Thread by @still_reading

Sadly, I have to boycott @BaytAlFann

They just plagiarized @Internalstrife's article for the 'Muslim kung fu' thread. Then they plagiarized Ziauddin Sardar for their #Qawwali thread.(criticalmuslim.io/qawwali/)

Hausa architecture thread? Plagiarized. (e.g. guardian.ng/life/pre-colon…)

Bayt al-Fann consistently takes the art, imagery, scholarship and narrative voices of others, and uses them without permission or acknowledgment - both here and on their website. They've built a 100k following on Twitter alone.

A textbook case of cultural appropriation.

There have been vague assurances that this sort of thing won't keep happening. And it continues.

Does anyone even know who they are? Their website says nothing about who runs Bayt al-Fann. Their operation is clearly well-organized and disciplined.

And unethical.

"God commands you to return things entrusted to you to their owners" (4:58)

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا۟ ٱلْأَمَـٰنَـٰتِ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِهَا

"Whoever is not thankful to people, is not thankful to Allah" (Tirmidhi)

مَنْ لاَ يَشْكُرِ النَّاسَ لاَ يَشْكُرِ اللَّهَ

It's all really perverse. Think how many Pakistani / diaspora readers were thrilled to see the eloquent thread on #Qawwali -- beaming with pride as Bayt al-Fann spoon-fed them their own stolen scholarship.

Truly is a shame.

https://twitter.com/Schandillia/status/1615357868542431233?s=20

For thoroughness - this is a second source they coped their Hausa architecture thread from: somethingcurated.com/2022/01/11/a-h…

Bayt al-Fann has still not removed its plagiarized 'Muslim kung fu' thread.

It's been a week since the real author asked them to remove the content they copied without permission (and without acknowledgement when they first posted it).

https://twitter.com/Internalstrife/status/1612942289013280768

More context on the previous tweet:

https://twitter.com/Internalstrife/status/1615376397492539392?s=20

I saw this too! They posted that and then just immediately continued plagiarizing.

https://twitter.com/Thamina_F/status/1615378618766577666?s=20

More plagiarism by Bayt al-Fann:

https://twitter.com/Yael_Rice/status/1615434811107074060

Stealing others' work and passing it off as their own appears to be a core part of their content creation process. That's messed up.

Bayt al-Fann's viral thread on Muslim Hip Hop was built on plagiarized content as well. So disappointing

https://twitter.com/still_reading/status/1615510310479335424

I forgot to mention that Bayt al-Fann's Qawwali thread also plagiarizes this article from 2021, in addition to copying from Ziauddin Sardar's work.
ipassio.com/blog/qawwali-m…

Do you know how hard it is to turn deep expertise into engaging prose? Have you ever spent hours tracking down a source for a footnote? Distilled years of experience into a story? It takes hard, tedious work to craft the content that you are copying.

https://twitter.com/BaytAlFann/status/1615435042309935104

A third source that was blatantly plagiarized in Bayt al-Fann's Hausa architecture thread -- this work by @rhaplord: isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/hausa-urban-…

Another problem with plagiarizing others' work: readers have no way to tell when unreliable info is being regurgitated to them. In the case, Bayt al-Fann's plagiarism of a sketchy blog post introduced errors and nonsense into their #Qawwali thread.

https://twitter.com/maihar_sarode/status/1615598112801947653

I have nothing against accounts that curate content - if they do it ethically. Doesn't @BaytAlFann realize that people would love to see them uplifting others' work? And many artists / writers would have happily let them (properly) quote or cite their content. This is so needless

I've learned (from @bahathmag - follow them) that Bayt al-Fann's thread on Chinese Arabic calligraphy used their work: bahath.co/calligraphy

The BaF thread was posted & widely seen on Dec 16. They added an end-tweet giving credit on Jan 11 - after being asked

Some clarity on who / what Bayt al-Fann is. Unfortunately they are professionally trained in curation and citation best practices, and absolutely know better.

https://twitter.com/still_reading/status/1615745998940405762

Two things.

1. I'll never support Bayt al-Fann after this. The whole thing is theft. Knowingly done. Rotten.

2. Let's support legit Islamic art & arch. curation projects. Like a REAL artist collective -- not just one person + their friend/sibling stealing content for their LLC.

The rice thread is also plagiarized. Here they copy from a larger number of sources than in many other threads.

You can see why so many of their posts include wrong info. They copy randomly wikipedia, random blogs etc. No source standards, just vibes.

https://twitter.com/desmukh/status/1615904390786994176?s=20

The wondrous Socotra dragon blood tree thread: Plagiarism + false information on the part of Bayt al-Fann

https://twitter.com/joumajnouna/status/1615982768512700416