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Brass Crescent Awards 2008: Voting Now Open

13. December, 2008 by iMuslim Competitions 22 comments

Just a quick note to let you know that the final voting round is now open on the BCAs 2008. You may notice that we have been nominated under the “Best Group Blog” category, alhamdulillah. JazakumAllah khair to all those who nominated us! Polls close on the 19th December.

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iMuslim

Mehzabeen (iMuslim) is a UK born n' bred sister of Gujarati Indian descent. She has spent a good chunk of her life trying to scrape together a formal education in the Biological Sciences, and in 2008, was awarded a doctorate for research conducted at Imperial College London, masha'Allah. Her interests include all things Apple Mac, all things chocolate-based, and all things Islam (not necessarily in that particular order). Other online projects include iMuslim.tv, SignLabs.org, and the Muslim Bloggers Directory.

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ilmsummitee

Alhamdulilah, for the final rounds, glad to say I’ve just voted….. ….actually, I’ve discovered alot of neat (and also odd) blogs thru these brass awards.
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

My own picks (trying to pull for “mainstream” traditional Muslim opinion versus ultra-progressive sites which form the majority of finalists every year unfortunately):
Best blog: Tariq Nelson
Best European: Indigo Jo
Best design:leechon
Best writer: tariq Nelson
Best nonMuslim: articles of faith

I hope someone else can peruse the lists and recommend other “traditional/orthodox/non-mujtahid” (you get the point) blogs in other categories.
http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

Here’s my pics.

Best blog: Achelois.
Best New Blog: Lucky Fatima.
Best Mideast Blog: Achelois.
Best Writer: Rickshaw Diaries.
Best Female blog: Nzhinga.
Best Humour blog: Captain Chaos.

Most others I didn’t really know of. And I don’t find anything much riveting on the blogosphere, something like Eteraz or Haroon (Averi Nemeh) used to produce. And Maniac Muslim hasn’t been updated in ages, God knows why it’s there!

Will check out Southern Muslimah and Mr Moo.
ALGEBRA

Aslamu-alaikum:
I am extremely SELECTIVE with what I READ and STUDY and without a doubt i checked some of those BLOGS and without a DOUBT,
MUSLIMMATTERS.ORG is my favorite BLOG mashALLAH. Eventhough, they don’t put in all my comments in I still feel it is my favorite MASHALLAH.
salam
H

Wow mezba, thank u for pointing out some of worst sites on blogworld. I mean sites like achelis deserv mention of what muslims should not write like. Brass is promoting these aweful and sunnah-denying, proregressive sites because that is what their creators agenda seems to be. I was surprised they left mm in it.

Achelis pokes fun at ahadith and is full of stuff that would make a mainstream orthdox muslim shudder. And to be finalist in 2 catgories shows how biased judging is. Very sad. I hope mm comes up with alterntive for “mainstream muslim” awards.
http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

H (whoever you are) are of course free to post your own best picks from the categories without resorting to name calling and whatever.

You might be surprised to find out what exactly “mainstreak orthodox muslims” read. The Brass nominations are pretty diverse (you have Umar Lee who is not progressive at all, for example).
http://www.mujahideenryder.net MR

They don’t like hahmed.com and mine as well. I know we’re up there in terms of Muslim blogs.
http://muslimmatters.org MM Associates

bismillah. jazak Allah khayr for the GOTV, Amad. :)

[straight-path-vote by abu abdAllah]
Pingback: Muslim Matters critiques the Awards at The Brass Crescent Awards
Pingback: » Brass Crescent Conspiracy: I don’t unde … Talk Islam
http://abunooralirlandee.wordpress.com Abu Noor Al-Irlandee

Vote Marryam Haleem’s blog Muddled Thoughts for Best new blog (and of course MM for Best Group Blog). That is all. oh yeah, Oyhabibti for humor blog. This is just to support those blogs, which I read regularly, not to down the others, not all of whom I read regularly.

The most disappointing category is the Series one…we need to write more good Blog Series, or if they are out there and I don’t know about them, we need to promote them better.
sacbutteredtoast

my picks: (and definitely going for mainstream/traditional like Brother Amad)

Best Blog: Tariq Nelson (Umar Lee is also very strong, though)
Best Design: Manrilla Blog
Best Group: MuslimMatters (ijtema is nice as well)
Humour: Maniac Muslim :D
Best Asian: Islam in China
Best Writer: Tariq Nelson (Haroon Moghul’s blog is excellent, but it doesn’t get updated enough)
sacbutteredtoast

oh yeah, definitely would’ve gone for Hahmed/MR/Chill yo Islam Yo if they had them…
H

MR, you dont do enough ijtihaad to make it I think.

I found this link: http://talkislam.info/2008/12/17/brass-crescent-conspiracy-i-dont-unde/

I am surprised at how poeple can be dishonest. Winners are picked by voting, nominations for the “finalists” is by the “editors”. So just because some non pro-regressive sites win just means they are more popular and cannot be represed by the editors (hopefully they are honest about that).

Anyone who looks at the list, fact that one of the most horrible wacky sites on the net like achelis can get nomination twice, articles promoting marriage of sisters to non-muslims, dating and a proggie lifestyle as “best blog post” (the article was not even written by the guy hijabman), is enough evidence. I mean this artilce on the hijabman site is one of the worst i ever saw, promoting zina! I also read the other “best posts” and i could not believe how they were chosen… they were aweful. I think we saw last year how many of the “traditional” blogs were against this awards, i remember how abu-layth masha ‘allah tore it apart but sadly he is quiet this year. and then the brass folks added one or two tokens like ummzaid to editorial/judging staff….

