All you have do is create one! Which is what we did today. You can check out our CLIQ widget on the sidebar. So, what is CLIQ and what does it have to do with Islam? Well, recently we showcased BlogRush and our challenge to get more Muslim bloggers on the BlogRush network. We received a lot of comments about how the content on BlogRush was incompatible with the content on many Muslim blogs. Then, we discovered CLIQ, which allows bloggers to control which stories, posts and/or content that is displayed on your widget.

“What is a CLIQ?

A CLIQ is a group of bloggers working together to increase their collective readership and audience engagement.

Members of the same CLIQ share links to featured, popular and related blog posts on their respective sites by though the CLIQ Widget. They can also manage their featured posts and see reports about which Blogs and posts are getting the most views and driving the most referrals around the CLIQ.”

If you are a Muslim blogger or a blogger of another faith that would like to join the IslamCrunch CLIQ, please click here to sign up: http://www.cliqin.com/web/join_request?tribe_id=55

If you are a blog reader, you can grab the RSS feed of the IslamCrunch CLIQ here: feed://www.cliqin.com/rss/55

We have been reading/hearing a lot of buzz about BlogRush, so we decided to add the BlogRush widget to our site. Immediately we noticed that BlogRush lacks any Islamic presence. This is typical of new web 2.0 trends. (Facebook, on the other hand, is a great place to find Islamic content and news).

Basically, BlogRush is a web 2.0 widget developed to generate traffic to your website. The widget will display content from other blogs. Every time our widget is displayed, we receive a ‘credit’. This credit will be used to display our content on other sites. Also, by referring others, we receive more credits to promote our content.

So, we signed up, added the IslamCrunch blog & RSS feed and set the blog type to ‘Religion & Spirituality’. The only religious content we noticed was from the other two monotheistic faiths. So… here is the challenge: Muslim bloggers, sign up for BlogRush so that Islamic content will proliferate throughout the web. Those who sign up, please drop a comment below to inform the world of your successful completion of this challenge.

UPDATE: BlogRush is requesting for Category suggestions for the BlogRush widget. Drop your comments here: http://dwarfurl.com/021d8

We have been blessed with two recent opportunities. As some of our readers have noticed, I have been invited to be a volunteer moderator on Muxlim.tv. The Muxlim team are very dynamic and have been very gracious. It has been such a fun experience, alhamdulillah. Being an admin and good friend of the Muxlim team has it’s perks; already I have had 4300+ on my channel. Two videos have hit more than 750+ views. Check out the IslamCrunch channel as well.

We were delighted to have been invited as an early partner for Muxlim’s Ramadan Marathon Charity. To read more about Muxlim.tv, click here: http://islamcrunch.com/archives/muxlimtv-has-launched/.

More recently, I have been asked to join as an admin on Imam Zaid Shakir’s blog team. Not only is this a prestigious opportunity to work (again) with a leading intellectual, I get to work with Expression Engine! EE is a content management system and blog platform that I have always wanted to dive into.

So if you have a video that needs to be approved on Muxlim.tv or a comment that needs to be edited or approved on Imam Zaid’s blog, drop me a line.

Khadija O’Connell, Owner and Creative Director of Barakah Life, will be bringing some Web 2.0 goodness to the upcoming month of Ramadan. Using the blogging medium, she has launched a new site that specifically discusses the joys of Ramadan, the sacred month of fasting. The TypePad blogging platform is her preferred platform which allows her to create a social network of other TypePad users.

We have always been impressed with the work that Barakah Life has produced and we decided to meet with Khadija to discuss arts, crafts, blogging and her current projects. With an upcoming UK trip to add a creative flair for a conference, enhancing the new phase of Zaytuna Institute and adding more nur (glow) to the upcoming Illume Magazine Eid Banquet and Fundraiser*, Barakah Life is crossing the borders of physical locations and creative landscapes.

It is with much honor and excitement to announce that IslamCrunch’s Creative Director and Graphic Designer, Susanah Ishak Pittam, has been collaborating with Barakah Life on several projects. Prepare to be dazzled.

IslamCrunch: What is

  ?  

Barakah Life: Barakah Life is firstly my life philosophy, I believe that life is good, and that everything is Barakah (blessing), even our hardships, it all has meaning. Secondly, as a business name I wanted to choose a name that could grow and evolve in different directions, with me. I see Barakah Life as an umbrella covering my crafts and sewing classes, my own handwork, the things that I manufacture, and my community work.

Barakah Life also has two blogs, Barakah Life Handmade and Ramadan Joy.

   

IslamCrunch: Why did you start Barakah Life?

Barakah Life: I should say it took some time to start; there was definitely a fear factor. The idea of possibly failing and not failing privately but failing publicly, it was a hard thing for me to overcome. So, I did some wheel spinning and some ‘testing the waters’ but there came a time when I just had to commit, overcome it, and move forward. That hurdle is completely behind me now and in tackling it, it has given me a mental opening in which I no longer see limits and have a much bigger vision. As far as the why part, most everything I do now I had been doing in some form, it just now has a name.

IslamCrunch: Please describe the Children’s Ramadan Calendar and the feedback received thus far?

Barakah Life: The calendar was something I had [developed] over time.

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