Journalism and Islam

Web Sites

Because the number of Internet sites about Islam is huge and ever changing, no list of online resources dealing with Islam can be comprehensive. This list was compiled with an eye toward providing supplemental instructional material in the undergraduate journalism classroom.

Included are:

§ sites that include good background information about Islamic religion, history and culture,

§ sites that deal directly with reporting about Islam,

§ sites that provide information about human sources of information (Islamic organizations and university sites),

§ sites with multimedia material for use in classes,

§ sites that present differing points of view, and

§ sites that offer links to news organizations in the Muslim and Western World.

I have designated some sites as a Notable site, which means they could be of particular value in journalism classrooms because of their breadth, depth or use of multimedia to engage students.

Links are categorized into

§ Academic/library sites

§ Articles & Reports: can be used to stimulate classroom discussion

§ Covering Islam: sites dealing specifically with journalism and the religion

§ Web Sites about Islam: sites exemplifying Islamic culture, news, history, religion

§ Media sites

§ Journals Online

§ Organizations

This list is available at www.nku.edu/~cupito. Teachers are free to copy it for classroom use.

Mary Carmen Cupito

cupito@nku.edu

Assistant Professor

Northern Kentucky University

July 2002

Academic/Library sites

1 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Humanities Department Resources on Islam

http://www.clpgh.org/clp/Humanities/religion/islamresources.html

Notable site: A well-organized site that lists Web sites, bibliographies, links to Islamic centers, texts, and videos on Islam. Compiled following September 11. Scroll down the page to see a bibliography. This site also includes links to helpful sites on reporting on Islam ("100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans: A Journalist's Guide," from the Detroit Free Press (http://freep.com/jobspage/arabs/index.htm); PBS's "Islam: Empire of Faith" (http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/), with text, graphics and video; the Searchable Koran (http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran) and the Virtual Library's section on the Middle East(http://www.etown.edu/vl/mideast.html).

2 CDEISI :The Carolina-Duke-Emory Institute for the Study of Islam

http://www.unc.edu/depts/cdeisi/links.htm

A consortium of scholars from UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and Emory universities who specialize in the analytical and comparative study of the Islamic world and religion in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Although it is a clearinghouse for information on the institutes courses and programs, this site also has a useful page of links about Islam.

3 Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies

http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cmenas/events/sep11.htm

The Center’s goals are to improve education about Islam by offering programs of study and resources for teachers; to support research on Middle Eastern and North Africa; and to provide lectures and events to communities near the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

4 Center for Muslim/Christian Understanding: Resources on the Islamic World

http://cmcu.georgetown.edu/resources.htm

Notable site: From Georgetown University, this is a terrific site that lists journals, newspapers and other publications on Islam; teaching resources; institutes, organizations, societies and associations. The Teaching Resources page includes links to history, faith and practice, Islamic law, government and public policy, the Q’uran and the Prophet, and more.

5 Center for the Study of Muslim Networks

http://www.duke.edu/web/muslimnets/

Notable site: This center aims to foster collaboration among several American and Middle Eastern Universities. It investigates the role that the Internet has played in religious understanding, particularly as it pertains to Islam, and hopes to "increase humanists' use of, appreciation of and engagement with technological, comparative, and philosophical aspects of culture." It offers conferences and workshops, and plans to publish papers digitally and in book form. Video clips at http://www.duke.edu/web/muslimnets/mnc_vid.html from the Center's International Conference, held in March 2001, may be interesting for classes, particularly, Bruce Lawrence's "The Digital Divide Within Islam," and "Islamic Inter-connectivity in a Virtual World: E-jihad, E-ijtihad and Online fatwas."

6 A Guide to Islamic North Africa and the Middle East

http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/MidEast/midnet.htm

Lists and links to electronic journals by country, and whether they publish in English.

7 Hartford Seminary Library

www.library.hartsem.edu

From the main page, click "Subject Guides." At the bottom of the list, pre-screened by librarians, are two relevant subject guides, "Resources for the Study of Islam" and "Women in Islam." In addition, librarians update news stories on religion.