People can see right through it… please be honest at least. Just say that we judge according to our opinion and we cannot be objective even if we want to. If you want really open awards, then they should have finalist nominated on vote too… not chosen.

enuf said!
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

“H”, I think we have to give credit where credit’s due. They did open up the judging committee to include more “traditionalists”. I think and hope they do more of that.

Although, I too was turned off by a few of the blogs that I thought had no place in any Muslim awards, and also a couple of the best post/series (and still believe that the majority of the “chosen” ultimately don’t represent us), I think I saw more of the “orthodox” blogs this time than before, so let’s keep encouraging inshallah… no need for too much mud-slinging… with all respect to AbuLayth, I now feel that sort of criticism may not be constructive or beneficial in the end.

May Allah forgive us all.
http://mezba.blogspot.com Mezba

Will someone please point out what they see objectionable in the nominations this year? First, the views on the blogs are diverse. You have Umar Lee and Tareq Nelson and Achelois (not Achelis, Mr H) as well as Baraka and so on. There are all types of views expressed on those blogs and I would argue they express the multiple viewpoints of all the Muslim blogosphere as well. Not everyone in the Muslim blog world is ultra conservative.

And moreover, the finalists are chosen by popular vote.
Formerly Nuqtah

Amad you don’t seem to have a problem with proggies promoting their non sense for the sake of populalrity? Don’t think I’m surprised though.
Gohar

I remember a daiee once told us that he went to a conference on a subject I cannot remember, and someone quite innocently said that muslims should be more like the Yahood. That person was then harshly, and probably unnecessarily, criticised saying what he did, on the basis that our Ummah was better than theirs where it really mattered. The daiee then said that although they were being overly harsh with the speaker and misunderstood his intention, he was at least happy they were in that error rather than being in the opposite error (i.e. in going over the top in stating we SHOULD be like the Yahood).

So in the same way, although I don’t know whether Amad is more right or whether H and Formerly Nuqtah are. I am pleased though, that both ultimately are wanting to protect Islam and not intending to push progressive/modernistic agendas.
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

Amad you don’t seem to have a problem with proggies promoting their non sense for the sake of populalrity?

Huh??
http://imancentral.org Abu Noor Al-Irlandee

Alhamdulillaah MuslimMatters (can I say ‘we’ now?) took the award for Best Group Blog.

Regarding the whole ‘controversy’ I think it is clear that the brothers running the awards are not trying to be biased in any direction. To the extent that we feel certain ideas or certain blogs are not represented in the awards, we (who consider ourselves orthodox, traditional, non-progressive whatever) just need to do a better job of writing more stuff, publicizing it, nominating stuff we like, and voting in the awards. May Allaah (swt) reward all the brothers and sisters who work to make these awards happen, because it can let us know about beneficial things that are out there that we wouldn’t otherwise know about.
http://www.muslimmatters.org Amad

Abu Noor, Jazakallahkhair for the news on OUR site– right in time for the change in your ownership :) Alhamdulilah, jazakumallah khair to everyone who voted for MM. I am also glad to see my friend, our friend Tariq getting honors in 2 categories… I think this is evidence of (1) the power of “orthogagement”, (its my newly minted and copyrighted word inspired by Abu Noor that signifies orthodox Muslims engaging in the system, a system ultimately that affects us whether we like it or not :) ), and (2) “straight-voting” :)
Umm Zaid

Salaams:

I stumbled on this a bit late. Sorry. Just FTR, I was not a “token” but thanks for deciding I was, H. I was invited on the board because I won the BC for Best Blog TWICE in a row. Perhaps I stood out for them because I was the only one to have been honored this way by readers? MashAllah. I’ve never gotten anything but much love from the people at BC.

I’m not speaking on behalf of the BCAs.

Nominations were initially made by the public, not by the judges. Please go read the site again. If you didn’t nominate a blog and have your friends nominate a blog, can you complain if it wasn’t there for us to look at and put on the ballot? No. If a popular blog isn’t up there, it’s because nobody or *not enough* people nominated it. In other words, don’t blame t\he judges because you didn’t get what you perceive to be your due props.

Another problem overall with Muslim blogs, I am sorry to say, is the quality of some of the writing. The best post / series things for example. You might think a post or series is just totally awesome, but in a lot of more religion oriented blogs, esp. conservative ones, the writing is atrocious. Or it’s boring. Or it’s strident and off putting. It’s not just content that motivates *your readers* to nominate you. It’s your style and how well you engage your audience. Abu Noor has some good suggestions and thoughts on that above.

It was my hope, as a participant this year, that the BCs would continue to encourage Muslim bloggers to strive for excellence in their writing, design, and (in the future) multi-media offerings. Other than Eteraz, Muslim blogs have not caught the attention of mainstream media or mainstream religious blogs. Ever wonder why?

About MuslimMatters

Muslimmatters.org began in 2007 as a collaboration between various Bloggers and Shuyukh in order to bring attention to issues faced by Muslims, especially in the West. We have focused on issues of Religion, Society, Ethics, Sex Education, Politics, Civil Rights, Family, as well as the random issues that pop up from now and then, all with some ranting and humor mixed in.

We challenge ourselves and our readers to engage in discourses that touch our lives as citizens of the West, while maintaining our individual Islamic identities: Ultimately to cooperate, but not to compromise.

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