The South Valley Islamic Community (SVIC) has recently launched a new project, The Cordoba Center. To commemorate the launch, The Cordoba Center has unveiled a new website: www.CordobaCenter.org

The recent launch has also seen The Cordoba Center ramping up their promotional campaigns. The organization was a platinum sponsor for the Muslim Unity Day 2007 event in the Great America theme park, co-sponsor for CAIR’s annual picnic and co-sponsor for South Bay Islamic Association’s recent “million-dollar” fundraiser for the Evergreen project. The Cordoba Center has also entered in negotiations to with highly acclaimed Illume Magazine for a monthly ad run.

During the month of Ramadan, The Cordoba Center will be organizing 2 events: their annual Ramadan community dinner, Feeding The Soul and a mosque open house interfaith event in collaboration with CAIR and ING.

As with last year, The Cordoba Center website is hosting a SMS Ramadan notification signup. Community members who sign up for the service will receive a short text message informing them of the beginning of Ramadan. No need to keep on calling a busy phone line, sitting in front of your computer, waiting and waiting for notification. Make your way to the mosque, receive an SMS message and continue with tarawih prayers. And if no moon is sighted, you can still pray ‘Isha at the mosque. The SMS notification is geared towards community members living in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, last year, they received signups from users outside of Silicon Valley, including an area code from Washington D.C. (across the country!).

SVIC has the honor of using another Web 2.0 tool: a faith-based blog. One of the first few organizations to use a blog to disseminate information, they have recently migrated their original Wordpress hosted blog to the new site. Khutbahs by Imam Ilyas Anwar are featured on the blog and has been syndicated by Illume Magazine for their “From The Minbar” column.

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Even though the news about Falah Productions has been leaked on DeenPort, Imam Tahir Anwar has gracefully allowed us to officially announce his new organization. Falah Productions has been in development for a month. Falah Productions is a culmination of Imam Tahir’s upcoming Hajj DVD. The Hajj DVD is a multimedia progression of Imam Tahir’s highly acclaimed audio CD: Performing Hajj - A Practical Guide to the Journey of a Lifetime.

The DVD will be launched at the ISNA 2007 convention, insha’Allah. The launch of the DVD at ISNA will be coordinated with Al-Rashad Productions. Imam Tahir will be at the booth to discuss and sign the DVD.

Two members of the IslamCrunch team were honored to be involved with this DVD project, providing graphic design and consultation. We pray that Allah accepts our work and brings abundant blessings to this project.

Please visit the site: Falah Productions to purchase the CD and pre-order the DVD.

Exclusive behind-the-scenes shot:

Who says that being active in comments is a waste of marketing exposure? We received an email notification that a new comment was added to a comment we had posted. Intrigued by the URL provided, we decided to look at the the Dua4Me site.

As the name implies, the site encourages that you make a dua (Arabic for supplication) for me or anyone else. Essentially, Dua4Me is a Digg-style site that ranks duas. Instead of the usual ‘vote for me’ plea on most Digg-style sites, an added dimension is the spiritual request of actually supplicating for the person or cause described in the dua listing.

We have made one dua request for our friends at Illume Magazine to test Dua4Me. Soon after, we received an email from Safi, Dua4Me creator and administrator, who mentioned that he hopes to develop his site “into an Islamicized/Spiritual Next Generation Digg.” Also, IslamCrunch was the first registered user - another experience for us as early adopter beta testers.

Dua4Me uses Pligg, the free open-source social content management system. Other Islamic sites that use Pligg are UmmahWatch and Good Muslim News. All three sites are not listed on Pligg.org - a free directory of Pligg powered sites.

UPDATE: Brother Safi has added a dua request for IslamCrunch. Please visit this link to make dua for us. Thanks!

