Recognising Muslim blogosphere: Brass Crescent Awards for best blogging on Islamic issues enter tenth year

The Brass Crescent Awards were instituted to identify and honour the best blogs on Islam and Muslims.

For nine years they have been honoring the best writings in Muslim blogosphere.

Now the awards are into the tenth year. Over the last decade, scores of interesting blogs were featured on their website.

Unique blogs, interesting posts, series of writings, humorous articles and non-Muslim writers' blogs on Islam, were nominated year after year. For so many years, sane, intelligent and different Muslim voices that were found on the internet, got exposure due to blogging.

Those interested in know the views of ordinary Muslims, found blogs  It is often heard these days that blogging is no longer as popular as it was a few years back. Today, we have social networking sites--Facebook and Twitter, where opinions get instant 'likes' and hence satisfaction to the writer.

However, blogs continue to be written. They remain an important source of information. The good blogs get recognition. Every year, considerable interest is generated when the Brass Crescent website announces that nomination process for the year has begun.

There are categories like women bloggers, non-Muslim writers and so on. Then, the people start voting. On the basis of votes, the best blogs in each category is selected. Certainly, the awards have made a mark in Islamic blogosphere.

If you go through the names and URLs of winners [or nominated] blogs in the past, you may find the most interesting writers from different regions of the world. Not just Middle East or Indian sub-continent, but from Australia, Far East, Africa, Europe and of course, America.

The voting has begun for the awards. You may go to the Brass Crescent Awards' website and see the variety of blogs that have been nominated. Explore, read and vote for the ones, you like. The results of the poll will be out by mid-October.

Definitely, thanks are due to the individuals behind the Brass Crescent Awards. They have succeeded in completing a decade and yet they have managed to keep interest alive among innumerable bloggers and readers for this annual event.

VOTE HERE for Brass Crescent Awards

Winning Brass Crescent Award: Indscribe's blog wins the award for best blog in South Asia

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I am far away from my place, it's a sort of hibernation, and couldn't access net also when a friend rang me up.

He told me that this blog has won the award in the category of 'Best South/South East Asian blog'.

Frankly, I thought I had little chance. I am thankful to all of you, friends and co-bloggers, who have written mails to me, congratulated and also voted for this blog.

Over the last couple of years I spent time, lot of time and energy on this blog even when I was occupied elsewhere. Hundreds of posts, lot of friends in blogosphere and the intense discussions in comments.

Feels good. The awards site website mentions, 'The Islamsphere is truly a global phenomenon. In Iraq, despite the chaos and uncertainty, there is a sea change of free speech and expression, the vanguard of which are blogs"

"....There are also bloggers in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Jordan, and most other countries that host Muslims, all of whom have their own perspectives on faith, culture, and politics."

Earlier, in the year 2006 too, this blog--indscribe's blog [also termed An Indian Muslim Blog] was listed among top five blogs in the category of Asian and Middle Eastern blogs. And it was given an 'honorable mention'.

Also, it is heartening to see IndianMuslims.in, emerging as winner in the category of Best Group Blog. All the contributors to the blog, especially Mohib, who founded it and has been a driving force behind it, have reason to be delighted.

Thanks to IndianMuslims.info, the pioneering website of Indian Muslims, which published the news of the nomination and also the results. Of course, thanks due to Brass Crescent. A blogger loves nothing more than recognition in blogosphere and more hits--number of readers. The list of winners in all the categories of the Fourth Brass Crescent Awards is available at the site.

UPDATE

In 2010, it was again listed among top blogs in the category for the best South Asian blogs. The site mentioned, "Indian Muslims Past winner in this category, An Indian Muslim Blog provides an in-depth look at a minority Muslim community larger than that of most Muslim countries".

Once again, two years later, in 2012, it was in the list of best blogs in the world. It was termed, 'look into the world of Islam in India, with an honest balance of modernism with tradition and religion". Besides, it also featured in the list of best regional blogs' category.

In 2013, the blog was again in the top five of best blogs in regional category. "An Indian Muslim's Blog (Indscribe) An portrayal of India as an honest balance of modernism with tradition and religion, and one of the few that covers the niche category of Indian Muslims".