8 How to Perform the Hajj

http://www.princeton.edu/~humcomp/hajjguide.html

Notable site: These pages describe the pilgrimage to Mecca and illustrate it with photographs. At the bottom of this page is a glossary of terms.

9 Information Resources for Islamic, Middle Eastern and Near Eastern Studies: Peoples, Societies, Languages, & Cultures

http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subj/neareast.html#ucsb

This is the library resource site for the University of California at Santa Barbara. It offers an excellent News Media and Audio series of links (The ICB Islamic Audio Studio includes selections and lectures on the Quran, A'Than, Du'aa, and more), and a few good links to "Other Academic Departments & Programs."

10 Internet Islamic History Sourcebook

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1d.html

Notable site: This is a set of links organized into a virtual "textbook" for classroom use. It has no images and avoids multiple clicking to find the information. Created and maintained by Paul Halsall, now an assistant professor of History at the University of North Florida, these Internet History Sourcebooks are materials in the public domain or published with copyright permission. Professor Halsall also gives students guidance on how to do homework and research and on "how people lived/ate/dressed in the past (see http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/help.html, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/help.html and http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/help.html).

11 Islam

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/Islam.html

A series of helpful links prepared by librarians for Columbia University's Middle East Studies Resources page.

12 Islam

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ISLAM/ISLAM.HTM

Apparently last updated in 1996, this is an online learning module written by Richard Hooker from Washington State University. Its history of Islam and Islamic culture are useful, but several links to resources, such as a historical atlas and a gallery of graphics, are broken.

13 Islam and the Middle East: A partial list of dissertations

http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu/info/SubjectBrochures/IslamandPolitics.pdf

Dissertations available from the University of Chicago's Center for Research Libraries. Topics cover Islamic history, culture and society in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China and Indonesia. Free to readers from member institutions; nonmember institutions must pay a fee.

14 Islamic Family Law

http://www.law.emory.edu/IFL/index2.html

Notable site: A grant from the Ford Foundation to the Law and Religion Program of Emory University is funding a global study of Islamic Family Law. The site notes that variations exist, but "general principles of Shari'a are supposed to govern such matters as marriage, divorce, maintenance, paternity and custody of children for more than a billion Muslims around the world." This page also links to information about social/cultural and legal issues by country.

15 Islamic Resources

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/library/internet/islam.html

An annotated list of Internet links at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library.

16 Islamic Studies

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/

Notable site: Created by Dr. Alan Godlas, professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, this site includes primary-source material from Islamic Web sites and scholarly research on the subjects. He offers annotated links; many academic sites link to Professor Godlas’ site.

17 MENALIB: Middle East Virtual Library

http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/index.html

Notable site: This comprehensive site is a collaborative effort of 10 international libraries collecting materials about the Middle East as well as North Africa. It offers a subject guide of electronic resources for Islamic studies, a current contents service for scholarly journals, a virtual catalog, and databases for dissertations and conferences. The site also links to ALMISBAH (http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/index.html), a searchable database of Internet resources arranged by subject (Islamic studies is one subject, with subtopics including history, religious denominations and interreligious relations).

18 Middle East Issue Experts (and centers for Islamic study in U.S. universities)

http://l.staff.umkc.edu/lordl/9-11-01-library/experts.htm

Notable site: A straightforward list compiled in 2001 by Paul D. Healey, editorial director for AALL Spectrum, a magazine for members of the American Association of Law Libraries, in the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Law Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (The site is hosted by The University of Missouri -- Kansas City.) Scroll down to find links to academic institutions that focus on studying Islam and links to other resources.

19 Middle East Resources

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/program/neareast/8_me_resources.html

From New York University's Hagop Kevorkian Center, which studies the politics, economy, history and cultures of the area from North Africa to Central Asia, this page offers links to many sites. Categories include ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS AND INSTITUTES, JOURNALS, ON-LINE NEWS AND MEDIA, ON-LINE DICTIONARIES and VIRTUAL LIBRARIES.

