WikiIslam:Translations

Translations for all languages are welcome, but in this case some languages have higher priority than others. The list of the 30 most spoken languages of the world is one way to help you decide what languages should be considered 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.

Here are other relevant lists:

• List of countries by number of Internet users
• List of countries by Muslim population (sort table by 2^nd column "Muslim population")
• List of Muslim-majority countries

Other languages can be chosen depending on relevance and popularity of a certain topic or social issue, or simply because you happen to know it and think the information on WikiIslam should be made available in your language.

Many topics are equally important but sometimes a certain topic may be 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 but if Muslims in that country are involved in honor violence, then that could 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:

• Free 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 examples of articles you could begin translating into Arabic and other languages:

All Languages

• Refutation of Modern Muslim Apologetics Against Aisha's Age (Aisha's age at marriage is a popular topic among people who debate about Islam)
• 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
• 72 Virgins (this is a high traffic page and a very popular topic. It is unique in being the only article on the internet that compiles all the facts and dispels the myths surrounding the subject)
• Muslim Statistics

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

We already host some completed French and Turkish 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 formatting.

Steps

After you choose what article to translate:

1. Login or create account: Unless you are okay with having your IP address recorded in page histories, the first step for you would be to create an account . If you already have an account, you can login. When you are logged in, you will see your username at the top left of every page with various user specific links like My talk, Preferences and so on.
2. 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, colons, semi-colons etc. These can be added into the title later by using {{page_title|Desired page title}}.
3. After clicking "Create page" you will see a blank page.
4. 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.
5. Copy and paste the entire thing into the new page you created. In Windows, Select all text and then CTRL-C; CTRL-V to paste.
6. 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).
7. 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 simply 'copy' all the text. You can also do intermediate saves if you have to interrupt your work, or if it's a long page.
8. To find what you have been working on, click the 'My contributions' link at the top right.

Guidelines

Translations should always remain faithful to the original English work, retaining their scholarly tone and information. If for some reason you think a particular section should be left out or altered in the translation, please discuss this with others on the talk page. The same applies for any additional information you may be considering to incorporate in the translation.

Future Plans

Sub-domain and interface support for languages (like on Wikipedia) is planned in the future for languages which have a large amount of articles. A rough guide for the amount of material needed before we could consider launching a sub-domain would be a main page's worth of translated articles.

We will begin with a single sub-domain. If this works well, we will then expand the number of sub-domains to cover other languages. So, if you would like to see a WikiIslam sub-domain in your language, please join the WikiIslam Translation Project and start translating articles.

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.

Updates

February 14, 2013:

Work on a Russian sub-domain (http://ru.wikiislam.net/) has already begun. It is currently in a preliminary state. Russian speakers who are interested in helping launch the Russian WikiIslam can contact the Russian site administrator on their talk page.

• Category:Incomplete translations
• WikiIslam:Tasks
• WikiIslam:Forum/Translation Project