Youtubeislam under threat

[Umm Ahmed]

Bismillah Rahman Raheem

Salam alaykum (peace be upon you),

I need your help, inshallah. Please do something for me and for Islam right now, inshalllah. First, read this and then join me and those who believe in Allah - to stop a very horrible crime about to be committed by some very powerful and forceful people. Help me put this information all over the Internet and around the world - we can do it, inshallah.



Let me start at the beginning . . .



Can you imagine my shock when I opened up an email telling me our website domain name (YOUTUBEISLAM.COM) is being taken over by GOOGLE and their video site - YOUTUBE?
Here is more or less what we were told:

NOTICE: Effective August 5th, 2009 Google (owner of YouTube.com) will take over your domain name: YOUTUBEISLAM.COM.

Although we have purchased the name "YOUTUBEISLAM.COM" and have renewed for several years through GODADDY.COM it seems GOOGLE has enough influence to just simply take our domain name from us - and by the way, we have even paid for it all the way through to next year.



First, their lawyers contacted us saying they were going to take our domain because we copied their logo. We didn't even come close to their logo. (look for yourself www.YOUTUBEISLAM.com/images/logo.gif)



They next came up with saying our name was too similar to their name. We changed the name and the layout to read:

Yo Utu Beis Lam.com and we even registered that as a trade name.

We changed the logo and the images to reflect the new name.



They said they went into "arbitration" (of course we were not invited to that meeting) and then our registrar (GODADDY.COM) notified us they are "transferring" our domain name over to GOOGLE.



We have always maintained the highest of standards on our site - We never allowed any videos with inappropriate material. We did not allow videos that insulted or put down other religions. No dating or suggestive materials. No bad language. Only topics fit for all the family.

We paid for the bandwidth from our own pockets to make sure everything was always as it should be without having people click and wind up on websites attacking beliefs or making fun of believers and certainly nothing to hurt people's feelings.

Above all, we did not put up any ads (especially not GOOGLE ADS) on our site.

(Could this be why they want it so bad?)

Or is it just so they can advertise their thousands of customers who would be happy to introduce thousands of paying advertisers to ways of entering into the homes of trusting Muslims who will think the website still belongs to Yusuf Estes and his dawah team?

Maybe they just don't like Islam?

Or possibily they don't like seeing so many new people entering Islam from our work?



Why does GOOGLE - a company who bought YOUTUBE for billions of dollars - want to take away our little website?



Good question.



I think you know the answer.



But do we have to let them do this without at least telling others about the unjust way of dealing of these people?

Are we just going to sit there and do nothing, while they destroy our work, our efforts, our viewers trust and above all - destroy the chance for many people to know the truth about real Islam in simple English language.

We don't have to.



We can make a difference, maybe even stop these cowards. Let's join together, all around the world and make a difference.

Let's tell everyone what is going on and what they can do to help...



1. Get a good copy of this page and make sure it is easy to read

2. copy it

3. Make sure to mail it out to everyone and ask them to do the same

4. Send text messages - Like this: "Google trying to steal Yusuf Estes website - YOUTUBEISLAM - ShareIslam Video Site Help us stop them - Guide US TV - Channel for Islam in USA for details"

5. Call people you know, or fax them, and tell them the same basic statement, asking them to share this message in every way possible.

6. Send regular mail to Google ask them not to steal our only ad-free, family video website and leave it for us to use.

7. Email the people at Google and tell them we all use their other services and appreciate the good things they offer for people to use, but please let us keep our family oriented website for true Islam in English.

8. Send faxes to Google and ask them to do the same thing.

9. Contact the local newspaper, the TV and radio people and tell them we are not happy with what GOOGLE is doing to our website for true Islam.

10. Remind everyone to do this each and every day until the news people pick up this story and it is heard around the world. Do it every day.

11. Tell everyone about our live broadcasts on our other websites and how important it is for us to have our own TV station in America - for Muslims to have a voice. A voice for Islam.

And by the way - on Sunday (today) we have a live broadcast on the Internet to tell everyone about all of this. It will be at 2 PM our time (EST) and will include Mutahhir Sabree myself and others.



Here is the site - link will be there, inshallah, to direct everyone to our program.

Guide US TV - Channel for Islam in USA

12. Pray to Almighty Allah and beg Him to give victory for His deen and His message in English.



Thank you and may Allah Bless you and your family and make your efforts work for good for you and for all of us, ameen.

