New website: masjids.co.za

Mosques in South Africa and surrounds – www.masjids.co.za – is more than a dedicated online directory of places to pray and has listed over 800 mosques and prayer rooms including those in malls and airports. Amongst other benefits, it assists local and foreign travellers in finding a place to pray and is a source of reference for Islamic organisations. Furthermore, it is unique in that each Mosque has a dedicated page, thus having a “web presence” at no cost.

The website evolved from a spread sheet that was being distributed via email and the idea then came about to have a user-friendly website dedicated to mosques in South Africa. The website was officially launched in May this year and received very positive feedback both locally and internationally.

The main feature is the dedicated page that can store almost unlimited information for each mosque. Mosque pages are searchable per area within each province. Mosques can be added to the website or updated via the website’s online form. Each page includes physical location, contact details, a Google map including street view, GPS coordinates and other information that is relevant and has been made available to us.

There is a blog feature for recent news related to mosques and website activity that visitors can subscribe to via RSS and Email. For those using social media the website can be followed via Twitter and our Facebook fan page. We also started an online photo album – using the popular Google Picasa – many of the photographs have been submitted by the public.

Readers can also subscribe to any specific mosque(s), comment on that mosque page and receive email notifications as others comment without subscribing. This acts as a virtual noticeboard where visitors can share events and news relating to that mosque.

Finally, we have a GPX file that was sent to us that can be downloaded and then uploaded to a GPS device which is preloaded with a number of Mosques and places to pray in Southern Africa. We also have a page that displays all these locations as an interactive Google map.

Going forward we are looking at listing other Southern African countries and perhaps someday all Muslim places to pray in Africa.

The public can assist by visiting the website, spreading the word and assisting in information correction, sending photographs and even videos. You can submit a Mosque by completing the online form or simply leave a comment on a mosque page and we will update the information accordingly. Our biggest challenge is getting information updated as the website has a national target base and we rely on public feedback and currently have no commercial backing.

Organisations and businesses may contact us for advertising opportunities.

We would appreciate any constructive criticism, comments or suggestions which can be sent anonymously via our contact page so we can identify user trends to further enhance the website experience.

Visit us at www.masjids.co.za or for more information email us at info@masjids.co.za