Executive Summary
Everybody has a right to accurate and current information available to them, supporting them in their day-to-day lives as active members of society. Information should be provided where and when people want it. To be of assistance to the user, information must be up-to-date, precise, comprehensive and accessible.Islamwales.com follows the one-stop shop concept providing access to the best community information and resource site for Swansea's Muslim community.
Background
We believe in better communications creates a better and more vibrant society for all. Islamwales.com is dedicated to provide essential information made accessible to Swansea's growing Muslim community much more faster and simpler then ever before. In addition we serve as a platform for all those who want to know and learn more about Swansea's Muslim Community, events, activities and projects planned in the local area.
Islamwales.com which was previously known as 'SMYLe Online', is a pioneering project of SMYLe (abbreviation for Swansea Muslim Youth League). SMYLe is a fully voluntary run organisation, formed at the birth of the millennium in 2000. SMYLe caters for the needs and developments of Swansea’s escalating Muslim youth population. SMYLe is now one of the most ethnically diverse Muslim Group in Wales, our members come from various cultural and racial backgrounds and is made up of a healthy gender balance. SMYLe runs weekly social weekend gatherings for boys and girls organises trips and recreational activities throughout the year. SMYLe is dedicated to working for a better Wales by working towards breaking down barriers and encouraging greater understanding and mutual appreciation between the Muslim and the wider Welsh communities. SMYLe has also worked on projects that have been funded by leading public and private sector organisations including Swansea City and County Council, Arts Council for Wales, South Wales Police, British Army, BBC's Children in Need, British Telecom plc (BT) amongst others.
Islamwales.com follows the same practise of transparency of information as of SMYLe. In 2003, SMYLe through its online presence (now islamwales.com) led a major campaign to encourage and educate Swansea's Muslim community to use their democratic rights and participate in the Welsh Assembly elections. Members of SMYLe also met with representatives from all the four leading political parties in Wales questioning them on issues that concern and effect Swansea's Muslim community.Improvements Achieved and Challenges Overcome
SMYLe online was originally launched in 2002, as a static traditional web-site, this made it difficult and time consuming to keep the site updated. In 2004, after being awarded a grant as part of BT Community Champions Award, which gives preference to those groups who's activities or projects demonstrates that better communications helps to create a better world. SMYLe where able to pay for an advanced web-server enabling us to make use of latest database internet technologies.
Islamwales.com is a dynamic database driven site. This empowers us to update and share our information much more effectively and efficiently. Islamwales.com is now regarded as Wales' most informative Muslim web-site and renowned for its valuable services nationally.
Islamwales.com is also supported by our active e-group (email mailings list) which currently has over 150 registered email addresses so our key information and announcements can now also be sent direct to your inbox.
Islamwales.com aims to be the one-stop shop for anyone wanting information regarding Swansea’s Muslim Community. We have had a highly successful year. Anyone wanting to know more about Swansea's Muslim community by simply typing in common keywords such as: 'Islam Swansea', 'Muslim Swansea', 'Islam Wales', etc on most popular web search engines would get out our website amongst the top results if not the first. This makes Islamwales.com much more easily assessable and popular. On the web we are regarded as the gateway to Swansea's Muslims and we regularly handle email enquiries from all over UK, from individuals who found us via these search engines.
Traditionally, if members of Swansea's Muslim community wanted to have access to basic community information such as local prayer times, congregational prayer times, start and end of Muslim Holy festivals (eg: Ramadan and Eid), etc. the only way possible was to telephone the mosque. The problem was that the isn't always someone available at the mosque to answer these calls, and during peak times such as announcements of the start date of Holy festivals, since the mosque only has one phone-line, many people were left hearing the engaged tone and finding it very difficult to get through.
Islamwales.com has dramatically changed this, were all these information plus more are now instantly available from our site. We are the only place on the internet where Swansea's Muslim can find out official times of local prayers and congregations used by Swansea Mosque. When Swansea Mosque makes announcements of key festival dates, they are published immediately on our site. Our site has made it much more easier for Swansea's Muslim Community to access these information, as well as other popular resources we offer, such as a fully searchable online English translation of the Holy Qu'ran supported by Arabic test and audio. Other key features are Swansea’s current weather status, and up-to-date news headlines from BBCi.
Islamwales.com is dedicated to openness of information, but our openness has in times been abused. One recent instance is when the BNP tried to stir racial tension against the Muslim community, after they come across news regarding the development plans for Swansea's new mosque from our site. The Evening Post on 14th Dec 2004 quotes " … Activists from the party (BNP) found out about the plan to convert the old St Andrews United Reformed Church from a leading Islamic website.", referring to Islamwales.com. However we will not be hindered by these isolated incidents and our determination for better communication remains strong.
Future Targets
Islamwales.com's future targets is to make our site more interactive and get more people from the community involved in its development. We aim to provide new exciting features and include key links from local authority sites and other public sector groups which would give Swansea's Muslim community direct access to information they may not know exist or where to find them. This would also require us to remain up-to-date with latest internet technologies and trends in improvements of communication. No other Welsh city (infact most of UK) has a website specialising and dedicated to their local Muslim community. We have had members from other local Muslim communities (eg: Cardiff, Newport amongst other locations) praising our efforts. Hence, as suggested by our domain name, one of our long-term ambitions is to gradually broaden our services and become the one-stop site for information regarding Islam and information for all of Wales’ Muslims communities.
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