Halalgoogling, a new search engine designed to censor any material that does not conform to Islamic Sharia law, was launched earlier this month.
“Halalgoogling is designed to respect the Muslim Culture,” the engine’s blog stated, adding that it is an alternative to existing search engines that don’t satisfy their needs.
Similar to its competitors Google and Bing, Halalgoogling has several search features such as general web browsing, news, sports and shopping, but does not provide image searches. The site also contains an Islam-specific search tab.
The filtering system excludes haram, or forbidden, sites and content from the search results, including pornography, nudity, gambling and anti-Islamic content.
“There still might be content that needs to be filtered. The web contains millions of web sites that need to be checked and filtered, but with God (Allah SWT)’s help and yours, we can achieve this goal,” the blog read, asking its users to report any haram content.
Halalgoogling shows international search results as well, and the service is offered in many languages, including Arabic, English, Turkish, Italian and French.
The website has also announced that 10% of its yearly profits will be donated to help the Muslim community and sponsor children that need help.
This is not the first search engine based on a religious faith; ChristianGo and Jewogle are other faith-based services. Islamic search engine ImHalal was launched in 2009 but had to close due to lack of funding.
