Halal tech: how Muslim-friendly websites and apps blossomed in 2024
A many Killawi made a breakup playlist every time she was dumped, three in all. The playlists, which feature songs such as Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know and Apologize by OneRepublic, would make good soundtracks to romantic splits, but that’s not what they were. The playlists came together after Killawi was told by three different banks and payment processors they would no longer work with LaunchGood, the crowdfunding platform for the Muslim community she co-founded.
Stripe said it was restricting its work in the crowdfunding space after five years of working with LaunchGood. Stripe also told the company it didn’t want to do any more international humanitarian work – a prerequisite for a crowdfunding platform that caters to the Muslim community. Another bank told the company there were too many Muslim and Arabic names and figuring out if those names belonged to sanctioned individuals was difficult.
“People don’t realize Muhammad is the most sanctioned name,” Killawi, who was the chief operating officer at LaunchGood, said. With each dismissal, it felt like LaunchGood was on the brink of collapse. “If you can’t accept payments, you can’t exist as a company,” she said.
