There has been a lot of anticipation in the Muslim web circles for the launch of Muxlim.tv, a Muslim video site. Muxlim.tv belongs to the Muxlim network of sites which include Muxlim.com – a news start page, MuslimSpace.com – a Muslim MySpace site, as well as a search engine and an online Qur’an resource.

Even though no official announcements have been made, links appearing across the Muxlim network encourage Muxlim members to visit the video section. And we received an IM from the CEO informing us of today’s launch. Muxlim.tv was also featured on Associated Press’ online news hub, asap – Video-sharing sites aimed at Muslims.

Thanks to Muxlim CEO, Mohamed El-Fatatry, we were given a sneak preview of the site. One exceptional feature of the site is the ease of browsing through the various sites in the network. We could jump from one site to the other without having to keep on logging in. We were delighted to see the Muslim Unity Day 2007 commercial as the featured video on the home page. When asked if they knew the organizers of MUD 2K7, who happen to be good friends of ours, Mohamed said that he didn’t know them but found the video to be very interesting.

With FaithTube and IslamicTube recently emerging on the Islamic YouTube video scene, what makes Muxlim.tv stand out?  Well, firstly, the aesthetics of the site are well done. Great layout and color scheme, which fits the Web 2.0 style. Secondly, you cannot add a video from an external site (YouTube, Google Video, etc.). (You can now upload videos from external sites!) However, as you will notice, Muxlim.tv is still in beta phase – http://beta.muxlim.tv/ As the site grows, we are sure more features will be added. Mohamed informed us that Muxlim.tv actually launched early to populate the video inventory. They also have big plans for the future of the site which they hope to include beaming videos to mobile phones, satellite TV channels and more. We hope social networking tools will be added for easy sharing of the videos.

Drop us a comment if you have used Muxlim.tv, FaithTube or IslamicTube. We would like to hear your feedback.

Update: a Muxlim.tv Facebook app is in development. Look for it soon, insha’Allah.

Update II: Join the Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2795596939

Yumondo is a new web 2.0 community site that is currently in closed beta. We had the honor of being invited to use and test the site. While browsing through the site, we met one of the site’s moderators, Mohammad Pashmi. Based in Berlin, Mohammad gave us a friendly European welcome to the site and honored us with an interview. We would like to thank him for his prompt reply and friendship. Click here to grab an invite for Yumondo. Also, the site has just undergone a new design change. The previous design relied on dark colors while the new design uses a white background with bright blue text on the tabs.

IslamCrunch: What is your web application/service about?

Yumondo: Yumondo is about letting people share their style. It’s a service designed to let people upload and share information about their favorite places, events, and things. These things that you associate with are all part of what defines your style in a way.

IslamCrunch: Why did you start this project?

Yumondo: Mostly because we thought it would be fun and interesting. We all share a vision of a world where communities can be connected, and can grow up around common interests and shared tastes and styles.

IslamCrunch:How much time do you devote to its growth?

Yumondo: Well, I serve as the community manager for Metaversum* as a company. Metaversum is the company behind Yumondo, and Yumondo is one of our products. I am also responsible for our community building on other projects, so I only get to spend a few hours per week with the Yumondo community. There are a few other guys who spend much more time there, like Robert and Christian. You can see them in Yumondo and our Yumondo blog.

IslamCrunch:How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

Yumondo: The Yumondo team is about 8 people. The backgrounds are pretty diverse, with some development people, customer support, IT and marketing.

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Dave Chappelle + Unity Productions + Allah Made Me Funny Comedy = lots of laughs, plenty of entertainment and abundant reminders. After he caused a stir in the entertainment industry by suddenly leaving a $50 million dollar deal, Dave Chappelle has been more vocal about his faith. Now with this recent announcement, his faith should not be an issue of speculation. When we heard from the Allah Made Me Funny camp that Chappelle was on board, we scrambled into “PR” mode. We contacted the AMMF webmaster, posted links on Facebook and sent out emails. This is a continuation…

People in the DC area will be delighted to know that two warm-up sets will be conducted in mid-August 2007. Visit this link for the details: http://www.allahmademefunny.com/pr/dc/

The actual filming for the movie will take place in Anaheim, California in late August 2007. 

Time and Place Date: Saturday, August 25, 2007
Time: 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Venue: Heritage Forum
Address: 201 E. Broadway, Anaheim, CA
Map: http://dwarfurl.com/c3407

The IslamCrunch team (at least half of us) intend to be there and we hope to meet our friends and readers. Here are some side notes behind the monumental press release:

• Seth Fuller = Word of Mouth PR firm for Allah Made Me Funny, other clients include Little Mosque on the Prairie TV show.
• Andrea Kalin = president of SparkMedia, currently working on “Prince Among Slaves“, a biography of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima. Here is a great interview with Andrea conducted by Unity Productions.
• Unity Productions = producer of “Prince Among Slaves”, details here: http://upf.tv/upf06/Projects/PrinceAmongSlaves/tabid/77/Default.aspx
• 3 days before the Anaheim show tune in on August 22 to watch Unity Productions’ “Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain” on PBS.

I just noticed a new feature on Facebook messages. As I was providing a link in my message body, a web 2.0ish progress bar appeared below. It was scanning for the link, it added the link, with a brief summary it found from the site as well as an image. Very cool! This will make it easier to share links with your friends. I believe this is new as I use the FB message system frequently and never saw that feature. Previously, you had to click on ‘Share a link’ and then add in the details.

If you are on Facebook, please add yourself to the IslamCrunch group.

Mainstream-Islam.com has added new videos to complete the 5 daily prayer “how to” videos. We recently featured their fajr prayer video and we have been waiting for the release of these new videos. We decided to upload all videos detailing the 5 prayers on Muxlim.tv. The video below shows the Maghrib prayer. 

Fajr prayers : http://beta.muxlim.tv/video/xBjFdFhBJrH

Dhuhr, ‘Asr and ‘Isha prayers (Part 1) : http://beta.muxlim.tv/video/CkKO4MHzlRe

Dhuhr, ‘Asr and ‘Isha prayers (Part 2) : http://beta.muxlim.tv/video/ON5o4g17KWt

Maghrib prayers : http://beta.muxlim.tv/video/HpM2saUy3Tj

Needless to say, the method of prayer in these videos are according to the Shafi’i madhhab. If our readers know of any high-quality, detailed videos showing prayer for other schools of thought, please add the links in our comments section.

Or better yet… since Muxlim.tv is a social media site with web 2.0 features, you can add video responses showing the prayers according to a different school of thought. Please post your comments and ratings on each of the videos, share them with family & friends and embed the video files on your site.