As part of our Innovative Muslims series, I will be profiling a company every month that is making a real difference in the community as a result of it’s products or services. Do contact me if you know of a company that should be included.

The Muslim Sticker Company have a fab range of products that provide a genuine benefit to developing young hearts in today’s society. I caught up with sister Farhat Amin to share with us a little about her company and the kind of things that they’ve been up to.

Asalam alaykum sister and thank you for sharing your time with us today. I’ve been a closet fan of The Muslim Sticker Company for a while now but for the benefit of folks who perhaps haven’t heard the name please tell us a little about the kinds of product you stock.

Walaykum salam, sure no problem, we sell islamic stickers, charts, badges etc. All our products are aimed at helping parents and teachers encourage kids to be good muslims and help them learn about islam in a fun and positive way. For this eid we have produced eid party cups, plates, balloons and banners.

Masha’Allah, how did you come up with the idea?

I had home schooled my kids and worked at an islamic school and I had thought at the time it would be good to reward the kids with islamic stickers and certificates. There was nothing available so I would spend alot of time making my own charts and designing certificates, it was very time consuming.

So once I stopped work I spoke to my husband about the idea. We started off small to test the market out. My husband took care of the design, printing and online side of the business and I focused on the content of the products.

We began with teachers stickers and eid stickers and our juz amma tree which were all very popular and we now have over 50 products in our range.

Wow over 50 products, masha’Allah! What are your other achievements to date?

Our products are sold in US, Japan, France, South Africa, Australia and Denmark. We have translated products into French and Arabic. Over 20 shops in the UK sell our products. In the UK a large number of schools and madrasas use our products to reward kids which makes me really happy. I personally feel a sense of achievement when I speak to parents and teachers and they tell me how much their kids or students like the stickers and how they are helping to improve the children’s behaviour.

Those are pretty amazing achievements masha’Allah and I can understand what you mean to actually see the product you’ve created making a real difference.  I’m interested to know a little bit about yourself.

I am a mum, I have three kids who I have tried and tested all my products on. I am also a full time secondary English teacher. I worked in islamic schools for a few years and also hold islamic circles for teenagers in my local area.

You have quite the schedule and I’m amazed at how you’ve managed to fit everything in. Thank you again for sharing your valuable time with us and I pray that Allah continues to bestow every success on you and The Muslim Sticker Company, ameen.

Folks, please do check out sister Farhat’s website over at www.muslimstickers.com where you can find and securely buy from a wide range of innovative products.

You can contact The Muslim Sticker Company by telephoning (depending on where you are in the world) on; 020 3286 4155 (UK), 206 866 5786 (USA), 02 8005 7860 (Australia). You can email them using info@muslimstickers.com. You can Skype them using muslimstickers or IM them on Yahoo messenger using muslimstickers.

Yesterday I posted about how Google was displaying a warning message about Tijara Pages.  Check out the post here if you missed it.  Well folks all is good now as Google has given us the all clear and removed the warning message from their website.  You can continue to use Tijara Pages malware free… yay!

As of writing, Google is displaying this oh-so-friendly warning telling of how dangerous Tijara Pages is right now.  Well they’re not half wrong, we did get hacked.  But all is not lost.  Our techies were straight on the case  and they’ve sorted the problem.  Tijara Pages is safe again… woohoo!

Having said that, if you visited Tijara Pages earlier today then you should run a malware scan on your machine, if you’re not already protected.  If you are then don’t worry, you’re covered… but run a scan anyway,  just for the heck of it

Seriously though, I am sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.  Please rest assured that Tijara Pages is now safe to visit and will not infect your machine with any kind of virus or malware.  We have contated Google to inform them and they will be removing the notice from their site soon insha’Allah.

Update: Google likes us again… yay!

Driving into the office this morning I heard a piece on the radio as a result of which I had a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moment.  Here is a link to the piece where Radio 4′s Sarah Montague interviews Remona Aly on the Today programme:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8725000/8725419.stm

In a nutshell the campain is entitled Inspired by Muhammad and is basically a showcase of everyday Britons demonstrating how the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has inspired them to contribute to society in a positive way.  Created by an organisation called the Explore Islam Foundation, the campaign aims to create a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.  And judging by the YouGov poll that they’ve had commissioned, there certainly is a need for such efforts that show Islam and Muslims in a positive light.

Please do support them by visiting the links in this post and also tell your family and friends about the campaign.  Oh and mention it to your colleagues at work too, or uni or wherever you come into contact with non-muslims as it is really these people that the campaign is trying to reach out to.

I think the idea behind the campaign is fab and the team behind it have done a great job masha’Allah.  I wish them every success and pray that this is the first of many such campaigns to come.