20 Muslim Students Association

http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/isl/isl.html

This is a particularly well-written site at the State University of New York, University at Buffalo, but there are many MSAs around the country. The links take you to the source material, rather than to other pages of links. The Muslim World - culture, news and issues forums (http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/umma/umma.html) takes you to news groups.

21 Religious Studies Discussion Piece after 9/11

http://www.prs-ltsn.leeds.ac.uk/relig_studies/discussions/islam/bunt1.html

A thoughtful starting point for people who teach about Islam, written by Gary Bunt, Project Officer (& Lecturer in Islamic Studies), Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales. The article also includes annotated resource links developed by Bunt, called Islamic Studies (http://www.stormpages.com/garybunt/pathways/pathways.html), which include links to Qur'an recitations and translations and political and religious Islamic expression. Bunt also links to a one-hour Minnesota Public Radio piece, The Spirit of Islam (http://www.speakingoffaith.org/programs/011019/index.shtml), which uses "sound, music, and especially poetry offer a window onto the subtleties and humanity of Islamic religious experience." But also has created another site, Virtually Islamic (www.virtuallyislamic.com), the companion site to his book of the same name (University of Wales Press, 2000.) Gathered as part of his field work for his Ph.D., the site is an eclectic collection of links about Islam, from cookbooks and art to news. He also offers brief reviews and his ratings of sites as well.

22 Search the Koran

http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/

This searchable, digital version of The Holy Qur'an was translated by M.H. Shakir and published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., in 1983.

23 Selected Resources for Understanding Global Terrorism

http://yaz.lib.indiana.edu/terrorism/index.php?primaryNavId=61

This page, maintained by the library at Indiana University at Bloomington, provides a wide array of links to news stories about Islam and terrorism. It also links to "Resource List: Islam in the Wake of September 11" (http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/resources_Islam_Sept11.htm), created by Michael Sells at Haverford College, which lists print as well as online materials on Islam. In addition, IU's Middle Eastern Studies resources page (http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/daym/) links to some Islamic sites.

24 Study of Islam

http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/response.htm

Notable site: This Web site was created in response to 9/11 by more than 50 professors of Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies in North America, who are members of the Study of Islam section of the American Academy of Religion. It includes statements from Muslim groups and academics, columns and editorial pieces, and information about hate crimes against American Muslims. NOTE: This page is quite long and requires much scrolling. From the Study of Islam Section home page--http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/--you can find links to centers for the study of Islam in North American universities and to Web pages about Islamic study. There is also a link to a listserv about the study of Islam and suggested reading lists, including textbooks on Islam.

25 Suggested Introductory Readings on Islam (Winter 2002)

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/nelc/facultypages/donner/readingOnIslam.html)

Created by the chairman of the University of Chicago's Department of Near Eastern History, Fred M. Donner, this is a brief, annotated list of books dealing with the Islamic religion, the Qur'an, Islamic civilization and a few special topics.

Articles & Reports

26 Al Hewar

http://www.alhewar.com/

Al-Hewar Magazine established the Al-Hewar Center in 1994 in Washington, D.C., as a nonpartisan, independent forum for dialog between different Arab groups and between Arabs and Americans. Many links to Islamic information are available from the index page. Notable paper: Six Ideas for Improving Coverage of Islam (http://www.alhewar.org/SEPTEMBER%2011/six_ideas_for_improving_cov_of_islam.htm) by Yahya Sadowski of the American University of Beirut may help journalism students. The quarterly magazine and its English supplement, The Arab-American Dialogue, publishes discussions on Arab and Islamic culture and politics.

27 CIA World Factbook

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

This site has information on all world countries, prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for the use of U.S. government officials. All are in the public domain. Note: As of late July 2002, the entry for Afghanistan said the Taliban was still in power.

28 Country Studies/Area Handbooks

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

This Library of Congress site publishes full-text online books with description and analysis of other countries. The site notes that book authors attempt to follow standards of scholarly objectivity and may not represent official U.S. government position, policy or decisions. Online books of most Middle Eastern countries are included. New material on Afghanistan was recently added--a draft of three chapters that were being researched and written for the Federal Research Division's Area Handbook/Country Studies Series when funding from the U.S. Army was eliminated in 1998. The books include information on a country's history, society, environment and religion. Some information may be dated.

