This is the first in a series of original content which will be posted exclusively on Ijtema.net by our editors. While Ijtema’s focus will remain on highlighting the best of the Muslim blogosphere, we hope to share our own thoughts with you on the process. Your feedback is much appreciated!

Just a few years ago, finding good content from Muslims on the Internet was a rather futile endeavour. Between the popular media and the emerging blogosphere, the image of Muslims on the Internet was distorted, polarized, and inaccurate. But in the last few years, the Muslim community has embraced the blogosphere wholeheartedly. Not just the youth who grew up on the technology, but Muslims from all walks of life have subscribed to the medium: scholars, activists, professionals, artists, the East and the West. And as more and more content is created every day, it is becoming harder and harder to find the best content. And as new bloggers join the fold on a daily basis, it is increasingly difficult to get noticed with everything else out there.

One can never underestimate the power of the individual, when his or her voice is heard. And as technology becomes more advanced and adoption becomes ever easier, we are already seeing this power. It is taking us places we would have never reached before. It is exposing stories that would have otherwise been left untold. It is empowering the individual, in ways that are not only challenging the authorities, but are defeating them.

Consider the following two well publicized incidents: the taser attack in a UCLA library, and the similar incident at a recent John Kerry forum at the University of Florida. In both cases, we have first hand accounts of what appears to be savage police brutality. Irrespective of the reasons behind these two incidents, what is most notable about this is that such a story may have been left completely ignored had the witnesses not been carrying cameraphones to report the incident. If such an event happened five years ago (and who’s to say it didn’t?), it would be something that would not get any attention outside of perhaps the school newspaper. With technology in the hands of each individual, this story became headline news all over North America. The authority, in this case being the police, has been challenged in a way that no one could challenge them before.

Some may consider this to be first steps towards an Orwellian dystopia; the difference today, however, is that Big Brother is not watching you. Everyone is. And while this may be even more frightening, it is at least a level playing field. Anyone can claim a stake in it, they just need to take that step. And it is becoming more important everyday that we as Muslims lay claim to this new world as well.

Blogging brought us within the walls of Virginia Tech at the time of the terrible shootings last year. It gave a voice, a personal account, to a story which made headlines throughout the world. It reinforced the reality of the situation, above and beyond anything the popular media could produce. It brought us through the hurricanes in New Orleans and walked us through the violence in France. And it’s brought us along through Makkah and Madinah, as numerous writers vividly share their journeys.

The first blog I started reading regularly was that of a young woman, known only to her readers as “Riverbend“. In her blog, she gives a deeply personal account of life in Iraq in the time of war. Her writing touches the reader in a way no news article can. It’s not the story of some journalist who travelled to the country, living a life quite detached from the daily realities of Iraqi life; it is her story. And it being her story, the readers could not help but feel elated when her and her family recently managed to escape Iraq into Syria. The readers care about her, in a way they never would about the nameless crowds we see on television.

After the Second World War, Anne Frank’s diary became a posthumous bestseller because it provided a perspective to the war that no other publication offered. Today, we are getting those perspectives in realtime. There are several others in Iraq alone, sharing their experiences and giving a voice to the voiceless.

There is a long way to go for this medium, and truly we are still in it’s infancy. But as the technology matures, the Muslim voice also needs to mature with it. And initiatives like ours will become more and more important, to identify those voices that need to be heard. Like the Internet itself, it is a collaborative effort, and together we can make a difference. Allah’s Hand is with the jama’ah, and with His Help, we can achieve our goal.