STRIKING workers at the influential Muslim website IslamOnline.net said on Thursday that they would launch an alternative website where they could demonstrate their ability to separate what they call “editorial policies from money”. The workers, who continued to stage a sit-in at the premises of the website in 6th of October City, about 40 kilometres outside Cairo, against interference by the Qatari company owning the website, said they were contacting several writers and funding organisations across the Muslim world that could have interest in offering finance for the new project. “The staff of the website will contribute the first amount of money necessary for launching the new website as a starter,” said Abdel-Hadi Abou Taleb, the Arabic desk editor at the website. “They all have a keen desire to continue to spread the message of IslamOnline.net,” he told The Egyptian Gazette Online in an interview. IslamOnline is by far the most read website on Islam. Between one and three million people visit the website every month, according to its staff. It offers information about intricate issues in the Islamic religion and also focuses on the news of Muslims worldwide. Afew days ago, however, the staff of the website about 350 people, went up in arms against the Qatari company that funds them for what they described as the intervention of the company in the editorial policies of the website. They say the Qatari company wants to silence the moderate tone of the website and replace it with a radical one. “They want to deface the moderate nature of the work we do,” say website journalists in their e-mails to members of the media. On Tuesday, the Qatari government sacked Sheikh Youssef el-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born founder of website and the board chairman of the funding company. This has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the staff of IslamOnline because the renowned Sheikh was their biggest supporter against the schemes of the Qatari company, according to some staff members. The journalists of the website say their alternative project, which might take shape in a month or two, will have the same message, but not the same brand. “We're already in contact with Muslim figures around the world,” said Ayman Qenawi, the English Desk editor at the website. “These people might be interested in sponsoring our new project. We ve several sponsors already,” he added.