29 Instant Knowledge News English News providers

http://www.instantknowledgenews.com/indexnews3.htm

A link (in tiny type) at the top of the page, "On Terrorism and Bioterrorism," pulls up a page with at least three relevant sites on Islam: "Islamic Terrorism on Trial" (http://www.secularislam.org/newsletter/7/terrorism.htm) by the Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society; "Is there an Islamic Terrorism?" (http://www.ict.org.il/articles/isl_terr.htm); and Islam: Questions & Answers (http://216.205.122.233/index.php). The editor's note on the home page of this site is instructive for students.

30 Teaching Guides for the Fundamentalism(s) Essays

http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/teaching_resource/tr_fundamentalisms.htm

Notable site: A series of essays from scholars, with an excellent introduction about the origin of the term fundamentalism in Christian as well as Islamic movements from the Social Science Research Council. The guide also includes a lesson plans as well as a set of questions that can be used in college classes.

31 First Person: Speaking of Faith

http://www.speakingoffaith.org/programs/011019/index.shtml

Notable site: A three-part audio series discussing religious implications following September 11, at the Minnesota Public Radio Site. Part II, “The Spirit of Islam,” examines religious thoughts and spirituality of two American Muslims, in in-depth interviews. The piece allows listeners to hear the Qu’ran read in Arabic, music and poetry.

32 The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk

This London newspaper offers multimedia Special Reports. Several deal with the war in Afghanistan and Middle East issues. Notable page: One useful interactive map, showing the percentage of Muslims on a world map, is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,567574,00.html. A multimedia piece on Ramadan is also available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,584091,00.html.

33 Islam and the West

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/collision.html#abdo

Bill Moyers of PBS, in conjunction with the Aspen Institute, taped conversations among eight Muslim, Christian, Jewish and agnostic journalists and scholars, following September 11. The discussion ranges from the political to the religious. Click the tiny video camera link beneath the picture of participants to see video segments. Full transcripts are available, but are difficult to decipher because of interruptions among speakers. Click the Additional Resources: Islam and America link to the left for more resources.

34 Islam has been hijacked, and only Muslims can save it

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/News/911rauch.html

This piece from Jonathan Rauch, senior writer and columnist, first appeared in the National Journal on October 12, 2001. It argues that terrorism and Islam are intertwined, because "To be confident that the attacker will finish the job, you have to make him not just willing but eager to die. Religion offers the only reliable inducement." It notes that only clerics can discredit it.

35 The Mosque in America: A National Portrait

http://www.cair-net.org/mosquereport/

Notable site: This pdf file from the Council on American-Islamic Relations reports on The Mosque Study Project 2000). It is part of a larger study of American congregations, "Faith Communities Today," which surveyed congregational leaders of 40 denominations, by Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religious Research. It charts in detail the growth of Muslim congregations in this country, with interesting statistics: "At the average mosque, one-third (33%) of members are South Asian, three-tenths (30%) are African American, and a quarter (25%) are Arab."

36 Muslims on the Internet: the Good, the Bad...the Ugly

http://www.jannah.org/articles/internet.html

An informative piece describing Muslims' use of the net, with descriptions of some rifts between various Islamic factions online. From an author of TalkIslam.com, which says that its efforts are to educate both non-Muslims and Muslims.

37 Newshour with Jim Lehrer: Observing Islam

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/july-dec01/islam_11-16.html#

Notable site: A video of this November 2001 interview on Islam is available, as is the full transcript. Ray Suarez interviews Azizah al-Hibri, professor of law at the University of Richmond; Khaled Abou el Fadl, an acting professor of law at UCLA; and John Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Useful for journalism classes in displaying probing interview skills.

38 Portals to the World

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html

This site offers links to countries around the globe, culled by trained Area Specialists and other staff, using Library of Congress selection criteria. If you click on the name of a country, it will take you categories of links, which may include one for "Religion and Philosophy." Other categories include history, government and politics and law. The project is not complete.

