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MOHIRA ABDULLAEVA. ANALYSIS OF THE MOST VISITED ISLAMIC WEBSITES IN UZBEKISTAN // The article was written for the bulletin "Russia and the Moslem World."
Keywords: religion, cyberspace, the Internet, domain "uz", "muslim.uz", "islaminstitut.uz", "islom.uz".
Mohira Abdullaeva,
Basic Doctoral Student,
International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan
Absract. In the age of digital technology, the study of Islamic websites that satisfy religious questions of the population online and in Uzbek is as relevant as ever. The article analyzes the educational activities of Islamic websites of the domain "uz." Sites such as "muslim.uz," islaminstitut.uz, "islom.uz" were selected for the analysis. It was applied the comparative method in the analysis of the educational activities of these sites. At the same time, there were provided such criteria as compliance with the requirements of user ergonomics, as well as optimization of sites according to technical requirements. In the service of this aim, it was used the method of statistical processing of information of the most relevant topics, taking into account the requirements of the Uzbek-speaking audience. As a result, the educational activities of Islamic websites of Uzbekistan were estimated.
Introduction
Since the beginning of the "Internet age, " there has been a sharp increase in the streams of information and an increase in the rate of socializing. This reality has led not only to proliferation of exchange of information, but also to an improvement of its quality. The rapid development of information technology has resulted in significant social transformation, particularly in religious processes. One of the
obvious signs of such influence on the multinational Internet audience of Uzbeks is the satisfaction of the population needs solving religious issues online. This can be considered a natural process, although according to some specialist sociologists and religious scholars (Smolina, 2015) the cyberspace of the Internet is the largest market of religion, where traditional and non-traditional religious denominations and movements are represented. The Internet opens a wide path to any religious text, as well as providing unlimited opportunities to discuss and establish contacts on religious issues with believers. With the help of the Internet, religious life has been greatly diversified, thus making an independent space. Today, religious life in virtuality creates certain trends. Any representative of a traditional religion or new religious movement seeks to maintain status in cyberspace, through websites, forums, as well as the creation of virtual groups on social networks. In this direction, there is the content analysis of the most relevant issues of websites registered in the domain "uz" in the category "Religion" below.
Critical approach on the subject in literature
Since the second half of the 1990s, a massive increase in the rate of activity of religions and religious organizations in cyberspace has been monitored. Such processes of the West have been reflected in scientists' researches.
Coordination between religion and the Internet Smolina (Smolina, 2015) studied in two concepts. First, the principle of "Internet and religion" for religious organizations is as a space for dialoging with representatives of their religion; secondly, is as a space containing a database of religion. Talal Nasser Al-Nazhran claims (Al-Nazhran, 1998) that mass media like the Internet changing the nature of personality, way of thinking, religious forms, identity patterns and social activism, and they are not justified. Historical experience has shown that mass
media change only the audience by the nature of the Internet. In this regard, it should be noted that the main goal of the Internet space is not only to inform about the activities of a social institution, but also, by reference to the function of traditional religions, alliance people using new technologies.
Methodology of the research
The theoretical-methodological basis of the analysis was such methods as ergonomics of the user interface and theoretical development of the web, theoretical analysis, observation, statistical processing of information (comparison, ranking).
Analysis and results
Today, more than 4.2 billion of world population uses the Internet (Stats, 2018). If in 1995 in Uzbekistan the number of Internet users was 500 people, as of today they are 20 million (mitc.uz/uz/ stat/, 2019). It is necessary to take into account the fact that today 830 million of the users are young people whose average age is from 15 to 24 years. (International Telecommunication Union, 2017). The same ratio can be applied to the number of active users of the population of Uzbekistan.
In recent years, the demand for information consumption and the necessity to meet the intellectual needs of the population of Uzbekistan have led to a sharp increase in the number of Internet users. In relation to this, the number of registered domains "uz" has increased over the past period.
It should be noted that in order to create a national domain "uz," it was approved the request made in 1995 to the University of Computer Science of Southern California (Newspaper, 2011/05/01). Nowadays, the number of active domains has reached 68,158 (cctld.uz, 2019), but the number of Islamic domains is less than one hundred. Despite this, their number is regularly increasing. For example, the sites registered among the
first to date are "muslim.uz" (registration date 2003) (U.Alimov et al., 2014), and "islom.uz," "quran.uz" (registration date 2004).
The analysis of Internet sources shows the impact of virtual space on religious worldview. Observations show that if the word "Islam" is entered on the most common search engines, the first lines of the found materials there are such Uzbek sites as "islom.uz," "islaminstitut.uz" and "muslim.uz." Within this framework, these sites were selected for content analysis.
The results
The research results are given in two following tables:
Table № 1
Sitemap
The contents
islom.uz muslim.uz islaminstitut.uz
Home page Home page Structure
Themes Departments Themes
Media Media Media
Events News News
Books Articles Articles
Muamalat Ramazan For applicants
Islam Fatwa Distant education
Koran
Hadith
Page size
islom.uz muslim.uz islaminstitut.uz
69 Kb 261 Kb 266 Kb
Sites satisfy the ergonomic requirements, from above horizontally there are names of sections, there are search systems going in with social networks, and also feedback to the site. Each of these sites has "Home page," "Themes," "Media," "Events" and "Articles." On the portal "islom.uz" there are such unique pages as "Muamalat," "Islam," "Koran" and "Hadith"; therefore,
on the muslim.uz website there are the following nonregular pages: "Ramazan," "Fatwa";"islaminstitut.uz" has such pages as "Applicants","Distance education." Also, on the sites there is an opportunity to listen to online radio "islom.uz radio" and "muslim radio," also to watch "muslimTV."
