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Amr Khaled: Islam's Billy Graham More popular than Oprah Winfrey, the world's first Islamic television evangelist commands an army of millions of followers
David Hardaker reports from Cairo Published: 04 January 2006
In a tiny house on the West Bank a young Palestinian woman is jogging the length of her hallway and back. Again and again. The pain becomes unbearable. But she keeps going. Eventually she completes two thousand laps. Why? Because Amr said so. He called on young Muslims to get fit, and the woman could find no other safe place to run.
In the choking grime of Cairo, another young woman is tending to a small tomato vine, struggling into life atop a 10-storey city block. Why? Because Amr wants his young followers to see something grow. It will provide hope - and maybe a small income - in a part of the world where both are in short supply. The greening of rooftops in the filth and decay of this Arab mega city is a story being repeated again and again throughout the Arab world.
It is a powerful metaphor for the work of a religious and marketing phenomenon called Amr Khaled, who is trying to pump oxygen into the arid lives of Muslim youth. Amr (rhymes with "charmer") 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.
"When you look at the reach of what he is doing and when you look at the millions he is touching, I don't know another single individual in the region who is having the impact that Amr Khaled is having," says the American Rick Little, an adviser on youth issues to the UN who has worked with Khaled on job creation schemes in the Middle East.
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.
To demonstrate the success of Khaled Inc, the CEO has at the ready a series of graphs and pie-charts in a tastefully designed Annual Report. Inside he points to the proof of his proudest boast: that Amr Khaled is more popular than the US talk show juggernaut Oprah Winfrey.
Certainly, it seems to be the case. A corporate graph shows the number of hits on the Amrkhaled.net website soaring far and beyond the Winfrey line. It is a strange point of reference for an Islamic preacher. He explains, though, that he is neither a preacher nor an Oprah. "I am in my own box," he laughs. And perhaps he is.
Unlike other Middle Eastern preachers, Khaled has had a taste of life on the other side of the religious and cultural divide. Three years ago he was banned from speaking in Egypt because of his popularity. In self-imposed exile, he set up shop in London, where he says he lived "a wonderful life, in freedom".
Khaled has returned to his home country in the past few weeks, but his experience of the West sharpened his perspective on the problems facing young Muslims, in England and in the Arab world. He has come back with a dream: "I am going now to build a bridge between the East and the West," he declares.
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."
Khaled's words capture what official reports into the Middle East have been pointing to with increasing alarm: that rising poverty, unemployment and illiteracy have made a toxic cocktail. Combined with authoritarian governments and hostility to the United States, the cocktail has turned deadly and made its young people easy prey for the likes of Osama bin Laden.
Khaled's remedy is a tough personal regime of self-renewal, based on what he says are real Islamic values. His messages are drawn from the Koran, but they are shaped to the 21st century. Muslims are told why it is contrary to Islam to smoke, to litter the streets or to be lazy, and why it is good to collect clothes for the poor or to vote in elections.
One devotee is the Egyptian business graduate Iman Salama, 24. She listens to Khaled through a Walkman tucked under her veil while she does the housework. "I am a big fan," she says. "I like that he wants to make the beliefs of Islam more something that you can do in your day-to-day life." Like thousands of others, Iman Salama has grown impatient with the establishment preachers, who are determined not to move with the times. "They are not really up to the standards that are needed to make the Muslim people relate to Islam in a changing world," she says.
In the eyes of Arab elders, though, the TV preacher is little more than a showman, a judgement which is reinforced every time another high-profile celebrity signs up to the Khaled cause. Around Cairo's establishment dinner tables there is much tut-tutting about the lay preacher's lack of formal religious training. Muslim scholars scorn his "air-conditioned" brand of Islam.
However, in the best traditions of United States tele-evangelists, the Khaled style on stage is a big seller. With eyes shut tight the preacher will summon a message as though from the depths of his soul. His face contorts. There's a rush of emotion. His voice rises to an excited squeal. In a trice he brings his audience back down again, his voice dropping to a near whisper.
Khaled's connections range far and wide across the spectrum of politics and business. Little, who is also CEO of an international philanthropic organisation, ImagineNations, first heard of the preacher's influence when he was interviewing young Muslims for a book he is writing with Queen Rania of Jordan.
"I was shocked by the number of young people from a diverse number of countries and backgrounds and socio-economic levels who kept on talking about Amr and the influence he was having in their lives," he said from his Maryland office in the US. "I thought whoever this guy is, he is someone I would like to get to know and learn more about."
