A More 'Upbeat' Islam

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from The Washington Post, December 2, 2007, with a headline:“Younger Muslims Tune in to Upbeat Religious Message.”The following are excerpts: “Muna el-Leboudi, 22-year-old medical student, had a terrible secret; she wanted to be a film maker.The way she understood her Muslim faith it was haraam, forbidden to dabble in movies, music, or any art that might peak sexual desires.Then one day in September she flipped on her satellite TV and saw Moez Masoud, a Muslim televangelist not much older than herself in a stylish goatee and Western clothes.Masoud, 29, was preaching about Islam in youthful Arabic slang.He said imams who outlawed art and music were misinterpreting their faith.He talked about love and relationships, the need to be compassionate to homosexuals and tolerant of non-Muslims.Leboudi had never heard a Muslim preacher speak that way.Moez helps us understand everything about our religion, not from 1400 years ago but the way we live now, said Leboudi, wearing a scarlet hijab over her hair.Masoud is one of a growing number of young Muslim preachers who are using satellite television to promote an upbeat and tolerant brand of Islam.Television preaching in the Middle East was once largely limited to elderly scholars in white robes reading holy text from behind a desk, emphasizing the afterlife over this life, and sometimes inciting violence against non believers.But as TV has evolved from one or two heavily controlled state channels to hundreds of diverse, private satellite offerings, Masoud, and perhaps a dozen other young men plus a few women, have emerged as increasingly popular alternatives.Masoud and others promote a sweet orthodoxy which stresses the humane and compassionate as an alternative to unthinking rage, said Abdallah Schleifer, a specialist in Islam and electronic media at the AmericanUniversity in Cairo.”

Tom:

Dave, this is sort of a dilemma here, and I’ll get to that in a second, but first of all you want to kind of cheer this guy on for the ideas that he’s promoting and, you know, he’s against violence against non-believers.He certainly brings some things to Islam which we’re not hearing about.He’s running against people like Osama bin Laden, and some of the older folks, if I can use that.But the dilemma is, he’s not really what Islam is about, he’s sort of the Joel Osteen of Islam here.Now we wouldn’t cheer Joel Osteen on and we haven’t, because he’s abusing whenever he gets into the Scriptures.He’s certainly promoting a view of the gospel and a view of Christianity that has more to do with positive mental attitude and positive thinking, and so on.So we wouldn’t cheer him on, but should we cheer this guy on?

Dave:

Tom, I don’t know how large an influence his man has.

Tom:

Well, let me just interject that.He’s done a 20-part series, and clips of the show appeared immediately on YouTube and fans downloaded more than 1.5 million episodes onto their computers.When he turns out to speak, 1500 people show up, and the young people, you know, he’s like a rock star in a sense, but he’s trying to keep it as close to the Qur’an as he can, even though he has his interpretation, which disagrees with, certainly those who are taking a fundamental view of it.

Dave:

Tom, I don’t recall this article telling us— where is he preaching?

Tom:

Cairo, for example.

Dave:

Really!

Tom:

Well, I’ll tell you—I’ll give you a little background.

Dave:

He is seen on TV?

Tom:

O, yes.He was raised in Kuwait, in which he attended an American school there, and then he went to an American school, an elite school American in Egypt; in Cairo.So, I mean, he’s definitely a Muslim, but he understands the West and kind of grew up in the schooling and so on.So now he is very popular, but he’s not the only one.There are a number of these who are, as I said, and I’m not trying to mock them but it’s kind of the Joel Osteen approach to Islam.

Dave:

It’s similar to what we were talking about as far as Christianity is concerned.The church today has gone off into la-la land and that’s where this man is, he’s in Muslim la-la land.He’s not, as you’ve already said, Tom, this is not what the Qur’an teaches.So, now we’re going to have a problem because I don’t see how he could have a very large influence, a select group of people, young people and so forth.

Tom:

Because that’s what the young people want, just like the EmergingChurch, that’s what a lot of them really want.

Dave:

But you see, Tom, they’re going to have to throw Islam out, they’re going to have to throw the Qur’an out, then they are not even Muslims anymore, they don’t have any influence in the mosques and on the imams.So this is kind of a novelty it’s interesting—

Tom:

Except the old guys are going to die off, Dave.

Dave:

Well, I don’t know how many more of these young guys there are who are going to dare to do this.Now he has to walk a very fine line.

Tom:

He does.

Dave:

You know that in Egypt—it’s supposed to be a democracy but it isn’t of course, Egypt is supposed to be, well, very terrified of the real Islam taking over, although they have the premier Muslim university in the world.

Tom:

Most of the scholars are there.

Dave:

But that’s not going to change Islam, there is no way you can change Islam.We are going to have to stand up to Islam and expose it to the world for what it is, and not be encouraged by this little aberration here—a few young televangelists.

Tom:

Let’s see, I could give you one more view of this.Dave yes, I agree with you, but as I said, we believe that Islam is a false faith, all right?So, if somebody else comes along and can reshape this faith and preach against terrorism—can preach against—you know—wars and certain things like that, it’s hard not to encourage it.

Dave:

But its hypocrisy and it’s not going to change anything.The one thing that you can see is going to come out of this, possibly—ecumenism.You’ve got a group of Muslim scholars who just signed a document—we’ve got to get together because we believe in the same God and so forth and so on.Its lies—but you’ve got evangelical leaders who are going right along with this and they are signing the same document.So, I think this is probably part of that picture.