The sites "muslim.uz" and "islaminstitut.uz" provide information in Russian, English and Arabic. Publishing information in foreign languages in its turn builds reach of foreign audiences. By technical parameters, a small "weight" (in MB) of the page gives users quick access to the sites.
In the second table it is given a structure of the page "Themes" of the sites:
Table № 2
Analysis of the section "Themes"
islom.uz muslim.uz islaminstitut.uz
Themes Departments Themes
History Siyrati History of Islam and
Siyrati History of Islam siyrati
Islamic literature Aqidah Library Aqidah
Ulemas Treatment Fiqh
Opponency Women's page Koran and Qur'anic
Ramazan Extremism and terrorism - exegesis
Mavlid a destroyer of progress Hadith
Hanafism Hajj and umra Family
Tazkiya Collaboration sites Women
Miracles Communication service Childrearing
Analisys Compatriots abroad
Vami Koran
Verbal Hadith
pyrotechnics Fiqh
(Classes) Decency to serve parents
Faraiz (classes)
Life of associates
Counting the number of themes, the websites islom.uz and islaminstitut.uz pay great attention to the history of Islam, theology (aqidah) and information relating to them. The site
"muslim.uz" attracts the reader along with full information about the history of Islam, theology (aqidah) and sciences, attitude to topical questions of social life.
In the national rating "uz" in the category "Religion," the site "islom.uz" set the pace (www.uz, 2019), thanks to the convenience of interface and using. For example, this site is easy to open, in comparison with other sites its design also attracts. In this regard, there was analyzed the number of visitors for 6 months of 2018. According to the results of the analysis, about 292 thousand visitors acquainted with the information of the site (www.uz, 2019). Although the information of the site is posted in Uzbek, the audience of visitors of the sites is not limited by Uzbekistan, the number of visitors from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan is significantly higher (www.uz, 2019). This shows that among the Uzbek-speaking users of these countries, this site satisfies the need of Islamic issues.
The first half of 2018, the most popular articles of the site "islom.uz" were "Rules of reading namaz" (7,199), "A Prayer for Riches and Abundance" (6,811), "Ramazan (acts of makruh and muboh that interrupt the fasting)" (5,225).
From January 2015 until the beginning of 2018, more than 7 million users addressed the site "islom.uz," the most visited page of which were: "Ask the people of Zikra" (728,053), "Time of Namaz" (26,052), "Library" (15,239).
Conclusion and suggestion
On the basis of the analysis, it is clear that the number of users of the Internet and Uzbek-language sites on Islamic issues is increasing significantly. In this field, resources like "islom.uz" influence religious life, including religious consciousness. The logical conclusion of the mentioned is that one of the most active factors affecting formation and development of the religious process in cyberspace is information resources, and study of their activity area, as well as pursued goals, takes on great importance.
References and online media
1 Al-NajranT.N. Internet adoption and use by Kuwait university students: new medium, same old gratifications. The Ohio State, 1998. 235 p.
2. Smolina E.G., 2015. "Ummah" and "crowdsourcing": linkage of definitions as part of Internet space Islamovedenie. № 4, 64.
3. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm (over a period of 30 June 2018). (Reference date: 23.01.19.)
4. mitc.uz/uz/stat/4(Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
5. Data report of International Telecommunication Union of 31 July 2017. Ref.: http://www.itu.int/ru/mediacentre/Pages/2017-PR37.aspx (Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
6. https://www.gazeta.uz/ru/2011/05/01/cctld/ (Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
7. https://cctld.uz/ (Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
8. Uzbekiston musulmonlari idorasi / editors: U.Alimov & others; executive editor Shaih A. Mansur. - T.: Mavareunnahar, 2014. - P. 68.
9 http://www.uz/ru/res/visitor/index?id=14994&Visitor%5Bfrom%5D=01.0 1.2018&Visitor%5Bto%5D=31.06.2018&Visitor%5Btype%5D=visitors&Visitor %5Bperiod%5D=monthly (Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
10. http://www.uz/ru/res/visitor/rating?id=14994&VisitorRating%5Bfrom%5 D=01.01.2018&VisitorRating%5Bto%5D=31.06.2018&VisitorRating%5Bperiod %5D=monthly&VisitorRating%5BwithCats%5D=0 (Reference date: 23.01.2019.)
CONTENTS OF "RUSSIA AND THE MOSLEM WORLD" BULLETIN FOR 2019 №№ 1 (303) - 4 (306)
№ 1 (303)
Aziz Niyazi. UNDP Report on Human Development 2018: Trends and Indexes in the World and Russia (6-13); Olga Shevchenko, Maria Tikhonovskova. The Threats and Risks to the Spiritual Security of Modern Russia (13-17); Robert Landa. The Revolution of 1917 in Russia and Eastern Countries (17-23); Igor Dobayev. Islam in Black Sea-Caspian Region: Geopolitical Aspect (24-34); Alexander Kashkarov. The Radicalization of Islam in the Crimea, as a Threat to Criminological Safety of the South of Russia (34-36); Zarema Taukanova. Ethnic Factor of Gender Relations and Processes: the Caucasian Perspective (36-
