Is the money earned from Google AdSense halalor haram? This question probably raised some alert to those Muslim bloggers who have the intention to earn money from the Internet but is skeptical or doubtful if the money making program (in this case, Google AdSense) is halal or haram. If the program is illegal or scam, it is definitely haram. However, there is no known fatwa stating whether Google AdSense ishalal or otherwise.
Now let's refine what kind of ads Google show on its AdSense network. In most cases, Google does not accept pornographic ads, illegal, fraudulent or any kind of hate ads.
Google however, does show ads that involve gambling, cigarettes and alcohols which to the Muslim is haram. Having a haram ads pop-up on an Islamic sites would create havoc or at the very least, some embarrassment.
In addition to that, Google billions dollars revenue are received from it various advertisers whose source of money are also doubtful. For all you know, a gambling tycoon might be spending millions on Google to advertise his new program. And that would make Google money dirty.
So if Google money is dirty or unclean, does that means Google AdSense is haram. So far, not much topics (especially in English) covered this issue. This is compounded by the fact that English-language blogs (or Google for that matter) assumed that the Muslim are not interested in making money from the Internet and Google would want to concentrate more on the greener pasture, that is the US. Most also thought that Muslim blogs are mostly written in Arabic and Google AdSense does not have many Arabs sponsors or advertisers.
Even if Google money is clean or halal, most Muslim bloggers who subscribed to Google AdSense program will only feel comfortable if the advertisers themselves are Muslim. That's hardly the case. Google big chunks of revenue came from the US which includes its advertisers and published. For the time being, we can just continue to assume that the Muslim are desert dwellers and are not keen in roaming in this internet age blogosphere.
But with the camels and the dates getting short in supply (read: global economic slowdown), the Muslim bloggers may just flocks to Google AdSense.
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