Dear e,

1. Definitely Sub-Blog.
2. Entries should be concise.
3. A structure of prescribed fields might be useful, maybe even a mask, like the one for writing comments?
4. I'm on board as long as I don't have to search for misconceptions to refute but can pick a bunch from a list.
5. "Encyclopedia Islamophobia" (or whatever the Greek plural for "many fears" is) sounds fine to me. But then, my genes prevent me from coming up with anything 'elegant'.

Cheers,

--Matthias

b) explain the agenda/reasons for perpetuating the idea (often the root cause is simple xenophobia, but this can be an interesting exercise)

Be a little careful with this one, we don't want to start with an ad hominem. I'd prefer this would be left out, unless essential.

The 'why' is important to me, far less than the 'who'. I can see why it might easily slip into conspiracy-minded wanking, but that's what editors are for. So, perhaps optional (i.e. if a discussion of agendas adds value).

How hard would it be to set this up as a wiki? Seems like a pretty natural way to do it.

A wiki would be relatively simple, but I don't want to give random users the ability to create pages on my server.

"A wiki would be relatively simple, but I don't want to give random users the ability to create pages on my server."

Snob.

YOU are. I'm sure there is a way to make a private wiki.

Well, there is also a learning curve associated with using wiki. Different markup, templates would be required, probably a lot of handholding.

On the whole a pain in the ass to set up and moderate. There are some advantages, but not sure they outweigh the drawbacks.

There are a bunch of different wiki engines, certainly some of them are both securable and HTML tag enabled. Even the templates are probably largely prebuilt in most cases, though you'd probably take some time customizing it.

I don't think set up is so much the issue with a wiki except for figuring out what you want to do with it, where you want to put it, what the ground rules are, what the organization with be, etc. As you no doubt know, it's the maintenance of the thing that's bothersome--the main problem regardless of format.

Of course, if you could get some sucker to be the moderator for you...

Indeed, additional maintenance is the problem, particularly if wiki newbies are mucking around. I've automated a lot of things on Aqoul, but maintenance is still a bitch.

Re: getting a sucker, they have to be a) competent, b) willing to put the time/effort in and c) trustworthy enough to be granted high-level access.

As I am not naturally trusting, c is the biggest obstacle.

I despise Wiki as a concept and as an execution, so count me out from that concept from start. From what I saw at the Wikipedia and the sheer partisan idiocy on, for example Western Sahara (largely run by anti-Moroccan view point ignoramuses), leads me to view the entire endeavour as idiotic.

Not enthusiastic generally so don't count on The Lounsbury, but it's our Editor who has the control.

However, it could be a good way to get new commentators for main Aqoul from time to time.

I despise Wiki as a concept and as an execution, so count me out from that concept from start.

Wikipedia is largely unmoderated. Were I to implement a wiki, all changes would go through me (and I certainly wouldn't allow that idiocy).

However, I don't believe Wiki features are really necessary for this endeavour. Cooking up something with the existing platform would work just as well (and be easier to build/moderate because it's not from scratch).

I didn't really expect you to be interested, but there may be a need for this sort of collection/reference on the internet. Have to judge whether or not I have the time to address it.

"Encyclopaedia Islamophobica". More scholarly looking.

ya ali,

doesn't "e. islamophobica" mean "islamophobic dictionary"? i'm not sure (my latin is crappy) but i wanted to check, as i think the meaning expressed should be "the dictionary of islamophobisms" - just in latin.

now, "phobia" is the plural of "phobos" (both greek, meaning fear/fears). i just don't know exactly wheter "encyclopaedia" is greek or latin - it has greek roots, but i'm not sure.

where is homais when we need him???

--raf*

Salaam, I am interested to participate in this project, do email me. I can contribute to answering some of the polemics, especially the one about Allah is the "moon god" (turns out that this claim was never true -- Morey, the person who started this myth, lied and misrepresented his sources).

- MENJ

From Menj's site: What about God's rights? Obviously one who promotes "human rights" is one whose actions amount to kufr (disbelief) and cannot seriously be regarded as a Muslim.

And more, on the Westminster demonstration: Favourite slogans of the posters has to be JESUS IS THE SLAVE OF ALLAH and ISLAM WILL CONQUER ROME. The latter refers to a prophecy in a hadith which is one of the signs of the End-Times. We affirm the former and pray fervantly for the latter to happen, insha'allah.

Hmm, so he is a tad more zealous than me...

late to the game on this one. i like the idea of a sub-blog. wikis get messy.