Educational, Social and Charitable Networking: Yallago

By: Hyacinth Mascarenhas

As a teenager, Ahmed Masoud Abdelhafid, did what a lot of teens today do; Post on friends’ walls, comment on photos, and “like” statuses and posts on Facebook.

After seeing hundreds of anti-Islam groups on the social network, Abdelhafid deleted his account. He did, however, take it a step forward. At the age of 18, he started Yallago, a website designed to educate the masses on Islam’s history and heritage, act as an enhanced directory and a productive, Islam-compliant social network all in one.

Now the founder and CEO of Yallago Limited Group he says the task was not easy since a lot of people don’t take an 18-year old seriously.

“The greatest benefit is the satisfaction of providing a better product for the Islamic community and those targeting it,”Abdelhafid said.

Created to “make social networking spiritually productive by achieving the digitalization of Islam,” Yallago went live on May 31, 2011 in beta mode. Focusing on Islamic concepts such as acquiring knowledge, giving to the needy and socializing in a “halal” way, Yallago allows users to be mentally and spiritually productive online.

The House of Wisdom section covers a variety of Islamic topics ranging from history to faith and beliefs and acts as a wonderful reference for Islamic knowledge online. Members are allowed to voice their own opinions, upload multimedia and learn from the interactive Islamic encyclopedia.

Aiming to become the largest online Islamic community in the world, Yallago also features the first Web 2.0 directory for Islamic organizations on the Internet. Allowing organizations to target the Islamic community using social media tools, Abdelhafid says Yallago will be heavily marketing the company will be heavily marketing the company to attract businesses of all sizes to register.

Alexander Hardy, a member from the UK, says he joined Yallago because he was interested in learning more about the history and development of countries in the Middle East.

“I think anybody could join the site no matter what religion or cultural background you are from,” said Hardy. “It is a great place to learn and broaden your understanding of Islamic history and development from the early Ages right up until today.  Even by sending gifts to friends you learn about some of the amazing inventions that were created by empires in the Middle East hundreds of years ago.”

The social network also features the Pearl Rewards system that allows members to collect pearls for every “Islamic activity” they do online such as purchasing a chartable object in the market, adding friends, uploading content or simply spending hours browsing the website. Members then have the option of converting pearls collected into Great British Pounds (GBP) and donate them to one of the certified and registered Islamic charities on Yallago’s list.

“Yallago will be financing this out of our own pockets,” says Abdelhafid. “We believe that if you give you get in return (as a company). There is a lot of corporate greed out there, and we are an ethical company that believes in social responsibility.”

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