Mohammed El-Fatatry founder and CEO of the Finland based open-minded Muslim social-site community Muxlim.com will be one of the panelists of upcoming New York Public Library’s ISLAM IN EUROPE program.Mr. El-Fatatry will be taking part of the “Media: A Catalyst for Change” panel on June 11th where he will be discussing the topic with H.M. Queen Noor (King Hussein Foundation), Emanuele Castano (The New School, Italy/US) Andrea ter Avest Dahm (dramatist, Netherlands) and the moderator for the panel Shamil Idriss from the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund.
The Islam in Europe program is organized in collaboration with The European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) where the Consulate of Finland is also a member and LIVE from the NYPL. The program is part of the ongoing festival, Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas, a citywide celebration of the extraordinary range of artistic expression in the Muslim world, co‐presented by Asia Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and New York University Center for Dialogues.
Launched in 2006, the Finnish based Muxlim.com has become popular among young Muslims all over the world, primarily in the US, in the UK and in other European countries where Muslims are a minority culture. There has been no need for marketing for this international open-minded Muslim community, as its use has spread from friend to friend. Being ten times bigger than its closest competitors, with about 150,000 users, growing in number from day to day, Muxlim.com has been recognized by the tech community. In early it was 2009 made the finals in the Red Herring 100 Global competition for promising tech start-ups.
Muxlim combines not only the offerings of the internationally known sites Facebook, MySpace and YouTube but also the commonly known sites in Finland; Habbo and IRQ-galleria. The site is a place to meet people, gather networks of friends, watch and share images and videos, chat, read blogs and take part in polls and contests. The newest feature on the site is Muxlim Pal, a virtual world where users can have adventures using avatars known as Pals. Annually the site receives about 1.5 million unique visitors of whom five percent are non-Muslims.
The enthusiastic reaction to the site shows that there is a clear worldwide demand for an online Muslim social service. But why and how did such a site spring up in Finland, which has a tiny Muslim community?
The answer meets me with a smile at the company’s front door. He is Mohamed el-Fatatry, who moved to Finland in 2004 from United Arab Emirates. Born in Egypt, he went to the UAR study computer science at the American University in Dubai, but decided he wanted more of a challenge. He did online research into which countries offered the best computer training and development opportunities. Finland emerged as an interesting option. He found a suitable place to study, the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (EVTEK), and began to pack his bags.
"At first I just visited to see what it was like up here," el-Fatatry recalls. "I liked it right away, even though it was cold and snowy." Today he is married to his Finnish wife and runs the site from Helsinki with his Finnish/International team.
El-Fatatry considers it completely natural that Muxlim was launched in Finland, and says that being a Finnish technology company has made it easier to market. “It’s good for business to come from a high-tech and culturally neutral country as Finland that no-one has anything against”.
In order to finance his studies, the young man set up an online shop selling Egyptian ornaments, rugs and interior design. The business took off reasonably well, but the real boom began when el-Fatatry began expanding his site with links to YouTube videos featuring Muslim singers.
"I realized that people were looking for this even more than things to buy. Before long, I closed the shop and set up MuslimSpace, a social and entertainment portal aimed at an Islamic audience."
The website quickly gained great popularity. Its success was recognized by media ranging from ABC News to Finland’s biggest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat.
"As a result, Pietari Päivänen contacted me and said he wanted to collaborate with me and finance the business. So we established a company, changed the name to Muxlim and started to develop more broad-ranging, high-quality offerings."
Venture capital found Muxlim, and so have advertisers. They realized that the world’s Muslim population forms a distinctive consumer group with hefty purchasing power – and realized the portal’s potential. Time Magazine recently stated that the Muslim market as a trillion dollar market. But for big companies to recognize this market they need help. COO Stephen Lee of Muxlim Inc. said that: “The Muslim consumer is like a girl or a boy at the dance who doesn’t get asked, but if you ask them for a dance they will dance with you all night long”. Young Muslims are very brand-aware and loyal consumers if you reach out to them in the right way.
As el-Fatatry sees it, about one-third of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims are either too poor or too conservative to use the internet, while another third is so assimilated into other cultures that they have no need for a service tailored for Muslims. Muxlim is aimed at the segment between these groups: people who want to hold onto their Islamic lifestyle but are not put off the possibilities of Western technology and open communications.
"Muxlim is not a religious site; rather it supports Muslim lifestyle and culture," el-Fatatry explains. “There’s a big difference of being an Islamic or Muslim site, religion is important to many of the members of our community, but it’s hardly the only thing in the world. Our site reflects everything that is part of people’s lives, hence Muxlim.com is Muslim site".
He says it is unfortunate that Westerners’ image of Islam and Muslims is often too black-and-white because of the kinds of Islamic events and news that make it over the news threshold.
Muxlim, which has users in virtually every country on the planet, has not been called into question or condemned by any religious authority, says el-Fatatry. He adds that Muslim parents can allow their youngsters to use the service without concerns, as it is built around wholesome, family-oriented principles: no scanty attire, no hate-mongering, coarse language or provocation of any kind. Questionable content is immediately removed from the service, and all images are checked before they are posted.
"Our community is also open to non-Muslims. Anyone who follows the rules is welcome."
El-Fatatry hopes that Muxlim can help to build a positive identity and support integration for young Muslims around the world. At the same time, it may help non-Muslims to better understand Muslim life and culture.
"Knowing your own culture and background is important to everyone," notes el-Fatatry. "When you have that firm foundation, it’s easier to be open, tolerant and constructive toward others."
http://muxlim.com/
This article is based on This is Finland's article bt Salla Korpela.
June 9 – 11, 2009
Media: A Catalyst for Change
Thursday, June 11 at 5:00 p.m.
(in collaboration with the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund)
Popular media images or negative stereotypes that insult or humiliate Muslim groups have been shown to be related to the polarization between Muslim and Western societies. As rapid technological advances expand media’s capacity to shape our views of the world as well as each other, this panel seeks to investigate what role entertainment media (film, TV and new media) can play in improving cross‐cultural understanding
Moderator: Shamil Idriss, Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund
Special guest panelists include H.M. Queen Noor (King Hussein Foundation), Emanuele Castano (The New School for Social Research, Italy/US), Mohamed El‐Fatatry (muxlim.com, Finland), Andrea ter Avest Dahm (dramatist, Netherlands) and Benjamin Barber.
Tickets are $25 general admission and $15 for library donors, seniors and students with valid identification. Tickets may be purchased through www.smartix.com or by calling 212.868.4444
