Launched in May 2006, The IOS MINARET has completed 9 years and has entered the 10th year of its inception. These nine years have been highly gratifying for us. We have been able to constantly improve the quality of the website in respect of content, coverage of themes and subjects, style and readability, and visual effect. Our efforts have been greatly appreciated by our readers -- whose numbers are steadily expanding -- as well as scholars and research organizations from around the world. Between July 2014 and May 2015, the website received 1637714 hits. Now the website can also be accessed on Facebook. We are making efforts to make The Minaret a bi-lingual (English-Arabic) website.

The website not only critically focuses on themes and issues in the present-day context but also highlights the highly important and enduring contributions of Islamic civilization to wide-ranging areas, including science and medicine, technology, architecture, philosophy and literature, and arts and crafts. More importantly, this is presented in the light of recent and current researches as well as through reports on exhibitions, museum events and art festivals.

We are happy to reproduce the valued opinions and kind words of some of our readers, who are among the prominent personalities of the Muslim world.

I pray to Allah to bless you and grant you plenty of ajr for all your efforts for the service of the Ummah and Islam and also for publishing (my article on) the dialogue in Okath newspaper. Your article on the Rohingya Muslims of Mynamar is excellent.

Dr. Ahmad Abu Sulayman
Former President, International Institute of Islamic Thought, Washington DC
25 December 2013
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Thanks much for sending me your paper on the Crimean Tatars. As usual, it reflects your deep thought and your lucid style. I am sending it to friends in the departments of history and cultural studies and that of sociology.

Professor Malik Badri
Ibn Khaldun Chair, International Islamic University, Malaysia
11 May, 2014
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Thank you for your wonderful article about Ramadan. May Allah bless you and grant you the patience and strength to be able to continue your service to Islam and Muslims.

Dr Ahmad Totonji
June 17, 2015
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I have received your valuable article on Hasan Celebi with my thanks. I hope you have already informed the famous calligrapher Çelebi about your publication. Many thanks for the gestures before and now, w'as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barkatuh.

Professor Salih Tug
Former Dean, Faculty of Theology, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
18 March 2014
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Thank you so much for this marvelous article. I hope I can get the paper after is published, so that I may pass it to a friend of mine who is specialized in the art of calligraphy, Prof Edham Hanash who is the Dean of the College of Islamic Arts and Architecture. I am sure he would be happy to pass it to his graduate students, to benefit from and refer to it.

Thank you again, May Allah Almighty bless your effort.

Dr. Fathi Malkawi
International Institute of Islamic Thought
Amman Office, Jordan
15 March 2014
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I was delighted to see your article on Prof. Fuat Sezgin (in The Minaret). Thank you for sending me a copy. The article is truly an eye opener for many less-read people like me. I truly wish that it receives the publicity which it deserve. In the normal course I would have never read it, if it was not for your kind gesture. May Allah reward you for this affection.

With kindest regards,

Dr Ahmad Abdul Hai
Patna, India
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We are extremely thankful to our readers and well-wishers for their valued support in carrying on with this labour of love. Kindly introduce the Minaret to your friends and acquaintances and help us in expanding the website’s readership. You can also help the website through donations and advertisements.

Jazakumullah khayraljaza!

The IOS Minaret Team