Salaam Swipe software enables Muslims to meet up with and perhaps marry – all with no intervention of the interfering aunt or uncle
Ben Flanagan
Meet ‘Salaam Swipe’ – a Muslim deal with one of many world’s biggest hook-up app.
The new iphone 4 software, which formally founded in August, features pulled inevitable comparisons with Tinder, the web relationships service that suits singles – or not-so-singles – whom ‘swipe right’ for each other’s profile pages.
But Salaam Swipe have a significant differences, in that it really is aimed specifically at Muslims wanting prefer and wedding.
It was created by Khalil Jessa, 26, who was simply born and elevated in Vancouver, Canada. Like Tinder, the application utilizes GPS to acquire singles in a user’s geographical area, permitting them to swipe best if they fancy another user’s profile, or leftover as long as they don’t.
But unlike Tinder, Salaam Swipe allows individuals identify whether or not they include liberal, reasonable, or old-fashioned – in addition to getting Sunni, Shia or “just Muslim” – and filter her potential matches from 
the exact same conditions.
Jessa – just who read Middle Eastern reports and Political research and earlier worked in Canadian government – said the guy launched the software because of the problem visitors have in appointment similar Muslims inside the very own society.
“We have all these different divisions. So that means it is very difficult for teenagers meet up with both, particularly satisfying each other serendipitously, in the way your satisfy everyone else,” he stated. “we made this [app] because all of us reside they.”
Salaam Swipe officially went are now living in August, and almost all the “thousands” of members come in Canada as well as the U.S., Jessa mentioned. Really offered to get for free from the Apple software shop in the Middle eastern, with the official release in this area planned during the next year, in conjunction with an Arabic-language adaptation.
The app’s maker told Al Arabiya Information just how Salaam Swipe is significantly diffent for the raft of other Muslim matchmaking sites – and why he believes it should be a nice-looking proposition for Arab singles.
Q&A with Khalil Jessa, maker of Salaam Swipe
Q. Therefore can it be a Muslim Tinder? Or don’t the thing is the app by doing so? The point that we’ve [in typical] with Tinder will be the swiping. You swipe remaining or perhaps you swipe correct, and you also accommodate, your chat. But we now have more beyond that that really takes into account some subtleties of our own neighborhood. You’ll be able to go fully into the software and pick how you see yourself, and what your denomination try – Sunni, Shia, ‘just Muslim’ or non-practicing. And you will experiment with those settings to find the particular people you are interested in.
Q. What if their friend, buddy or cousin, and on occasion even – yikes! – your mother and father had been regarding app also? There is in-built an ‘incognito’ mode that covers you against your friends and relations. When you turn this particular feature on – and it also’s cost-free for a small time – you’ll hide out of your friends and family. Providing they’re the fb buddy, along with that feature turned on, you might not find them.
Q. just how become Muslims in your people in Canada meeting one another today? Is-it through group introductions? There will be a spot for this inside our area – for loved ones setting one another up. And that I wouldn’t actually say that we’re very not the same as the traditional strategies. Traditionally one parents would give a photo and only a little bio to another family, whenever they like both they will exchange the bios with the teens – and get when they wanna see each other. We’re actually carrying out the same – but without your own auntie and uncle.
Q. Just how can Muslims inside people feel about their families intervening in their appreciation schedules? It all depends about person. For many people, the way they read themselves as well as their existence is not the same as how their own mothers view it. And so that difference is what i do want to take away.
Q. really does the Sunni/Shia break down material whenever younger Muslims in Canada require partners? It will for a lot of someone. As well as many people it doesn’t. And thus that is why we have actually that option on the website, to express ‘I don’t read myself personally as a Sunni or Shia, I’m just Muslim’. One of the philosophies behind Salaam Swipe would be that we celebrate the diversity associated with the Muslim society. It’s not supposed to break down us. It’s designed to celebrate which we are.
Q. certainly there are various other Muslim matchmaking internet online, eg Shaadi, SingleMuslim, Muzmatch and Ishqr. How might their software differ? Each one of these web sites are extremely great – we don’t need speak adversely about them. I do believe just what distinguishes united states may be the signs of religiosity that individuals use. We inquire men and women to self-identify, we don’t base they about how people have a look, we base they on what’s inside of all of them. I don’t desire the app to say ‘ok, you gown in this way, you appear such as this, thus we’re making the assumption that you’re more or less religious’. Because I don’t genuinely believe that’s valid.
Q. what sort of comments are you presently acquiring from consumers for the app? A lot of people include thanking all of us for what we accomplished. I believe anyone really acknowledge the need since they live it. If they discover how harder it is to acquire some one, and you also attend an answer that can change lives within lifetime, I think it’s appreciated.
Q. In a number of Middle Eastern region adult dating sites tend to be blocked. What’s the response to that? Before we created this application we talked to extremely respected religious folk near to me – imams. And they happened to be all really supporting. In the same way very long since it’s getting used in a manner that is not nefarious In my opinion they’ll support it. Because they additionally understand requirement – additionally they live-in those communities and determine what teenagers are going through.
Q. you think dating sites will build recognition at the center East, offered some see all of them as haram (prohibited in Islam)? Well Iran just founded its very own dating internet site, work because of the condition. Therefore if a country like Iran can begin a state-wide dating internet site, then I imagine there’s certainly possibility in the Middle East. And then we don’t really determine our selves as a dating site. We’re a matching site – we match you with others. Therefore can’t complement with some one unless both group complement together, unlike a dating website where you can message anyone or wink at anyone, or whatever it’s folks do. We’re nothing like that, we simply accommodate your upwards.