Khaled is a favourite of Queen Rania. His brochures are littered with happy snaps of him with the influential: with the President of Yemen, being presented with a UN award, signing a deal with the chief of Dubai police.
It makes the preacher a powerful political lever for the West in its quest to neutralise the anger of young Muslims. The British Government has already seen the potential. In mid-2004, leaked Cabinet papers named Khaled as a figure worth promoting as a counterweight to the imams preaching jihad in England.
In the face of evidence of hostile intent from within England's own Muslim communities, Tony Blair asked the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull, to come up with strategies. Sir Andrew reported: "We need to find ways of strengthening the hand of moderate Muslim leaders, including the young Muslims with future leadership potential, through the status which contact with the Government can confer, and through practical capacity building measures."
The British Government has been happy to back Khaled's efforts. Last August, the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells sent a message of support for a conference organised by the preacher, praising him for his "courage and strength" in attempting to bring cultures together.
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.
The Khaled phenomenon is being fed by a range of forces, not only companies such as the Nike Corporation, but by billionaire Saudi businessmen as well. Of the latter, Khaled says: "I chose the moderate people, not just anyone from Saudi Arabia."
It certainly makes the man with the simple message a more complex proposition. One of Khaled's toughest hometown critics believes the West has been tricked by Khaled. "His appearance is calculated to deceive," says Hala Mustafa, who is one of Cairo's prominent liberals and the editor of a government-funded academic journal, Democracy. "He is just like the other Islamic theocrats, but he says it with a smiling face."
Mustafa has written widely on the growth of Islamic fundamentalist groups, and exhibit No 1 in her prosecution of Khaled is the headscarf, the emblem of conservative Islam. He is commonly held to be the single major force behind young women taking the veil. Removing it, he has told his followers, is "the biggest sin, the biggest sin, the biggest sin".
In one of his lectures he directed a tirade towards any Muslim girl who wished to mimic the West and not wear the veil: "Who respects the woman more? Islam or the ones who cannot even sell a box of matches without painting a half-naked woman on it? Are they the ones who have respected women or ill-treated them? Has not Islam respected women, covered them and liberated them from such exploitation?"
Khaled has saved some of his fiercest rhetoric for the ethics of the West. In his addresses to his Arabic-speaking audience he has alleged that Western people are "fatigued by depression, suicide, addiction, broken families. We pray they will go back to the right path, Allah's system. We don't want to lead lives like the West."
He claims that Muslims are being "oppressed and tortured all over the world". So how does this square with his vow to build a bridge between the East and the West?
"To say we are building a bridge does not mean we are making a copy of life in the West," he says. "There are some things we don't accept in your vision of life. We have many things in our culture [where there is a] big difference between you and us, and if we say we need to take the West and to make a copy of the [West's] civilisation then no one will listen to me, because no one thinks like that."
Pause.
A confession is on the way: "Yes, I did say these points but I will be very honest to tell you Amr Khaled's vision after he went to stay in the UK is not like Amr Khaled's vision before he went to the UK."
The concession only adds to the riddle of what Khaled really stands for. Mustafa says it all adds up to one conclusion: "He is very close in style to the Muslim Brotherhood," she says, invoking the name of the Middle East's original political Islamic organisation, which is pursuing Islamic government through the ballot box and which recently made massive gains in Egypt's elections.
"Whether they use extreme language or moderate language, they all have the same aim."
It remains to be seen where Khaled is leading his army of young believers and whether or not the plants springing into life on Arab rooftops might ultimately be a bitter harvest for the West.
The Khaled phenomenon is a work in progress, one which might yet see the accountant-turned-preacher take another turn, perhaps into politics.
