24 March 2010

The final blow to IslamOnline

.... More than 200 of the 330 Cairo editors immediately tendered their resignation in protest of the lockdown last Monday and went on strike in the Cairo offices. They pleaded with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born cleric living in Qatar who founded Islam Online in 1997, to intervene.

More than 48 hours into the strike, Sheikh Qaradawi, who was in Saudi Arabia when the site was locked down, succeeded in having two of the Qatari directors (who many Islam Online editors felt were behind the push to turn the site into a conservative religious voice) sacked. My colleagues in Cairo said there was a flicker of hope at that point. [altmuslim] Read more