As part of efforts toward regular renovation of electronic communication channels and trigger better interaction with customers, the Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department has re-launched its portal with a new look and URL. With a critical eye, we review the new portal, www.iacad.gov.ae.

 Portal to Spiritual Direction & Guidance

 Much can be said about the website of the Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department but the bottom-line is that it constitutes a channel for providing direction and guidance to the community. The bulk of the content is instructional and directional, designed to help people become better persons and live in peacefully under Islam’s wise regulations. The website features a prayer timing service for Dubai and other emirates. It also incorporates guides for religious information and publications to increase people’s awareness of Islam’s tenets.

 Some of the most important sections of the website are:

 1. Direction & Guidance: The website incorporates a written copy of Friday Sermons, in addition to religious publications as part of the website e-Library. This section also includes some of the articles published in the department’s magazine which features valuable information relevant to daily living. 2. Subscribe to newsletter: Users can subscribe to the website’s newsletter by proving their e-mail addresses on the subscription form. 3. Diaa Magazine: A comprehensive magazine, in Arabic and English, issued by the department containing important articles on Islamic upbringing and reform. 

Behind eServices 

Notably, by virtue of its nature, the Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department does not offer transactional services to the public as it serves Islamic convictions and beliefs. Nevertheless, the department eServices team has made sterling efforts to exploit the Internet wide reach by launching a set of innovative and revolutionary eServices that relate to the social and humane aspects of people’s lives. Some of these eServices are: 1. Fatwa request: This service is handled by experts in Islamic fatwa, known for their moderation and deep understanding of issues, when deciding a fatwa. 2. Family Consultation: The service aims to achieve social reform by providing family guidance. It is managed by specialists from the fields of child rearing and family relationships.

 Information Index 

The website offers comprehensive information that Muslims need to know to perform their religious obligations correctly. Some of these informative services are:1. Prayer timings2. List of Quran memorizing centersin Dubai approved by the IACAD3. Director of official mosques in Dubai and their locations4. Identify Qibla direction for those who wish to build a new mosque or who live in a new neighborhood and need to find the right direction.5. Services on building and re-building of mosques6. Reporting on cleanliness and maintenance of mosques7. Events & Activities: The website features up-to-date information on all scientific and social events, seminars and religious lectures organized by the department. 

Comments and Comparisons

 The services of the Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department surpass the limitations of traditional electronic services that usually involve transactions, documents, and fee payment. This aspect indicates the creativity and inventiveness of the department’s IT team. However, considering our role as objective partners in the eTransformation process, we have a few comments. All the above-mentioned services were also found in the earlier website. No core features,functions or services were added to the revamped website. Many additions could have been made to enhance the interaction between the department and the public, such as displaying multimedia files of major events organised by the department, broadcasting a recording of theFriday sermon on TV and developing versions of the website in other languages -other than Arabic and English- which would allow different nationalities to better comprehend the tenets of Islam. 

Moreover, the new design uses excessive images, which leads to maximizing the homepage size to nearly 2 MB. This takes about 5 minutes to be uploaded, if using a slow-speed modem. The homepage of the well-known Yahoo search engine is only 200 KB, one tenth of the IACAD homepage. Maximizing the size of a page does not mean that it will be better navigated or that the information is more important. 

In addition, the search engine is not working. One feature that was available in the previous website and we hope to see in the new one is the contact information, which lists telephone numbers and e-mails of department employees, including its director general and heads of divisions. The current version of the website only has a form that users can fill out to be contacted and a table of the organizational structure. From our point of view, this is a big climbdown and must be re-considered. Opening electronic doors to officials is more important than many other online services.