Have you seen this guy before? His name is Amr Khaled and apparently he's quite the rage (I use that term a bit guardedly in this context!) throughout the Middle East. He's very, very popular on YouTube and he made Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world (62nd).
Called the Islamic Joel Osteen or the Islamic Dr. Phil, Gene Veith made reference to him (Click here: Cranach -- The blog of Gene Edward Veith), and to an article about him in the Washington Post (Click here: Islam's Up-to-Date Televangelist - washingtonpost.com).
In a recent interview for the Egyptian Al Ahram (Click here: Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile | Amr Khaled: A preacher's puzzle) are the following comments about his growing influence throughout the Middle East. Khaled is also seeking to convert Christians and is, apparently, quite successful at it. Why? Because he self-consciously imitates American Televangelists.
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"He believes he was put on earth for a purpose: to lead young people -- Muslims and Christians -- to this noble goal. Trained as an accountant, and from an upper middle class background, Khaled has emerged as a major 21st-century global phenomenon. He seems to be speaking of himself when he says, "I believe that every 100 years the world's thoughts change. And extraordinary people appear who carry new ideas to humanity."
There is no doubt about his power to influence, especially the young. Thousands, maybe millions of young girls donned the veil after hearing his lectures. Young men rapidly dropped their partying, drug-taking lifestyles, grew beards and became active at their local mosques . . .
It's clear that Khaled's mission is just beginning. His web site -- amrkhaled.net -- is among the most popular 1,000 in the world, ranking among global heavyweight media influences like The Washington Post, Al-Jazeera and the Drudge Report. But for all his talk of mass constituencies and millions of followers, Khaled still balks at being explicitly referred to as a political activist. "Participating in the political process is not shameful, forbidden, or something to shy away from," he says. "But when you have a goal you want to achieve, or a message you are trying to deliver, it's not about political participation for the sake of it... It's more about political participation as a tool" to achieve what you need.
That pragmatism may have been in play when Khaled and his TV producer friend first came up with the idea of consciously imitating the style of US Christian televangelism. The successful formula was like nothing the Arab world had ever seen, and it caught on like wildfire. Young people, especially impressed by the slick sets, soft lighting and friendly tone, said Khaled was the first to inspire them into understanding Islam's gentler side.
His sermons, however, with their clear and vivid warnings of the hell-fire that awaits unbelievers, appear to be just another form of fear mongering -- even though he is critical of what he calls "a religious discourse that merely says everything is haram and wrong". While constantly using scare tactics, the difference is in the seemingly friendly way he does so: by smiling, for instance, as he asks, "When you meet God on Judgment Day, will you be ready?"
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This raises several questions in my mind. "How long will this Islamic Joel Osteen continue to be such a phenom?" "Is this a passing fad, a new trend, or something which Al-Qaeda types will seek to quash?"
How long will the "Allah loves you and has a wonderful plan for your afterlife which you cannot know until you die" bit continue to play throughout the Middle East?
Lets hope that Khaled actually manages to do to Islam what Joel Osteen has attempted to do to the gospel--neuter it. That would be quite an achievement!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 09:23AM 
This coming Friday, September 28 (7:30 p.m.), we resume our Academy Lecture Series and Authors Forum @ Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim. I'll kick off with a four part lecture series entitled "Eschatology and the Antichrist." I'll be using my book, The Man of Sin as a text.
