Islamopedia Online

Islamopedia Online was a website dedicated to providing a comprehensive database of information regarding Islam, its most influential leaders, and translations of current topics and religious opinions.
Contents.
The stated purpose of Islamopedia Online is to provide news and background analysis on Muslim countries and Islamic topics that are not covered in the Western media due to lack of familiarity with the country, the issues, or the personalities as well as the inability to access reliable sources in their original language. Islamopedia features a database of what they deem the most important religious figures in the Muslim world including their positions. Islamopedia also provides a translation in English of major news articles translated from Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi.
Islamopedia Online is part of the Islam in the West Program, hosted at the Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University. It is financially supported by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University, the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard University, the Transatlantic Program on Islam in the West based at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, the Social Science Research Council, and the Minerva Fellowship. It is directed by Jocelyne Cesari.
Through its analysis, Islamopedia has concluded that Salafi, Wahabi, and Athari websites dominate the web due to "context collapse" where individuals can ask questions without reprisal or exposure because the internet "annihilates the context and the identity of the user." Hence the many users accept the answer as the "true Islam" even though they may not apply it to their lives; instead the use of the Islamic website solidifies their identification as Muslim in opposition to the West even though one does not adhere to its edicts or instructions. They also solicit papers from experts for inclusion in the database.
Development.
Islamopedia Online was founded in 2007 with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation. Its members initiated a comprehensive survey of major topics, opinions, and authorities in the Islamic world determining that the best resource they could provide was in aggregating information from websites that provided religious opinions from Islamic scholars and leaders. Focusing on Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Urdu, and English, they have collected and aggregated 44,000 entries from over 100 separate websites.
Advisory board.
The advisory board of Islamopedia Online includes: