Global Summit for Salamworld Takes Place
Global Attendance and Conference Addressees
The first global summit for the Islamic social network has taken place in the stunning Ciragan Palace, Kempinski, Istanbul on Monday February 13th. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Premier, attended with a message of support to the summit which was represented by more than 250 delegates from 40 Muslim countries from across the globe including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The Summit was also addressed by Head of Libyan Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, and Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, and (Non-Executive Director of Salamworld) who stated in his address. “The impact of social media and its role in the way people communicate, build relationships, and establish businesses, is astonishing, and Salamworld have undertaken a very serious task of developing first Muslim Social Network.”
The participants who came to show their support from a wide variety of countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Russia, and the USA, brought messages which emphasised the importance in global communication of social networking websites and the positive way in which they could be used in Muslim communities from around the world.
The Need for Better Internet Acces for the Muslim Commmunity
Amongst the delegates who attended the prestigious meeting was Siberian businessman, chairman and one of the owners of Salamworld, Abdulvahed Niyazov. In an interview Mr Niyazov stated, “Muslims in the world are not well-represented on the Internet.” There are many complex contributing factors to this problem which were discussed at length by many of the delegates who attended. This problem is one which the creation of Salamworld is going some way to addressing.
A major contributing factor is the ‘Haram’ content of western websites. Mr Niyazov continued, “The content that is being used on other social networks is not very secure and full of haram. We don’t want our young people to absorb all these ideas that are not familiar to them,” he explained, “Some [music videos] of Madonna, for instance, are considered haram.”
The way in which Salamworld seeks to address the problem is through the creation of a ‘Halal’ social networking environment for Muslim internet users. In order to ensure security of content the website has three strategic levels of moderation which Mr Niyazov outlines, “Besides technical and editorial moderation, most importantly there will be self-moderation within the communities. This community idea will be a consistent part of our project.”
Headquarters In Istanbul
There will be global offices for the operation in Cairo and Moscow but the choice of Istanbul as the head office for the project was arrived at from a number of key considered rationales. Niyazov said, “It is a bridge between civilizations, and it is one of the biggest cultural cities of the Islamic world. The other reason why we wanted to have our headquarters in Turkey is because today’s modern Islamic government in Turkey is setting trends in the Islamic world.”
Salamworld Programme and Launch
The event follows on from a programme which has seen a visit to the Istanbul office from a group of students from Griffith University in Australia specializing in Islamic for an interactive session with the Company’s multicultural team. Through their events programme the Salamworld team aims to bring together, IT experts and researchers, practicing young professionals and successful entrepreneurs for the purpose of further enhancement of professional expertise, international networking and identification of areas of potential collaboration.
Use of the internet amongst the Muslim community varies greatly and the statistics for use illustrating the range involved, with video streaming at the top end of the usage scale. In addition use of social networking websites like Facebook rank highly whereas lesser activities like shopping for Med cruises, forms a small but important function and it is this kind of internet access which Salamworld may look to develop into its core operation.
Salamworld will be launched in summer 2012 in eight languages. The social network aims to register 50 million users within five years and promote the values of peace and to go beyond the barriers of political and cultural rights of Muslims and non-Muslims in the world under the slogan “opened up to the world, and make the world opens up on you.” In addition the website aims to be a platform from which Islamic culture, heritage and beliefs can be promoted. It also aims to create a responsible social network in line with the needs and requirements of the new generation of Muslim individuals by means of developing an advanced social media with high-load capabilities.
The event was concluded with a concert performance by international singer-songwriter Sami Yusuf who illustrated the tone of the event
17.02.2012
BTT
