in the online war against extremists affiliated to groups such as Al-Qaeda. "It is clear that management in Doha intends to reshape our editorial policy in a more conservative direction. We refuse to be a tool for Salafist groups. Our mission is to help millions of Muslims by providing information, and make their live easier," Gaffer said. He added that removing Al-Qaradawi from Al Balagh's board could be an indicator that there are conflicts of interest within the Qatari regime. In an op-ed political analyst Amr Elshobaki described the Qatari government's decision as irresponsible and un-Islamic. "Is it a coincidence that the website was shut down after it accurately documented Israeli crimes in Gaza and published them on its Arabic and English websites. We should hold Qatar to account for closing down IslamOnline, an objective and very professional website," he wrote. Management in Doha has criticised IOL editors in Cairo for covering film festivals and running stories on Valentine's day and homosexuality, insisting such issues do not fit with the website's editorial policy. "Islam is a way of life and seeps into every aspect of a Muslim's life. The site's content should reflect that. We are not here just because this is our job, we are here because we believe in this message," Dina Khalil, an editor on the English website, told the Weekly, adding that she, like all the other editors, was committed to the principle of moderation in all things. Media International's legal advisor, Essam Sultan, claims the real reason for shutting down IOL is Qatar's desire to "get rid of the Saudi shareholders" who own 37 per cent of the website's assets. Some of the Al-Balagh's board members, he says, asked him to find a legal way to seize Saudi Ali Al-Dahdh's holdings of 37 per cent of IOL shares. Yasser Fathi, the employees' lawyers, insists the Qataris have violated Egyptian law. "They are in a weak position. They thought it would be easy to take an Egyptian company funded by foreigners and move it to Doha. It is only a matter of time before they realise they were mistaken." The website team in Cairo hopes to launch a new website with Saudi funds, using a different name but based in the same offices. Sources inside IOL say 70 per cent of their funding for the last three years has come from Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaradawi announced his support for the new website in a statement from Doha, where he is based.
