There are hundreds of millions of Shia Muslims worldwide, practicing their faith in a huge variety of different ways. They are a disparate group, yet they are united through their core beliefs. They are a group whose origins are found some 1400 years in the past, their ethnicity often inextricably linked with their faith. Hitherto, however, there has been no way to easily unify them and their common appreciation of Islam. The .SHIA gTLD will change this.
Islam is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qurʹan, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: Allāh), and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim, and Shias are a sub-sect of this community. Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is based on the teachings of the Quran and the message of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In contrast to other schools of thought, the Shia believe that only God has the right to choose a representative to safeguard Islam, the Quran and sharia (based upon verses in the Quran which stipulate this according to the Shia). For this reason, the Shias look to Ali, whom they consider divinely appointed, as the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the first imam. The Shia believe that there are numerous narrations where Muhammad selected Ali as his successor.
Like all other Muslims, however, Shia Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to love and serve God. Shia Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. They maintain that previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or corrupted over time, but consider the Qurʹan to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to warfare and the environment.
Shias are the second largest Muslim sect (after Sunnis), making up 10–20% of the total Muslim population. As far as general Muslim population goes, about 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, 25% in South Asia, 20% in the Middle East, 2% in Central Asia, 4% in the remaining South East Asian countries, and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sizable communities are also found in China, Russia, and parts of Europe. Amongst all of these Muslim populations, Shias can be found. With over 1.5 billion followers or over 22% of earthʹs population, Islam is the second-largest and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.
A robust gTLD has the power to bring together Shia Muslims across national borders in a free-flowing exchange of information and commerce. There is not a .COM or .ORG equivalent of .SHIA--a domain that has universal appeal across a common religion.
Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (AGITSys) was founded in, and is headquartered in, Turkey (an Islamic nation that straddles Europe and the Middle East) by Muslims with great devotion to their religion, which manifests itself in both pride and honor. Because of this, and their devotion to brining a quality online space for the Shia Muslim faithful amongst others, AGITSys’ founders have gathered together a highly experienced team with a variety of Internet-based expertise, a daunting but critical task. The team behind AGITSys has taken a leading role in working toward dedicated Shia Muslim domain names for more than 8 years. No entity is better suited to manage the .SHIA gTLD, nor more dedicated to providing new online tools and services to facilitate the unification of the .SHIA community online. The .SHIA gTLD will increasingly open up the vast resources of the Internet and the interconnectedness it brings to the Shia Muslim community, while stimulating the introduction of more information and resources among Shia Muslims online. The .SHIA gTLD is designed to accommodate a global community, and AGITSysʹ team’s work with ICANN has always looked not just to serving Shia Muslim people but all users of the internet - thus serving Shia Muslims and those interested in the Shia Muslim faith all around the world – whilst simultaneously achieving ICANN’s goal of creating greater competition in the gTLD space. |