The Showbiz Preacher

Amr Khaled uses his television sermons to reach millions of Muslims with a motivational message

By Amany Radwan Cairo

AMR KHALED IS NO ORDINARY PREACHER. Shunning traditional Islamic grab, the 38-year-old Egyptian goes on TV dressed in camel jacket and cream shirt and delivers sermons like a self – help guru rather than a holy man. Discussing the Prophet Muhammad on a recent broadcast on Iqraa TV, live from Medina, Saudi Arabia, Khaled avoids the incendiary, anti-western rhetoric favored by many other prominent preachers in this part of the world: instead he issues a different kind of motivational message. The Prophet was not only a spiritual messenger but a skillful planner, so Muslims should take control of their own futures too. "Move forward, take a step, make an initiative," he says, before imploring viewers to ask for God's forgiveness. By the end of the hour-long show, equal parts showbiz and religion, most of the studio audience is wiping away tears.

Khaled is used to it. Since hr began giving sermons on Egyptian TV in 2000, Khaled has built a following that numbers in the million across the Muslim world. His success at packaging Islam as a hip creed and stressing how religion can enrich the inner lives of Muslims has made him the most popular tele-Islamist in the Middle East, When he travels, he is mobbed by fans, many of them women in head scarves: at a press call in Cairo last week, hundreds of admirers scrambled to snap photos of him inside a hotel ballroom. Says Fahmi Huweidi, an Egyptian writer, in explaining Khaled's appeal: "He doesn't frown and warn his followers tat they will all go to hell."

That's also why Khaled's may become a valuable ally for Western governments struggling to contain smoldering anger in the Muslim world. A dedicated moderate, Khaled regularly tells viewers to reject extremism, "Bin Laden's bombs kill many, but he is speaking in the name of a few," Khaled told Time. "I am speaking in the name of millions of young Muslims men and women who want to live peacefully in coexistence with the West." Now he plans to bring that message to Europe: Last week he announced plans to hold a three-day conference on Islam's relationship with the Westin early March. The setting? Denmark, where the controversial satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were first published. Khaled hopes to convene seminars in other European capitals and to make his first trip to the U.S later this year. "We have a golden opportunity to hold a real constructive dialogue," he says. "Building bridges and reaching out to the West are the main hope for the future."

Khaled is an un likely star. A former accountant, he took up full-time preaching in 1998. Two years later he appeared on a private Egyptian TV channel, gabbing about religion with guests and cracking jokes. He was soon drawing audiences of 40,000 to lectures at a suburban Cairo mosque. Despite – or perhaps because of his success. Khaled says Egyptian state security officers informed him in 2002 that his lectures would no longer be permitted. Authorities worried about his potential as a political challenger to President Hosni Mubarak. "Khaled represented a movement that is >>> in conflict with existing regimes," says Cairo political analyst Hala Mustafa, an expert on Islamic movements. "He acted like a movie star, masking his political ambitions." Khaled decided to leave Egypt. Dividing his time between London and Beirut, he launched the satellite broadcasts that made him a household name throughout the region.

Khaled doesn't just talk religion. His TV specials address the social issues that plague the Muslim world, such as unemployment and poverty. He runs self-help and charity campaigns on his website, and has spoken out against drug use and smoking. From his electronic pulpit. He encourages young people to go abroad and bring their experiences home to help stir an Islamic renaissance.

Of course, not all young Arabs are convinced by his call to take on religious extremism in their societies. Khaled would like to say above politics, but his visibility may force him to take more contentious stands. He initially tried to avoid the cartoon controversy, fearing his intervention might give added publicity to the offending drawings. When he did decide to decide to speak up. He appealed for calm, calling on Westerners to better understand Islam and for Muslims to help them do so. "There are radicals who want to take the world to the point of no return," Khaled says. "The voice of reason has to be heard." He has his work cut out for him. – With reporting by Lindsay Wise/ Cairo.