Canada’s Salaam Swipe offers matchmaking opps

OnIslam & News Agencies

BRITISH COLUMBIA – Offering Canadian Muslims an opportunity to marry within their Islamic culture, a new matchmaking app has been created to help young ones find life partners in a halal way.

“Being the person to bring people together is seen as a very noble thing to do,” Khalil Jessa, the creator of the app, told The Province on Tuesday, August 18.

“We don’t promote ourselves as a dating app, we’re a matching app.

“We just help people get together and meet each other.”

Called “Salaam Swipe”, the matching app aims to let young Muslims meet and get to know others within their culture, without the pressure of being set up by relatives.

Imitating the Tinder dating website, the new app allows users to swipe right if they like, left if they don’t, along with other unique twists.

Besides including filters for potential matches by denomination, religiosity, or outlook, the app features an incognito mode, which filters out any online friends or connections for more privacy in the search for a partner.

What makes the Muslim app different is providing a specific outcome, which is marriage.

“They’re looking for someone who shares a spiritual or cultural identity, so the connections will already be deeper,” Jessa said.

“My philosophy behind the app is to capture the diversity of the Muslim world.”

Planned a year ago, Salaam Swipe is set to launch publically on Wednesday, August 19, according to its 26-year-old creator.

“These types of swiping apps have become normalized in society and being a young Muslim, if I want to look for someone in my community, it’s really difficult,” Jessa said.

Matchmaking is one function that has not faded with modernity.

In recent years, as matchmakers, respected individuals and Muslim organizations from communities, especially in the UK and the US, have sought to resolve the problem of finding a suitable partner in a halal way by organizing social events.

These events allow for those seeking marriage to meet prospective partners with their families present.

“What we’re doing is breaking down the barriers that exist, that make it difficult for young Muslims to meet each other,” Jessa said.

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