____________________________



As regards all the material - we are keeping all of it - and we will be making it available on our other websites, inshallah. Either of the follow:

1. Guide US TV - Channel for Islam in USA

2. Bridge To Faith: Welcome to Bridge To Faith

3. Watch Islam on TV or Videos



Make dua and ask Allah to keep this site and domain for His Sake, ameen.

Jazakallah khair was salam alaykum,

Yusuf Estes



www.YOUTUBEIS

[abumuwahid]

As Salamu Alaykum

I like most of the work that Yusuf Estes is involved in. I don't beleive in copywrite but I do think that it is not wise to take on powerful companies in this way.

Best thing to do is to make an agreement qith google to change the name to something else and then redirect traffic from the dns youtubeislam.com to somethingelsetube.com for a set period until all youtubeislam's members/visitors are aware of the new site.

This, to me makes the most sense.

[abuhannah]

the problem is it was a rented and not an owned domain name,the name was always owned by someone else...

[abuhannah]

Best thing to do is to make an agreement qith google to change the name to something else and then redirect traffic from the dns youtubeislam.com to somethingelsetube.com for a set period until all youtubeislam's members/visitors are aware of the new site.

This, to me makes the most sense.

agreed..

[iloveislam]

Wa'alaykum as-salaam

May Allah make it easy for the brothers & sisters behind those websites and grant us victory.

[MilkSheikh]

As Salamu Alaykum

I like most of the work that Yusuf Estes is involved in. I don't beleive in copywrite but I do think that it is not wise to take on powerful companies in this way.

Best thing to do is to make an agreement qith google to change the name to something else and then redirect traffic from the dns youtubeislam.com to somethingelsetube.com for a set period until all youtubeislam's members/visitors are aware of the new site.

This, to me makes the most sense.

wa alaykom assalam bro,

why didn't you tell me that before? I already sent the message to almost everybody on my contacts...:@

[Abu Abdallah al-Bulghari]

The idea to make your website name similar to Kaafir site was ill-conceived from the very beginning.

Do not follow their Kaafir guideline of commerce, advertising, marketing. Imam abu Hanifa forbade any advertisement of the products his shop was selling and he did well commercially.

Bottom line will always be dependent on the content of the website, not on smarty pants ways of advertising, marketing.

Pick a normal truthful unique name for the website without all those marketing gimmicks. Concentrate on the content.

[abuhannah]

Pick a normal truthful unique name for the website without all those marketing gimmicks. Concentrate on the content.

agreed...

[Mohd_Ali]

The idea to make your website name similar to Kaafir site was ill-conceived from the very beginning.

Do not follow their Kaafir guideline of commerce, advertising, marketing. Imam abu Hanifa forbade any advertisement of the products his shop was selling and he did well commercially.

Bottom line will always be dependent on the content of the website, not on smarty pants ways of advertising, marketing.

Pick a normal truthful unique name for the website without all those marketing gimmicks. Concentrate on the content.

Having experienced this years ago I also agree with this viewpoint

[Umm Ahmed]

Bismillah Rahman Raheem
Salam alaykum,

Here is something for you to look at, inshallah.

This letter is going is being sent to the managers of the Internet, called ICANN - by the thousands.

COPY BELOW THE LINE AND FORWARD...

_______________________

{OPEN LETTER TO GOOGLE, YOUTUBE, ICANN et. al.

I am writing with regard to your recent decision to intimidate the website hosts GoDaddy.com into releasing the

rights to YOUTUBEISLAM.COM.

While I am a regular user of Google’s services, I was saddened to see Google taking such an approach against a

much loved website amongst the International Muslim community.

YOUTUBEISLAM.COM has been enjoyed over the last several years, by millions of Muslims all around the world. Even non-Muslims have commented on the excellent quality of this website, operated by American converts to Islam.

Frankly speaking, this type of action is going to be questioned in very serious terms around the planet by many different individuals and business as well as governments, due to the ramifications implied by the way this matter is being handled.

On the occasion of the upcoming month of Ramadan (August 21), the absense of this particular website could be
cause boycotts and protests of a global scale during this significant month of fasting and praying for the Muslim community.

You would be well advised to confirm this with Muslims working within your organization, as this website and the man who founded it, are well loved and respected by a vast majority of Muslims throughout the entire world.

You may consider my letter as confirmation of intention to provide full support to a collaborative effort for boycotting services of any group or organization involved in this distasteful activity.

I sincerely advise you to reconsider your position in this matter and take whatever steps may be necessary to correct it. And allow the continued use of this ad-free non-partisan, family website with the familiar name:

YOUTUBEISLAM.COM

Yours Truly,