"Anything at the right time," he says. "Now I have good dialogue with the West and I give them my ideas. I have millions of people who are listening to me. So what is the next step? Let's wait and see."
quote: It certainly makes the man with the simple message a more complex proposition. One of Khaled's toughest hometown critics believes the West has been tricked by Khaled. "His appearance is calculated to deceive," says Hala Mustafa, who is one of Cairo's prominent liberals and the editor of a government-funded academic journal, Democracy. "He is just like the other Islamic theocrats, but he says it with a smiling face."
ha, I like this paragraph... who is this stupid women...
does she think she guna get a gold medal or sumhting from Bush Posts: 2457 | From: U | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: He is commonly held to be the single major force behind young women taking the veil. Removing it, he has told his followers, is "the biggest sin, the biggest sin, the biggest sin".
quote: It certainly makes the man with the simple message a more complex proposition. One of Khaled's toughest hometown critics believes the West has been tricked by Khaled. "His appearance is calculated to deceive," says Hala Mustafa, who is one of Cairo's prominent liberals and the editor of a government-funded academic journal, Democracy. "He is just like the other Islamic theocrats, but he says it with a smiling face."
ha, I like this paragraph... who is this stupid women...
does she think she guna get a gold medal or sumhting from Bush
Hehe! It's amazing you don't seem to know her but you got something true about here...She's indeed waiting for a golden medal but not from Bush! She wants to be appointed to something important from Gamal Mubarak...we all know this and none really takes her seriously here..none takes Mubarak's ass kissers seriously in Egypt
Posts: 1732 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I care very little for Amr Khalid ... but i have to admit that i care much less for Ms. Hala Kiss-Ass Mustafa
Posts: 2049 | From: Canada | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: He is commonly held to be the single major force behind young women taking the veil. Removing it, he has told his followers, is "the biggest sin, the biggest sin, the biggest sin".
hehehe.
Biggest proof he has no idea!
quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: "Who respects the woman more? Islam or the ones who cannot even sell a box of matches without painting a half-naked woman on it?
What a bunch of bull!
quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: Are they the ones who have respected women or ill-treated them? Has not Islam respected women, covered them and liberated them from such exploitation?"
WAKE UP and stop lying to yourselves.
This obsessive compulsive state of telling ourselves that the West is ill-treating women is not the solution for the sshit we're in now.
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yeah, i hate that unprotected feeling I get when I'm up in a tree-stand with a shotgun across my lap. teeheehee. Which reminds me, does anyone know if archery ranges exist in Egypt? Are there any outlets for those enjoying the "sporting life?"
Posts: 1161 | From: wo xiang xiao bian ji si le | Registered: Oct 2005
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I think it is a reference to your comment about Muslims telling one another that the West treats women badly. That allowing/forcing women to veil is some sort of respect that is denied Western women.
So I think Queen Bee is saying she (as a Western woman) doesn't feel the need for male protection/respect when she's independent enough to be protecting/respecting herself -- tough enough to handle the shot gun.
Very American to have a woman up in a deer stand with a shotgun. Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Snoozin: I think it is a reference to your comment about Muslims telling one another that the West treats women badly. That allowing/forcing women to veil is some sort of respect that is denied Western women.
So I think Queen Bee is saying she (as a Western woman) doesn't feel the need for male protection/respect when she's independent enough to be protecting/respecting herself -- tough enough to handle the shot gun.
Very American to have a woman up in a deer stand with a shotgun.
Aha! Got it. Thanks ya 7abibti.
I have an objection though, I find European women more liberal than their American peers.
Wht do you think Miss. Go with the Law?
Posts: 8756 | From: Tax-Free Zone | Registered: Jul 2005
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Liberal in what regard? Oh, I could write and write on women in America...what we believe/what we do/how we are hypocrites/our own best friends and worst enemies....
Do you mean: Politically? Sexually?
America's like 3 different countries. There is the East Coast (very liberal in a prep-school/doctor/lawyer/soccer mom kind of way), West Coast (very liberal in a granola-eating/tree-hugging/nuclear-free-zone kind of way), and all the rest. Which is BUSH COUNTRY!
Where they put the ideas of God, family, and country before actual human beings that make up their church, family, and country. The liberals tend to put humans first, at the expense of church, family, and country. Where oh where is the happy medium?
All my biasses shining through! Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Snoozin: Liberal in what regard? Oh, I could write and write on women in America...what we believe/what we do/how we are hypocrites/our own best friends and worst enemies....
Do you mean: Politically? Sexually? ................................
All you mentioned is new to me.
And I meant both and more..
I just have the feeling that because America is still more Christian than Europe, it's still more conservative in a way.
But let me clearly state here that one can be religious AND liberal.. Just not in the Bush kind of way.
I'm very tired.
I can't sleep..
I have huge choices in life to make nowadays and it's making me a bit depressed.
quote:Originally posted by MyKingdomForATaba2Koshari:
quote:Originally posted by Snoozin: Liberal in what regard? Oh, I could write and write on women in America...what we believe/what we do/how we are hypocrites/our own best friends and worst enemies....
