With Ramadan right around the corner (on August 21), Youtube is taking all of the wrong steps to encourage happy holiday vibes within the Islamic world by trying to take-over the oh-so popular Islamic video/file-sharing site Youtubeislam.
The site is actually run out of the US by one Sheikh Yusuf Estes – a DC-based convert to Islam who was interestingly born a Christian and served for a time as National Muslim Chaplain for the United States Bureau of Prisons.
Sheikh Estes’ three and one-half year old site is notable for its squeaky-clean/kid-friendly content in accordance with Islamic traditions.
But now it appears as if Youtube’s giant legal team is trying to take-over Youtubeislam by accusing it of copyright infringement. Since the beginning of the year, Youtube-owner Google has waged a war against Youtubeislam in an attempt to get it off the air. Sheik Estes countered that his site (above) looks, feels and certainly broadcasts content far different than Youtube.
But it appears as if — at least for now — Google has emerged the victor, shutting down Youtubeislam two days ago.
Google insists it has done nothing wrong — and has ICAAN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) behind it. The organization — which assigns and arbitrates Internet domains/disputes — concluded that Youtubeislam was indeed in copyright violation of Youtube, “and copies the look and feel of (Youtube’s) website”. ICAAN then instructed on-line hosting site GoDaddy to transfer the Youtubeislam domain to Youtube.
Unsurprisingly, the Sheikh is not pleased and is imploring the on-line Islamic community to take note and to take action.
In the meantime, the clever Sheikh has shifted his old site’s content to the new domain Tubeislam.
Let’s see how long Google let’s that last.