WikiIslam:Translations
Translations of most articles are welcome, but please avoid stubs or articles which need further work.
Important Languages
We welcome translations for all languages, but in this case some languages have higher priority. The list of the 30 most spoken languages of the world is one way to see what language should be chosen for translation. In that list, the following languages are spoken by a large number of people in Muslim majority countries: Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, Farsi and Urdu. These languages are therefore of high importance. For non-Muslim countries, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and Russian are important languages. Other languages can be chosen depending on relevance and popularity of a certain topic or social issue.
Here are other relevant lists:
- List of countries by number of Internet users
- List of countries by Muslim population (sort table by 2nd column "Muslim population")
- List of Muslim-majority countries
High-Priority Articles
Many topics are equally important in all regions but sometimes a certain topic is more relevant or important in a region, and this should be taken into consideration. For example, women's rights is an important topic in Saudi Arabia because women are often denied equal rights and there is some activism there in an attempt to improve this situation (voting, driving). In many non-Muslim countries, women's rights will not be much of an issue because of better laws and justice system but if Muslims in that country are involved in honor violence, then that would be considered an important topic.
Relevance can also be seen by checking what topics are popularly discussed in the media of that region and any online forums.
The following are possible issues in a country with a Muslim majority population:
- Islam and Freedom of Speech
- Islam and Women
- Islam and Apostasy
- Islam and Miracles
- Islam and Homosexuality (for example this topic is important in Iran)
- Any topics that are discussed in debates between Muslims and skeptics or former Muslims (contradictions in the Qur'an, science, major incidents of violence etc.)
For a non-Muslim country with a small Muslim population, the following are possible topics:
- Converts
- Islam and the People of the Book
- Islam and Propaganda
- Any topic in Islam that contrasts strongly with modern moral standards such as Pedophilia
If relevance for a certain language is not an issue or cannot be determined, the following are a few of the articles we would particularly like translated into Arabic and other languages:
All Languages
- Refutation to Muslim Apologetics against Aisha's Age of Consummation
- Pedophilia in the Qur'an
- Flat Earth and the Qur'an
- Allah the Best Deceiver
- The Origins of the Qur'an
- List of Fabricated Hadith
- Sex Segregation in Islam
Mainly Arabic
- Georgics
- Adverse Effects of Islamic Fasting
- Setting the Record Straight: The Non-Miracle of Islamic Science
- Women in Islam - From Islam's Sources
- Muhammad: The Example of Ethical Behavior
Examples of Translated Articles
We already host some completed French and Russian translations. Note that these pages retain their original formatting. To do this, simply press the "Edit" or "View source" tab at the top-right of the page you wish to translate, then copy and paste the entire thing into a text or word file. If you then translate directly from that file, you will retain all of the formating.
Steps for Translating an Article
After you choose what article to translate:
- Go to Help:Contents. Translate the title of your chosen article and type that into the "Create Page" box. If any of these characters exist in the title, avoid using them: brackets, commas and colons (these can be added into the title later by using {{page_title|Desired page title}}).
- After clicking "Create page" you will see a blank page.
- Open another window. Then go to your chosen article and click the 'Edit' button. You will now see the text and all the wiki-formatting of the target article.
- Copy and paste the entire thing into the new page you created.
- You can now start your translation. Delete the English text as you go. You can also keep another window open which has the original article in a regular view (non-editable).
- After you are done, you can preview or save the page. To make sure you don't lose your work, please see the "Saving your Work" section on the Help page. You can also do intermediate saves if you have to interrupt your work, or if it's a long page.
- To find what you have been working on, click the 'My contributions' link at the top right.
Suggestions and Future Plans
If you have any suggestions for this page or if you think a certain article should be added to this page, let us know by leaving a note on the forum page.
Sub-domain and interface support for languages (like on Wikipedia) is planned in the future for languages which have a large amount of articles.