39 U.S. Department of State Country Background Notes

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/

This site offers information that is updated regularly. Maps are included. Although "religion" is not a category in country backgrounders, statistics are given about the percentage of the population in various faiths.

40 Teaching Islamic Civilization with Information Technology

http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/teach-islamic.html

Notable site: A stellar site. Corinne Blake, who earned her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University in 1991, reviews online teaching material, provides links to primary sources online, as well as offers suggestions for incorporating online material into courses. She includes, for example, several links to varying translations of the Quran for comparative reading. Dr. Blake created this site while she was an assistant professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, where she taught courses on Islam, the Middle East and world history. However, this page is a bit dated; it was created in 1998 for the Journal of Multimedia History.

41 The Washington File for Middle East and North Africa

http://lists.state.gov/archives/wf-mideast.html

This page takes you to the archives of this new email list from the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs, as well as to a link where you can sign up for the list. Most of the emailed material is primary sources: transcripts and excerpts of state department briefings and official statements.

Covering Islam

42 Accuracy Links: Islam

http://www.maynardije.org/resources/coveringnews/accuracy/

Notable site: Produced by the Maynard Institute, this page includes links to help journalists to improve coverage of Islamic culture. The nonprofit Maynard Institute, named in honor of late co-founder Robert C. Maynard, the owner, publisher and editor of the Oakland Tribune, trains reporters and media managers of color and "helps news organizations better reflect their diverse communities (and) improve communication with the public." Note: Several links are broken.

43 America's Crisis: Asian Perspectives -- AsiaSource

http://www.asiasource.org/americacrisis/

Notable site: This site gives an Asian view of September 11. The site is sponsored by Asia Society, a U.S. nonprofit educational organization founded in 1956 to build awareness of the Asia-Pacific region. Useful links include:

v Special Report: Islam in Asia: General Resources, http://www.asiasource.org/news/at_mp_02.cfm?newsid=61669, which notes that most of the world’s Muslims live in Asian countries. Features links to multimedia sites, associations and other resources.

v Living Faith: Inside the Muslim World of Southeast Asia, http://www.asiasource.org/livingfaith/intro.html, an illustrated excerpt from a book by photojournalist Steve Raymer.

v Interviews (http://www.asiasource.org/americacrisis/inter_video.cfm) with scholars and newsmakers. Includes video clips of a speech by Nicholas Platt, president of the Asia Society and former ambassador to Pakistan, speaking on the origins of the Taliban and U.S.-Pakistan Relations.

44 Camera: The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America

http://world.std.com/~camera/

This group monitors Middle East coverage and posts articles about what it perceives to be "distorted or inaccurate coverage...in an effort to educate journalists who may have unwittingly fallen victim to anti-Israel propaganda."

45 The Complex World of Iranian News

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/world_reports/1017959826.php

Guide to Online News in Iran

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/world_reports/1017959856.php

Notable site: These two pages were prepared for USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review by Dr. Mahasti Afshar, who was born in Tehran and educated at Harvard. She offers links to news sites and her analysis of the political leanings of each. Note: Some of the links are broken and some of the English translations are difficult to understand.

46 Council on American Islamic Relations

http://www.cair-net.org

Notable site: CAIR, a non-profit group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters across the country, aims to promote a positive image of Islam in America. In addition, the group publishes a quarterly newsletter, "Faith In Action," handbooks for use by Muslim leaders and activists ("Hajj and Ramadan Publicity Kits") and holds conferences for media professionals, academics and government officials. Its report, The Mosque in America: A National Portrait (http://www.cair-net.org/mosquereport/), is a useful backgrounder for students. CAIR's "Action Alerts" could provide a good lesson in moblilzing public opinion: A sophisticated step-by-step system allows users to type their zip code, then choose pre-written emails on a topic, then find their Congressman and send it. CAIR maintains Islam-Infonet (http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet) an emailed list "designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community."

47 Covering Islam: Media and Its Impact on Muslim Identity

http://www.islamic-studies.org/mawlana.html

Notable site: Full text of a paper presented by Hamid Mowlana, professor of international relations and director of the Division of International Communication, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, and past president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), at the International Conference on Muslim Identity in the 21st Century: Challenges of Modernity", School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 1998. He argues that the notion of a nation/state is Western and is therefore foreign to Islamic countries, and that the powerful elites who have run Islamic countries in the 20th Century use the media to justify their existence. He also describes how Iran after the Islamic revolution uses television for Islamic purposes.

48 Middle East Media Research Institute

http://www.memri.org/archives.html

Notable site: The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., translates Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media reports. It also offers its own analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East. Writing in Online Journalism Review, Tim Cavanaugh asserts that MEMRI culls "particularly unhinged, rabid articles - from the Arabic media. Whatever you think of its story-selection process, MEMRI is filling an important gap in our understanding of the Middle East." For example, search for "A New Anti-Semitic Myth in the Arab Press: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews."

49 100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans

http://freep.com/jobspage/arabs/index.htm

Notable site: From the Detroit Free Press, a quick study on Arab Americans. Questions and answers dealing with religion, as well as origins, language, demographics, customs, terminology stereotypes and coverage. Broad, but not deep.

50 Power Reporting: Religion

http://powerreporting.com/category/Beat_by_beat/Religion/

Notable site: This terrific reporting site edited by Bill Dedman offers a page of resources for reporting about religion. Many links about Islam and Islamic countries are included. Other newsworthy and related topics include "Anti-Arab Sentiment" (http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=280), an analysis from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which updates a list of reported hate incidents.

51 SAJA Briefing on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, South Asia & Islam

http://www.saja.org/briefingafsa.html

Notable site: An eclectic mix of links from the South Asian Journalists Association, whose goal is to promote accurate coverage of the South Asian diaspora.This page is dated (last updated December 2001), but it does include useful items, such as SAJA Reporting Tips on Covering the Aftermath of WTC & Pentagon Attacks, a Source List, Media Roundup, and a link to SPJ's "Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling" (http://www.spj.org/diversity_profiling.asp). SAJA offers multiple email lists for journalists (http://www.saja.org/lists.html).

Web Sites about Islam

52 Al Sunnah

http://www.al-sunnah.com/

Notable site: A comprehensive Web site, which includes a pdf book "A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam;" a well-written argument against labeling terrorists by their religion in "Islaam and Terrorism." You can join a chat room or sign up for a listserv. You can download Cyber Salat, a "Charityware" program designed to teach Islamic prayer. You can download the Internet Muslim Companion, which places a button on your Explorer bar that connects you to "up-to-date clickable links to various Islamic sites." There also are links to free books and audios. Its "Links" are among the best for information about Islamic religion and culture. Its "Knowledge" link connects to http://www.islamworld.net/, which includes a searchable Quran (toward the bottom), the Sunnah and Kadith, and more. although some of the English translations are difficult to follow.

53 Islam Online

http://www.islam-online.net/english/index.shtml

Notable site: This site notes that it was formed by a committee of "the major scholars throughout the Islamic world." The site takes an interesting magazine-like approach to covering Islam and the Muslim culture, politics, economics, society, art, and science and technology. The site also offers up-to-date news stories and a series of links to explain Islamic culture. Its mission statement notes it will present "a whole and complementary image of Islam...avoiding extremism or negligence, rejecting deviant or strange opinions...striving for scientific accuracy, adopting neutrality and avoiding pre-judgments."

54 Islamicity

http://islamicity.com/news/

Notable site: This is much more than a site with news links about Islam, although it does offer separate links to newspapers and magazines, networks, and news services, as well as links to news about regional "hotspots," Chechnya, Kashmir, Kosovo and Palestine. The Library of Selected Islamic Literature at http://islamicity.com/Mosque/library.htm is a useful primer. Click the "CyberTV" tab in small letters toward the top of the page, then more, and scroll to the bottom for English-language videos explaining Islamic history and beliefs-See program 1, Americans pilgrimage to Makkah from Nightline, or program 13, Makkah Development (http://islamicity.com/multimedia/cybertv/ch17/). Audio and video of prayers are available, with audio of Quranic verses read in Arabic with English subtitles at http://islamicity.com/multimedia/radio/ch100/. The "Mosques and Religious" tab (http://islamicity.com/mosque/default.shtml) offers information about Islamic beliefs, practices and society.

