DJPoopypants
05 Jan 2006, 03:32 PM
Interesting article about a tv preacher who is more influential than Oprah (?)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article336386.ece
Khaled is the Arab world's first Islamic tele-evangelist, a digital age Billy Graham who has fashioned himself into the anti-Bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking power of satellite TV and the internet to turn around a generation of lost Muslim youth.
Khaled, 38, defies the stereotype of the Islamic preacher. In his Cairo office it would be easy to mistake him for a City banker. No flowing robes for him. He wears a hand-tailored cream suit, an open-necked sky-blue shirt,brown loafers and a Bulgari watch. The accountant-turned-preacher shifts easily between the worlds of religion and business.
There is more than a touch of the thespian in Khaled, and he is well aware of the power of his words to motivate. His prime target is the youth of the Arab world, who feel that they are second-class citizens in a world dominated by the United States and its values. To these young people he has a tough message about the destructive force of self-pity. "We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving," he says. "Don't tell us it is a Western conspiracy against us, it is not."
A month before, Khaled was in London when the terror attacks killed 52 people. "This," he hisses, "is nowhere in Islam. If anyone kills children or women, this is not acceptable not only in Islam, in the Jewish faith, in Christianity, in all the religions."
Khaled's words are music to the ears of Western interests. But while the preacher might be hip, he is deeply conservative.
very interesting. I guess it does answer the one perpetual question about where are the muslim leaders denouncing acts of terror - we got one of the biggest right here.
He sure does sound like a televangelist - showy, crowd-pleasing, minimal formal religious training. And what do people think of his message - terrorism bad, the west bad, blame the west bad, headscarves good, (saudi arabian millionaire backing very good) ?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article336386.ece
Khaled is the Arab world's first Islamic tele-evangelist, a digital age Billy Graham who has fashioned himself into the anti-Bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking power of satellite TV and the internet to turn around a generation of lost Muslim youth.
Khaled, 38, defies the stereotype of the Islamic preacher. In his Cairo office it would be easy to mistake him for a City banker. No flowing robes for him. He wears a hand-tailored cream suit, an open-necked sky-blue shirt,brown loafers and a Bulgari watch. The accountant-turned-preacher shifts easily between the worlds of religion and business.
There is more than a touch of the thespian in Khaled, and he is well aware of the power of his words to motivate. His prime target is the youth of the Arab world, who feel that they are second-class citizens in a world dominated by the United States and its values. To these young people he has a tough message about the destructive force of self-pity. "We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving," he says. "Don't tell us it is a Western conspiracy against us, it is not."
A month before, Khaled was in London when the terror attacks killed 52 people. "This," he hisses, "is nowhere in Islam. If anyone kills children or women, this is not acceptable not only in Islam, in the Jewish faith, in Christianity, in all the religions."
Khaled's words are music to the ears of Western interests. But while the preacher might be hip, he is deeply conservative.
very interesting. I guess it does answer the one perpetual question about where are the muslim leaders denouncing acts of terror - we got one of the biggest right here.
He sure does sound like a televangelist - showy, crowd-pleasing, minimal formal religious training. And what do people think of his message - terrorism bad, the west bad, blame the west bad, headscarves good, (saudi arabian millionaire backing very good) ?