Muslim spam is on the increase. At least that’s what it feels like to me. I seem to be inundated with emails from well intended muslim companies advertising their various products and services. And then there are the dozens of newsletters and event notices from dawah organisations. A quick straw poll of family and friends shows that there are many others who are receiving such emails also. Maybe I’m being a little harsh but if I am receiving emails from a company or organisation that I have not shared my email address with then I don’t see how this is anything other than spam, albeit muslim spam.

Muslim companies and organisations must improve their online communication practices and not fall into spamming. And of course I include Tijara Pages in this too.

Firstly, to those muslims that sell or share my (and by extension everyone’s) email address: please stop. Just because I emailed you at some point doesn’t give you permission to pass my email address on to somebody else, even if they are a reputable organisation. In fact, if they are a reputable organisation who are involved in good works in the community then quite frankly they should not be building their networks using questionable methods such as this.

Secondly, to those muslim organisations, if you are going to buy or acquire my email address at least have the courtesy to ask me if I want to join your mailing list. Send me an introductory but brief email describing what your future mailings will contain, tell me exactly what you will and won’t do with my email address and ask me for my permission.

Give me the option to subscribe to your mailing list. Don’t assume that I want to join and definitely definitely don’t sign me up and then just include an unsubscribe link.

If you still insist on forcefully signing me up to your mailing list, if I really don’t have any say in the matter then at the very least, please honour any request I make to unsubscribe from your list. It is disingenuous of you to include an unsubscribe link in your email and then when I click on it to remove myself you still continue to send me email after email.

And lastly, when I have unsubscribed and you have stopped sending me emails, please don’t share my email address with anyone else. Not without asking my permission and irrelevant of how deserving you think their cause is.

An email address is no different to somebody’s telephone number and should be treated as such. Signing people up to your email lists without their permission and imposing your messages on them is analogous to harvesting people’s telephone numbers and cold calling them. And you wouldn’t do that now would you? No I didn’t think so.

We all love a bargain and so I thought I’d put together a quick list of the different kinds of discount schemes that are available today that generally target the muslim community.

Have a browse through the list below and let me know in the comments if there are any discount schemes that I may have missed. Oh and do sign up to as many of the schemes as you can to show your support for the businesses involved. And to bag a great bargain of course .

MD Privelege Card

This scheme is managed by Muslim Directory who are the pioneers in this market masha’Allah.

They seem to have quite a few businesses signed up and offering discounts to privelege card holders. You can find out exactly what deals are on offer by checking their website.

You become a privelege card holder by getting in touch with them and providing some contact details. The card costs £15 for one year. Once the year is up you can apply for a new card by paying £15 again. Oh and if you lose your card there is a discretionary fee of £5 to replace it.

Businesses can sign up to offer discounts by contacting MD directly. I don’t think there is a charge to join up per say but you do have to be a paid advertiser in their directory.

Dawah Card

Next up is the dawah card by Islam Channel. This works in the same way as the privelege card. They also have a lot of businesses signed up offering discounts to dawah card holders, details of which you can get on their website. They use this scheme to raise funds for their dawah project.

To become a dawah card holder you contact IC directly giving them some contact details. There isn’t a set charge to obtain the card but they do ask for a donation to their dawah project of a minimum of £1 per month. Once you have the card you can immediately start to redeem any of the discounts on offer.

Businesses sign up to the scheme by contacting IC directly. There is a charge of £250 per year and you have to offer some kind of a discount. However the added bonus is that you get your logo displayed on their TV advert that advertises the dawah card. You also get an entry in their business brochure that gets printed and distributed every year.

Ummah Vouchers

The first muslim voucher website, Ummah Vouchers is basically a directory of discounts being offered by muslim businesses. They are relatively new to the market and so don’t have as many businesses signed up with them compared to the schemes mentioned earlier. However their’s is certainly an interesting take on the discount scheme as they’ve eliminated the need to have to carry around a physical card.

As a consumer, if you want to take advantage of any of the discounts on their website you simply print off the relevant voucher to take to the merchant. They also have discounts for online businesses where you simply copy the discount code and paste it in to the merchant’s website. There is no charge to get access to their discounts but you do need to register on their website to be able to print vouchers.

Businesses can sign up by registering on their website also. Once registered they will contact you for more details on the kinds of dicounts that you want to offer. There does seem to be a charge for businesses to join the scheme but there is no published pricing policy available to confirm the exact details.

KIM Card

Last but by no means least there is our very own KIM (Keep It Muslim) Card. The youngest out of all the schemes mentioned, KIM has quickly grown to become the largest in terms of the discounts being offered. Details of all discounts on offer are available on the KIM website.