55 Masud

http://www.masud.co.uk/

In a recent series on Islam, England's Guardian newspaper called this an "excellent one-man site (that) runs essays by prominent clerics and other commentators." It also includes links to books on Islam. Its author, Mas'ud Ahmed Khan, recently asked for contributors to send him material since he works a full-time job. ("I have a wife and two kids who get upset if I spend too long at my PC.")

56 TalkIslam

www.talkislam.com

Notable site. This is a portal, directory, and search engine to help organize resources about Islam on the Web. A comprehensive site with links to organizations, comparative religions, Muslim country studies, and much more.

57 The Online Holy Qur'an

http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/

This electronic version allows searches by keyword and phrase, as well as Boolean and proximity searching. It is also browseable. It was translated by M.H. Shakir and published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., in 1983. It was posted prior to 9/11.

58 Religion Online

http://www.religion-online.org/

Notable site: Created by the Rev. William F. Fore, Ph.D., who as a teacher in India found it difficult to buy books, Religion Online offers full text of more than 3,000 chapters, monographs, speeches and articles about religion. The link for Islam

(http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/listcatitems?cat_id=105) includes the entire book, "Islam -- The Straight Path: Islam Interpreted by Muslims," with chapters on the start of the religion, its beliefs, and its different forms. Fore is Editor-at-Large of the Christian Century Magazine, produced the first children's religious television program in 1953, and was chair in the early 1970s of the Advisory Council of National Organizations of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His B.D. is from Yale University Divinity School and his Ph.D. is from Columbia University and Union Theological School.

59 About.com

http://about.com

Formerly The Mining Company, About employs indexers who assemble sites according to category. Searching About.com using the word "Islam" produces extensive and varied categories of links, including "Islam and Politics," "Islam in America: A Bibliography." It also lists categories at the top of the page: Islam History, Islam Women, Nation Of Islam, Islamic Religion, Christianity Islam, Islam Pictures, Islam Symbols, Islam Map and Origin Islam. Searching under "Islam and journalism or media" produces more targeted links, but many are dated. Note: The site is heavy with popups, which slows performance.

Media sites

60 Al-Ahram

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/595/index.htm

The weekly Internet edition of Egypt's leading daily newspaper. Editorial views reflect government policy. The site notes: "We can but kneel down to God Almighty in gratitude and appreciation for all that we have achieved on the long and strenuous path of journalism, ever since the first edition of Al-Ahram was released some 121 years ago in August, 1876.” It says Al-Ahram is a forum for expressing views of “leading Arab intellectuals and opinion-makers, and through which they could convey the concerns and aspirations of the great Arab nation." Selected issues are archived, including "special pages commemorating 50 years of Arab dispossession since the creation of the State of Israel." You also can sign up for an emailed weekly paper.

61 Al Bawaba

http://www.albawaba.com/websearch/search/index.php3?lang=e&catstr=38

This page lists hundreds of links to sites about Islam from Al-Bawaba, a Jordanian-based company that acts as a gateway to news about Arab life throughout the Mideast and North Africa (as well as offering a Yahoo-like site with other services, including fax, e-cards and games). Al-Bawaba maintains a staff of writers and analysts and offers news reports and in-depth articles on a variety of topics. A series of tabs at the top of this page link to an individual country's news. Unlike many other sites, English usage is nearly perfect at this site. However, the copyright notice grants permission for private use but not for "public" uses without written permission.

62 Al Jazeera

http://aljazeera.net/

Perhaps the most widely known Arabic news network in the West. Its site says it has 14 million visits per month. At this writing, the site is primarily in Arabic, but it plans to launch an English-language version.