Unique Muslimah

I can’t believe it. It’s been one year. How could one year pass by so quickly yet seem like centuries ago at the same time? I finally join the league of bloggers who can say “I have been blogging for a year.” Can it be a paper anniversary? Or make it “sweet” since I’m craving for some sugar.

I remember the day so clearly. I was suffocated with problems. Everything looked so bleak. I didn’t think I would make it. And somehow I found wordpress and started writing. I didn’t think it would last for a year. I didn’t think anyone would find my blog or even start commenting! I honestly thought it would be a week-trial. But I enjoyed it so much, I found out another world filled with thoughts and discussions and good people from all over the world, from different faiths and backgrounds.

I can say one year on I am “okay”. The problems I suffered from are over and done with. I look back and think, how on earth did I survive? Thank God I did. I’m in a much better place now, and I have God to thank for that.

Here are a few statistics in the past year:

• Over 135,704 readers have visited Unique Muslimah (some bloggers have been writing for more than that but have less visitors!)
•  Best day ever: 1,031 readers visited on Wednesday, January 2, 2008
• Most popular post: The New Hijab, with 32, 530 visits.
• 243 posts written by Unique Muslimah
• 4,431 comments written to Unique Muslimah
• Over 3,000 people have linked to Unique Muslimah
• Over 21 people have added Unique to their bloglines account.
• Unique Muslimah’s work has been published (or mentioned) on The Irish Times, Islamicity, Islamonline and other publications.
• March 2007 was the most active month for Unique Muslimah, as she posted 40 posts!
• Readers are from all over the world, from China and Hawaii to New York and London!
• Unique has created a group blog called Empowered Muslim Youth and writes on Alif Laam Mim.
• Unique receives on average 10 e-mails per week from visitors.
• Many visitors add Unique to their facebook account, to check for new posts on her profile. Over 80 have added her so far.
• Unique has formed beautiful friendships through her blog.

I have grown with this blog in the past year. To list the many things I have changed positively in would mean writing a novel, but I can secretly imagine all of these changes and smile. I thank you for joining me on my journey here. I thank you for being such sweet, adorable individuals. And I hope this blog continues to be a place where I can share my thoughts and continue to change for the better.

I will never forget the wise words a blogger once told me: “Unique, people who comment on your blog should know it is a privilege, not a right.” Funnily enough, some people are ignorant of this, thinking that a blog is a country and with it comes freedom of speech.

But this is completely false. A blog is like a home. You would not expect me to come into your home and say hurtful, inappropriate words. You’d kick me out because it is your home and no one should treat you like that in your own home! You would expect me to knock on your door and wait for you to invite me into your home. You would expect me to respect you and your property in the duration of my visit.

It’s the same with a blog. It’s a person’s online home. The blog owner decides who can come inside and comment. If the blogger doesn’t want a comment to appear on their blog and if they choose not to respond to a certain comment, then it’s their choice, they haven’t done anything wrong. It’s their property and some people shouldn’t be trespassing.

Why some people choose to write hurtful, unsympathetic, inappropriate comments and expect them to be published, is beyond me. And why they get angry because their comment hasn’t appeared and then threaten the blog owner to publish their comment otherwise write nasty things about them on the internet is quite bizarre.

There are unwritten rules to posting a comment on a person’s blog. One should be courteous. One should not write inappropriate comments that are off topic. One should not attack the blog owner or their intelligence. And if one wrote something that offended the blog owner, then one should have the decency to apologise. A person should think before they comment, otherwise face the consquences of having their comment ignored.

Ultimately, having comments on a blog promotes healthy dialogue between different people. But one must understand that blog owners have to preserve their blog’s quality. They will not publish every single comment, just like a newspaper will not publish every single letter received. Because some comments are regarded as spam, those ridiculous comments that don’t deserve to be published. It will amount to blog chaos if such a thing happened, and an unhealthy atmosphere will infest the blog and even cause it to self-destruct.

Like trolls, a term for people who like to cause trouble on blogs. They are little invaders who like to ruin the success of a blog, probably because they are envious that another blog is more successful than their own. Other trolls write strange comments, trying to provoke the blog owner, so that they are noticed and in turn attract readers to their own blog.

In some cases a blog owner is so scared to be called a suppressor of freedom of speech, that they will, out of ignorance, publish a troll’s comment, which causes more harm than good. Blog owners should know that they actually have the choice, the right, to throw it in the spam folder and not even have to explain why they chose to do so. They can ignore it completly and not even have to read it.

If a person’s comment hasn’t appeared on a blog, before criticising the blog owner and ranting on about how unfair they are, think about the fact that it is their blog. They have the right to keep it a safe, peaceful haven, free from verbal diarrhea. And sometimes the comments are caught in the spam folder without the blogger’s knowledge, so it is unfair for the commentator to jump to conclusions.

There are many instances where a blogger must make decisions whether or not to publish a comment if they are serious about preserving their blog and promoting healthy dialogue. At the end of the day it’s not to be taken personally- those who do take it personally and go on a vendetta against the blogger are not only childish and narrowminded, but also seem to have a lot of free time on their hands.

So while visiting blogs, it’s good to remember that we are in someone’s “online home”, we should treat it with respect. Because it’s their blog- their choice. They decide.

Unique Muslimah Reporting