You can take advantage of any of the KIM discounts by becoming a KIM member. You don’t need to fill out any forms to become a KIM member, simply text I SUPPORT KIM to 07786 20 10 76. You instantly receive a unique reference that you can then use to redeem discounts, which means that there is no plastic card to carry around in your pocket. There is no charge to join and even the text message that you send is effectively free as most mobile phones come with text bundles as standard nowadays. Oh and if you lose your reference number simply text again and you will receive a new reference – again no charge.

As a business you can join by simply submitting your details online. There is no charge to join KIM and you get your business details displayed on both the KIM and Tijara Pages website.

I wanted to inform you of a fantastic new project, the Keep It Muslim (KIM) Discount Scheme.  As the name suggests the KIM discount scheme allows for you the consumer to get some great discounts from trusted retailers and traders.  All you have to do is become a KIM member and you will instantly have access to a range of deals and discounts.  With over 170 retailers already signed up and offering discounts that’s a whole lot of deals that you could be taking advantage of.

How do you become a member?  It couldn’t be simpler.  Text I SUPPORT KIM to 07786 20 10 76 and you will instantly receive your unique reference number. It is this reference number that you will use to redeem your discount with a participating retailer.

Why a text message and not a plastic card?  Simply because a text message means one less card to carry in your wallet or purse and we all do our bit for the environment in the process. Oh and if you accidentally delete your text message just text the number again and you’ll receive a new reference instantly.

Well what are you waiting for?  Go on and text 07786 20 10 76 now and start saving money on thousands of muslim products.

Still not convinced? Go here to get more information and a list of retailers who are offering discounts as part of the KIM scheme.

Are you a trader interested in joining the KIM discount scheme?  Go here for more information and sign up.

Tijara Pages have joined forces with the UmmahLife Group to create the Keep It Muslim (KIM) Discount Scheme.

Our aim with the KIM discount scheme is simple, to generate more leads for you.  All you need to do is sign up to the scheme and tell us how much discount you are prepared to give to KIM members. We will do the rest.

KIM members will contact you directly to redeem your offered discount, which means more trade for you. Of course another benefit is that we all trade with one another achieving some semblance of unity.

Oh I nearly forgot, you get double exposure as a KIM retailer.  Sign up and your business details will appear on Tijara Pages and the KIM discount scheme website.  There is also a third website in the pipeline that will be used to further the wider KIM campaign and your business details will appear on there too.  This means that your business will in fact get triple not double exposure.

And the best thing of all is that it costs you nothing… nada… zilch!  Yes it is absolutely free for you to join the KIM discount scheme.  All you need to do is sign up.  So what are you waiting for?  Use the following link and sign up now:

Sign up as a KIM retailer now!

Just when you thought this blog was dead we’ve come back to revive it.  It indeed has been two years since I last posted on the blog and that’s simply embarrassing.  I won’t bore you with excuses as to why I haven’t posted, suffice to say that a lot has been happening with Tijara Pages over the last couple of years; our traffic has grown by approx 50%, we’ve released new features and forged new partnerships.  All of which is way too much to discuss in this post so I’ll end here for now.

Insha’Allah I do intend to post more so please do check back soon or subscribe via RSS for updates and news.  Oh and feel free to give me a good telling off in the comments, lol!

I am delighted to announce a new partnership that came into effect in December with MyAdhan (www.myadhan.com).  MyAdhan are the leading provider of SMS based services to the Muslim community.  We’ve teamed up with MyAdhan to provide you with the ‘Send to Mobile’ feature.  This is a useful little gadget that allows you to download any of the business details on Tijara Pages to your mobile phone.  You receive business details as a text message, which is sent using MyAdhan’s SMS system.  You pay nothing for any of the texts that you receive from us and you can download as many business details as you like.  Try it now and come back and tell us what you think of the service.

To receive free business details by text follow the following steps:

1. Register your mobile phone to use the service by texting the word ‘TIJARA’ to 60060.  This text will cost you your normal network charge.  You will receive a text back confirming that you are registered and can use the service.
2. Find a business on Tijara Pages to download.
3. Click the ‘Send to Mobile’ link.
4. Enter your mobile number in the space provided, tick the box and click the button.
5. You will automatically receive a text that contains the business details.

Please note that this is not a premium subscription service.  You will not be charged for any texts you receive from us.  And you will only recieve texts from us when you download business details from Tijara Pages.

This is only the beginning insha’Allah as we have more services planned for release in the next few weeks.  Of course I will keep you all informed of any developments.  Watch this space for more information.