Do you mean: Politically? Sexually? ................................
All you mentioned is new to me.
And I meant both and more..
I just have the feeling that because America is still more Christian than Europe, it's still more conservative in a way.
But let me clearly state here that one can be religious AND liberal.. Just not in the Bush kind of way.
I'm very tired.
I can't sleep..
I have huge choices in life to make nowadays and it's making me a bit depressed.
Good night Snoozin
( )
Good night....don't be sad....big hugs and prayers that the right way will become clear really soon. Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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i think i was responding also to the idea of being covered and thus liberated. "covered" has various definitions, but its awfully hard to climb a tree in an abaya (I admit that I haven't tried.) Being forced to conform to a limiting dress code is not my idea of liberation. Everything in moderation. Regarding the veil, I keep bees for honey (thus the name) - so I'm used to a veil. HAHA! Have a good night.
Posts: 1161 | From: wo xiang xiao bian ji si le | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by QueenBee: i think i was responding also to the idea of being covered and thus liberated. "covered" has various definitions, but its awfully hard to climb a tree in an abaya (I admit that I haven't tried.) Being forced to conform to a limiting dress code is not my idea of liberation. Everything in moderation. Regarding the veil, I keep bees for honey (thus the name) - so I'm used to a veil. HAHA! Have a good night.
Sorry if I massacred the meaning of your post, Queen Bee! And welcome to ES. Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Snoozin: Which is BUSH COUNTRY!
Where they put the ideas of God, family, and country before actual human beings that make up their church, family, and country. The liberals tend to put humans first, at the expense of church, family, and country. Where oh where is the happy medium?
All my biasses shining through!
Yup your biases are shining through.
I can see your biases shinning like a a-bomb detination from cheery Minnesota a confirmed blue state.
And while my state is very church going, we do have our share of hip-hop artists, tree huggers, a huge gay community.
I don't understand why someone from DC can boast?
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: I don't understand why someone from DC can boast?
Are you sure *boast* is the word you want to use? I wasn't speaking with pride about anything mentioned above. And I certainly can't claim ownership (and therefore pride) in the way culture develops in any particular part of the country.
Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: I don't understand why someone from DC can boast?
Are you sure *boast* is the word you want to use? I wasn't speaking with pride about anything mentioned above. And I certainly can't claim ownership (and therefore pride) in the way culture develops in any particular part of the country.
Pride/boast, splitting hairs aren't we?
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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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 confession is on the way: "Yes, I did say these points but I will be very honest to tell you Amr Khaled's vision after he went to stay in the UK is not like Amr Khaled's vision before he went to the UK."
This is what irritates me about him.
Plus isn't murder a bigger sin than not veiling?
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by MyKingdomForATaba2Koshari: I just have the feeling that because America is still more Christian than Europe, it's still more conservative in a way.
I feel the same way. When I first went to live in the States (at the age of 19) I was surprised to find that Americans are quite conservative in some regards ... how teenagers are brought up and the whole *dating* thing, family values and the display of those, the dresscode at the work place (which I would find extremely restricting if I had to follow it) ...
Posts: 2334 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Hmmmmm... I love Amr Khaled- I guess I already said that a 100 times. He's very motivating and listening to him charges my batteries. It doesn't remind me that I'm not veiled-and probably won't be veiled this lifetime. His words definitely bring me back to the fact that there are a million other things I could do to improve myself as a human being-not a muslim, a woman or an Egyptian.
I can't see ppl attacking him in public doing anything but raising his popularity. Arab youth not only need a role model- like Amr Khaled, a dramatic story that comes with the hero would be rather appealing as well.
-------------------- Same crap...Different toilet Posts: 1813 | From: Cairo | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: Pride/boast, splitting hairs aren't we?
Hmmmm, if you read my post more carefully, you would have seen I was showing what I consider to be the drawbacks of both conservative and liberal cultures, asking where is the happy medium?
Posts: 8794 | From: 01-20-09 The End of an Error | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:Originally posted by sonomod: Pride/boast, splitting hairs aren't we?
Hmmmm, if you read my post more carefully, you would have seen I was showing what I consider to be the drawbacks of both conservative and liberal cultures, asking where is the happy medium?
I like to think that Minnesota is a happy medium.
And you understand completely how I feel about stereotyping America, including the Midwest?
I mean there are hillbillies in Virginia, Maryland, and so forth.