Based in Silicon Valley, a pair of young Muslim entrepreneurs have collaborated on a new web project called WiGab, as in “Why Gab?” and “WiFi Gab.” We asked these two entrepreneurs to provide some background information about their site and who they are. Even though a majority of the content is geared towards the general audience, you will notice that WiGab features content for Muslims living the wireless life.  

Who? - Hambaba and Markar are just two individuals seeking to make sense of life. But they know that can be a cumbersome task at times, especially, if there aren’t any beacons to light the way. The Internet, as we see it, is a metaphor for life. Just as through life, we need to sift through the Internet for things that resonate with us. Having realized this connection they are making sense of life on the Internet. A Wireless Life Guide is born.

 What? - Wigab is their first collaborative project where they create guides on the Wireless Life. ‘Wireless’ is a synonym for all things tech. It’s a term that is ever incorporating new changes in technology. But the beginnings of an awareness of how intertwined our lives are with technology has only recently been recognized. The transition from wired technology: like phones, computers, vinyl music players to iPhones, laptops and iPods has made this transition more apparent. Today we live in a wireless world that is plugged in. Tomorrow, it will be something else.

 Where? - Wigab started as an expression of ideas. But without a cohesive picture that outlines pros and cons, it doesn’t help. So we do just that. We write about different things people use or haven’t used as of yet, but incorporate process. What makes us stand out is that we don’t regurgitate information that’s already out there. It’s always a new tool with a new twist.

 When? - Wigab is updated almost nearly daily. We recently made a pledge to keep it consistent.

 Why? - A Wireless Life Guide is not some semi-pseudo-scientific ‘To Do’ or ‘Not to Do’ list. It’s about looking at the world with a tech-savvy lens. Our motto is to be socially conscious individuals. In essence, this is a world issue and we intend to make our site a world site. All are welcome to contribute and get involved. Repeated themes are co-existence with the self, with others, with technology that abounds and our environment that sustains our very lives.

The WiGab team have a new project that will be launching soon. Here is a teaser: Green.

Sidi Omar Tufail discusses the future of DeenPort, the history behind it, his love for DPers, science fiction and more. Living in a world of only one website, we ride the neural synaptic sparks in Sidi Omar’s mind to explore DeenPort.

IslamCrunch: What is your web application/service about?

DeenPort: DeenPort describes itself as a “point of connection, an opening to new understandings, an entrance into unexplored areas or an entry point to the rest of the Internet.” All this, revolving around the religion of Islam. In plain English that translates as people using the site on a daily basis to keep a pulse on what’s happening in and around the global Muslim community.

IslamCrunch: Why did you start this project?

DeenPort: The site is a continuation of a previous project that I had online at zhikr.org. I started that project after my sister and brother attended a Rihla program in Spain and came back buzzing with new knowledge and life. I decided I had to have some of that for myself and traveled to the next Rihla program at the Zaytuna Institute, and after my return setup the DeenPort website. It was a way to stay in touch with that whole learning experience I had, with that atmosphere, and to try and channel the energy I found through that into what I knew best, and what I knew best was web stuff.

IslamCrunch: How does your project relate to Muslims? Or is your project geared towards a general audience?

DeenPort: The project is aimed towards anyone and everyone interested in Islam. The vast majority of people that use the site are Muslims.

IslamCrunch: If your project is related to Muslims, how do you hope your project will impact the Muslim community?

DeenPort: Through the various sections of the site, we hope Muslims are better informed of news, events, discussions etc on and off the Internet. We also hope that through dialogue, interaction and networking with others from all over the world, people on the site are able to get a deeper understanding and exposure to the bigger picture of various issues that concern Muslims globally. The site is constantly evolving and so new sections and features are added to help facilitate this.

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

DeenPort: It depends on the day. Sometimes I get sucked into it to the point that nothing else matters and that can be counter-productive, and on other days
I feel like I’m not spending enough time on it. I tinker with the site everyday. Sometimes that tinkering lasts a few minutes and sometimes it extends to hours and hours, but the tinkering never stops.

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