Thunayan took some time to write a thought provoking post on Arabs.com, which explains the forum’s purpose, touching on the historical significance of current events in the Arab world:

Though conscience is a concept difficult to define in general, it is quite easy for the person to credibly define their individual conscience. Individual conscience is the standard of credibility to which we subscribe and express ourselves. At Arabs.com, the human conscience, consciously defined by human individuality, is our source of credibility.

The greatest space of freedom is the one between a person’s ears. Arabs.com is concerned with safeguarding the independence and integrity of this space.

It is Arabs.com’s profound belief in the maturity of the Arab consciousness—which has transcended the stagnant political process and overturned historical convictions—that compelled us to lay the foundations for this forum. This is a forum for Arabs, by Arabs, from every dissent, without bias or preference for one voice over another. This is a forum to create a reality for Arabs without censorship or guardianship, where each person is responsible for their exercise of free choice and expression.

History is made not by super-powers of heaven or earth, but human-made, through the collective exercise of humanity expressing its self freely, and that is our strategic philosophy in contributing to the creation of a new reality in the Arab world and the world at large…”

FMA has tens of thousands of domain names, and likely hundreds of top quality domain assets like Arabs.com. Development is time consuming, especially when you consider the moderation that must go into operating a forum such as the one on Arabs.com.

Although I don’t speak Arabic (some might say I am still trying to master the English language), I want to wish Thunayan and FMA, bettawfeeq – good luck on this new venture.

I also look forward to seeing the launch of one of my favorite FMA domain names, Ibiza.com, which is expected in April. Hopefully I will get to celebrate the launch of the site with him in Ibiza (wife permitting of course).

If you have a look at the archives in DNForum, there’s a thread started by the “mysterious” Kuwaiti domain investor, elequa (also known as Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim of Future Media Architects). In the thread, Thunayan mentioned that he was bidding on the domain name at “NW,” a Dotster subsidiary, although he did not win. At that time, the domain name sold for around $15,000. Had Thunayan prevailed in the auction, the domain name would never have been resold, as his company does not sell any of its domain names.

Funny enough, someone who goes by the nickname “DomainGoon” (sarcastically) asked, “the real question is, how many years would take to make $15,000 back using that domain?” I guess the answer is 7 years, for more than 1,000% return on that $15,000 investment.

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PS: Thunayan – call me… I will be in your neck of the woods in 10 days.

Tucows’ NetIdentity portfolio of common surnames offers something similar, but FMA has a portfolio of hundreds of fun domain names that will surely be in high demand. The company is still working out the interface, but according to Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim, President of FMA, the company hopes to begin offering the service sometime in the near future.

This is another corporate attempt at wrestling a generic domain name from a legitimate domain owner. How many more victories will Thunayan and FMA need to have before outsiders see this as a losing cause?

EFX.com – Children’s development toys using sounds and effects
Palette.com – Color tools, resources, and information
OSK.com – On screen keyboard information and tool
AI.com – Information and news about artificial intelligence
Cooperators.com – Meeting place and resource for people looking to cooperate to make the world a better place for everyone

Future Media Architects, which is led by domain pioneer (and my friend) Thunayan Khalid AL-Ghanim, also announced that Ibiza.com will soon be launched.  Thunayan is one of the most dynamic people in the domain industry, and it’s great to see his company continue to develop its domain properties.  FMA has a policy to never sell their domain names, and with their strong development strategy, it isn’t surprising.

Congratulations and cheers to Thunayan and his team at FMA.