Cripes, my female Lutheran Pastor came out of the closet and was co-Pastor with her significant other for almost a decade at "Salem Lutheran Church" right in the heart of South Minneapolis.
Still that church is not listed on the ECLA registry of Lutheran churches.....
Posts: 5744 | From: Minneapolis, Mn USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Ngeg: Hmmmmm... I love Amr Khaled- I guess I already said that a 100 times. He's very motivating and listening to him charges my batteries. It doesn't remind me that I'm not veiled-and probably won't be veiled this lifetime. His words definitely bring me back to the fact that there are a million other things I could do to improve myself as a human being-not a muslim, a woman or an Egyptian.
I can't see ppl attacking him in public doing anything but raising his popularity. Arab youth not only need a role model- like Amr Khaled, a dramatic story that comes with the hero would be rather appealing as well.
Ngeg, I actually also like him.. The few episodes I saw from him were very nice ( just a bit too much sometimes but that works for our people I guess)
That's why I'm a bit confused about the above mentioned quotes of his. Did he really say that?
I mean I won't hate the guy when we have a different point of view, but I just don't like people who say to women: "Hey lady we respect you more than any other nation, so get covered or we will bug the crap out of you everywhere you go." Posts: 8756 | From: Tax-Free Zone | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by MyKingdomForATaba2Koshari: That's why I'm a bit confused about the above mentioned quotes of his. Did he really say that?
Of course I'm not saying that taking off the hijab isn't a sin. Taking off the hijab is the biggest sin, the biggest sin, the biggest sin, the biggest sin. It's the biggest sin, because you would be encouraging other women to do the same. Never ever do this please. Allah (SWT) would hate that. Wear the hijab and do these three things to make sure you will never take it off:
1- Have good religious friends. 2- Attend and listen to Islamic lectures. 3- Make dua’a (supplications) to ask God to keep your hijab on and strengthen your faith.
quote:Originally posted by MyKingdomForATaba2Koshari: That's why I'm a bit confused about the above mentioned quotes of his. Did he really say that? I mean I won't hate the guy when we have a different point of view, but I just don't like people who say to women: "Hey lady we respect you more than any other nation, so get covered or we will bug the crap out of you everywhere you go." [/qb]
I was sure u do. I mean no one has any reason to HATE someone who asks ppl to be better human beings. He talks abt human traits more than he talks abt religious obligations. His influence on youth is appealing bcz at least it means we ll be better treated by our brothers, neighbours and co workers. Our lives improve as ppl around us try to improve themselves. So why not? So if for no reason at all, at least we should like him bcz of our selfishness!!! Bcz his influence on ppl means i won't be grabbed in the streets when i go back home. I won't be cheated by a cab driver, I would get that one job I deserve even if my pa isn't Egypt's ambassador to France...etc!
Selfishness could be the simplest reason to like the guy!
As to whether he said the words or not-confirmed by Dalia's post- it doesn't change facts. I do believe in him. I believe he's trying -for whatever reasons- to shape up young ppl and provide them with necessary advice at a time when everything in the Arab world is similar to vague images from a nightmare... I WILL CHOOSE FROM HIS WORDS WHATEVER SUITS MY LIFESTYLE.
Posts: 1813 | From: Cairo | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: Amr Khaled: Islam's Billy Graham Khaled's remedy is a tough personal regime of self-renewal,
...
Despite his positions on the veil, i think that this man has a good influence on the region. At least there is someone who talks to the people in their language, and who says truths. The part on the conspiracy issue is interesting. This man is definitely powerful, so it makes him dangerous, but he can be a key character.
The part of his cooperation with the Queen Rania is also strenghthening his position as it can also weaken it: He can be reinforced because he shows he shares views with moderate regional leaders, but in the same time, he can be weakened because Queen Rania is an unscarfed woman and he could lose credibility for some of his audience. This man inspires good will, even if all his ideas are not universally recognised, he has proven an ability to challenge west without being agressive.
Posts: 1473 | From: France | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ngeg: listening to him doesn't remind me that I'm not veiled-and probably won't be veiled this lifetime.
care to explain how this could be when his holy mission is to remind you that you're a sinner, sinner, sinner.. because you're not veiled, and probably won't be in this lifetime?
amr khaled is a product of this sad and decadent era we're in, if it wasn't for the fact that we're currently living the worst of times.. a freak like him would have probably been no more than a cheap comparse who does the clown in stupid comedies.. he's a star same way as sha3ban abdelre7eem and Mohammad negm became stars each at his own time.
and i don't care if criticizing him makes him more poppular, he's already poppular and his poppular words that enchant you also serve to make his followers regard non veiled women like you as potential whores!
enjoy, while your whole lives are being robbed away from you!
