Amsterdam, September 17: Muslims who want to learn more about Islam or avoid information that does not comply with their religion while using the internet, can now use a search engine developed by a Dutch start-up company.
“The ImHalal search engine tells you exactly what Islam thinks about the keywords you enter,” Reza Sardeha, 20, a student in international business management in Amsterdam and founder of the project, told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday.
When entering words like ‘pig’ or ‘alcohol’, both of which are prohibited for consumption by Muslims, a warning appears on the screen.
“Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 1 out of 3. This means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com could be haram!”
Sardeha explained the Arab word haram can be translated as “off-limits under Muslim law”.
But unlike Jewish search engines – like www.koogle.co.il, www.jgog.net and www.babakama.co.il – which block all content considered improper under Jewish law, ImHalal leaves it up to the user to either stop or continue his search.
“We do not want to censor information,” Sardeha said, “ImHalal is meant to educate and unite Muslims.”
Sardeha said that, prior to developing the search engine, he consulted with “various middle-of-the-road” imams or religious leaders in Amsterdam and studied the concept of haram thoroughly.
“The definition of haram does not vary much among the many Muslim groups,” Sardeha explained, adding that there is only one group which strays from the mainstream, with practices like defining listening to music as haram.
The business administration student said ImHalal, developed by his new startup company AZS Media Group, is the first Muslim search engine in the world.
ImHalal operates in 15 languages, the English version working best, said users.
—Agencies