HALAL Search Engine

A new search engine, called ImHalal.com, filters out X-rated Web sites and other content that is “haraam” or forbidden by Islam.
The search technology developed by AZS Media Group, a Dutch Internet company, has a two-layer filter.
Sex sites are blocked outright while other topics that are less dicey, such as “drugs,” “beer” or “pork” are restricted but not as tightly.
When users do a search and get a haram rating of level one or two out of three, they are advised to choose another keyword to search, but they can still continue their search if they believe the results fetched will be clean, said Reza Sardeha, founder of the media group in a published interview.
Words like porn and rape are considered to be at a rating of three, and are blocked, Sardeha told PC World. Terms like beer and pork, however, get a haram rating of one because users cannot consume them off the Internet.
The site has received more than 400,000 unique visitors since it was launched earlier this week, Sardeha said in the interview.
“We got the feeling that a lot of people in the Middle East, a lot of Muslims, really avoided the Internet and prevented their children from accessing it because they were afraid of what they might come across,” Sardeha said after ImHalal.com debuted this week.
Mainstream search engines have come in for criticism in many parts of the world for displaying content that is offensive to the local culture, and even against local laws.