Posts: 956 | From: nowhere | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by misfit: care to explain how this could be when his holy mission is to remind you that you're a sinner, sinner, sinner.. because you're not veiled, and probably won't be in this lifetime?
[/QB]
Yes ..it is Misfit ...HOW ARE YOU MAN ...Long time no C ...how is your back ...
Posts: 2691 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ngeg: listening to him doesn't remind me that I'm not veiled-and probably won't be veiled this lifetime.
care to explain how this could be when his holy mission is to remind you that you're a sinner, sinner, sinner.. because you're not veiled, and probably won't be in this lifetime?
amr khaled is a product of this sad and decadent era we're in, if it wasn't for the fact that we're currently living the worst of times.. a freak like him would have probably been no more than a cheap comparse who does the clown in stupid comedies.. he's a star same way as sha3ban abdelre7eem and Mohammad negm became stars each at his own time.
and i don't care if criticizing him makes him more poppular, he's already poppular and his poppular words that enchant you also serve to make his followers regard non veiled women like you as potential whores!
enjoy, while your whole lives are being robbed away from you!
Yes misfit, i understand you disagree with someone that calls people to get fit, but it's no reason for calling him a robber.
I think he has to say to people to wear veil, he wouldn't be listened if he wasn't doing so.
I think the good he does is superior to the bad things he makes happen, so why am i gonna be against him ? I disagree with women wearing the veil, but i tolerate that some people need to do this.
Posts: 1473 | From: France | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ngeg: listening to him doesn't remind me that I'm not veiled-and probably won't be veiled this lifetime.
care to explain how this could be when his holy mission is to remind you that you're a sinner, sinner, sinner.. because you're not veiled, and probably won't be in this lifetime?
amr khaled is a product of this sad and decadent era we're in, if it wasn't for the fact that we're currently living the worst of times.. a freak like him would have probably been no more than a cheap comparse who does the clown in stupid comedies.. he's a star same way as sha3ban abdelre7eem and Mohammad negm became stars each at his own time.
and i don't care if criticizing him makes him more poppular, he's already poppular and his poppular words that enchant you also serve to make his followers regard non veiled women like you as potential whores!
enjoy, while your whole lives are being robbed away from you!
Well isn't that interesting. I thought you would like the guy considering he stated what you believe in:
"We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving,"Posts: 637 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shaken: and i don't care if criticizing him makes him more poppular, he's already poppular and his poppular words that enchant you also serve to make his followers regard non veiled women like you as potential whores!
That's exactly what bothers me. Every woman should decide for herself whether she covers her head or not, but he is trying to make women feel bad if they don't by claiming they are giving a *bad* example and even suggesting they might not go to paradise! And I don't like the idea that he assigns the responsibility for the upkeeping of a society's morals to women.
I als find it very questionable that he seems to suggest the veil has almost the same importance as prayer ...
The most important thing in a woman's life is the Hijab. ...
However, I must stress that if the woman was guided on the right path and protected her modesty, then society would also be on the right path. ...
The sister who does not want to put the hijab on is not submitted to Allah. ...
Everyday you go out, and with every man that looks at your hair and your body, you gather sins, is that true or not? Of course you take sins because you didn't obey Allah's command. You'll might argue, 'It's not my fault, my intentions are good, it's the man that will take sins for looking at me.' No sister. He will take sins for looking at you, that’s true. But he looked at you, in the first place, because you were attracting attention. ...
The Prophet (PBUH) said, "A group of women will never enter paradise. They are those who wear tight, revealing clothes and do not listen to Allah's command of wearing the hijab. Not only will they not enter paradise, but they will not even smell its scent, although you can smell paradise from a 500-year distance".
Allah ordered mankind to do some works that would remind the people without words. Men were given the Friday Congregational Prayer (Jumu’a) and fighting for the sake of Allah and women were ordered to wear hijab; to put it on, walk in the streets, and through it she would remind people of Allah without speaking. ...
It is our hope to remind people of Islam everywhere. Everyone sees you in hijab and you get a reward without talking or making any effort, just for being seen by people! If a person sees you, a good deed is written for you. If a thousand people see you, a thousand good deeds will be written. Therefore, in just one day in which you run your daily errands, you can get the blessings that no man can get even if he prays in a mosque.
Therefore the subject of hijab is very important because it acts as a reminder of Islam and you are responsible for it.
why else would he emphasis it... if it wernt i dont think he wud say wt he says
wts so good abt showin ur hair in public r some women afriad/scared they look "ugly" or "supressed" in the eyes of others?
Posts: 2457 | From: U | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shaken: Yes misfit, i understand you disagree with someone that calls people to get fit
that's a good one, yes i guess he'll fit the misfits and stabilize the shaken.
quote: but it's no reason for calling him a robber
he's not alone a robber, it's all those who promote the whole religious hysteria state.. wait until egypt is another iran or Saudi, then you'll curse yourself for giving them control over your life and you'll know what i'm talking about.
quote:I think he has to say to people to wear veil, he wouldn't be listened if he wasn't doing so.
i don't get you.. you mean to say that an honest man who knows that the veil is too trivial to make it our biggest goal in life but is only misleading the ignorant masses to wear higab in order to gain more credentials, is that it?
quote:I think the good he does is superior to the bad things he makes happen, so why am i gonna be against him ? I disagree with women wearing the veil, but i tolerate that some people need to do this.
he's got armies of devotees to praise the good, but one can criticize him for the bad can't he.. and the issue is not that higab is just a small price to pay for a bigger cause, it's the way this superstar turned clown is orchestrating the religious hysteria and hynotizing the minds of the innocent emotional masses to play his own show!
Posts: 956 | From: nowhere | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote: It certainly makes the man with the simple message a more complex proposition. One of Khaled's toughest hometown critics believes the West has been tricked by Khaled. "His appearance is calculated to deceive," says Hala Mustafa, who is one of Cairo's prominent liberals and the editor of a government-funded academic journal, Democracy. "He is just like the other Islamic theocrats, but he says it with a smiling face."
ha, I like this paragraph... who is this stupid women...
does she think she guna get a gold medal or sumhting from Bush
These days, to find an American president, you have to scour the country for a mental defective who will do what he is told by the petrochemical industry.
Posts: 1074 | From: Menufia, Egypt | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: Well isn't that interesting. I thought you would like the guy considering he stated what you believe in:
"We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving,"
yeah, it's a little interesting that me and the mega superstar stated the same obvious fact, but what i find really funny is that when i said it before you objected severely but now that the wonderkid has said it it suddenly became great words of wisdom! isn't it ironic?
Posts: 956 | From: nowhere | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: Well isn't that interesting. I thought you would like the guy considering he stated what you believe in:
"We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving,"
yeah, it's a little interesting that me and the mega superstar stated the same obvious fact, but what i find really funny is that when i said it before you objected severely but now that the wonderkid has said it it suddenly became great words of wisdom! isn't it ironic?
You can't be serious. Are you under the impression I liked his statements? Call Muslims parasites is racist and the "we" part doesn't change that a bit.
Posts: 637 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ngeg: I WILL CHOOSE FROM HIS WORDS WHATEVER SUITS MY LIFESTYLE.
don't you understand that there is no such thing as individual LIFESTYLE in this context? when the plan of Mr Amr materializes you won't be able to have a lifestyle that suits anything of you at all, you are already regarded as a freak at best and maybe even worse if you are not veiled and millions of women are veiled against their own free will, how do you like that? you people who unconciously encourage an islamic state lead by such dogmas of Mr Amr and at the same time think you gonna have a lifestyle in it make me despair, i wonder why you're unable to see the whole picture?
Posts: 956 | From: nowhere | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Automatic For The People: You can't be serious. Are you under the impression I liked his statements? Call Muslims parasites is racist and the "we" part doesn't change that a bit.
now I'M gonna have to defend the bastard!
when he calls muslims *parasites* it definitely doesn't mean he's trying to insult them or anything, it's just a simple description of their current state.. by definition a parasite is an organism that survives on the products of another organism without reciprocating or giving back anything, this literally applies to the muslim world and in all fields too.. and please don't tell me we *had* Alkhawarizmi and avisenna etc.. rather tell me what do we *have* or what did we give to modern civilization (other than suicide bombers)!
Posts: 956 | From: nowhere | Registered: Sep 2005
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