cAmr Khālid

Submitted by webmaster on Wed, 2010-08-25 12:15

^cAmr Khālid (*1967)

^cAmr Khālid who has become a trendsetting Egyptian Islamic TV-preacher introduced an unique way of prechings that attract thousands of Muslims all over the world.

^cAmr Khālid was born in a well-off family in 1967 in Alexandria, Egypt. However, he grew up in Muhandisīn, Cairo. By 1984 he entered Cairo University to receive a degree in accounting in 1988 after four years of studies.

Beginnings of Khālid’s Preaching Career

In 1990, his preaching career started in the mosque of al-Duqqī shooting club in Cairo and then he moved on to private upper class homes and city mosques including mosques in rich Cairan suburbs such as the al-Husarī Mosque in al-Muhandisīn and the Maghfirah Mosque in ^cAjūzah. From 1998 onwards Khālid became a full time dā^ciyah as he expanded his enterprise to satellite-television with his first tele-preacher show.

^cAmr Khālid is believed to receive also some preaching training in one of the Ministry of Endowments institutes for preparing preachers and to get a permission from al-Azhar to distribute cassettes with lectures.⁽¹⁾

Since then, ^cAmr Khālid has broadcasted hundreds of episodes on different Arab satellite television stations such as Dream TV, that aired his first show, Kalām min al-Qalb (Words from the Heart), the Saudi backed Iqrā' and the ART network. Some of his shows are on weekly basis and others have been daily episodes specially designated for the Holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Few ^cAmr Khālid’ shows are historical dealing with subjects such as the life of the Prophet Muhammad, but most of his shows are devoted to preaching and life coaching.

^cAmr Khālid is also known for his good relationships with important public personalities especially in the Gulf states being their honored guest. For example in 2004, he received the Golden Order of Merit from Yemeni President ^cAlī ^cAbd Allāh Sālih.⁽³⁾Thanks to his extensive network within the world of politics and business, ^cAmr Khālid finds significant sponsors such as Saudi billionaires and the Nike Corporation to fund his campaigns.⁽⁴⁾

The Ban on ^cAmr Khālid

In 2002, he moved contemporarily to London to prepare for PhD studies at Wales University with the thesis on ‘Islam and Co-Existing with others.’⁽⁵⁾ Khālid's sudden turn to academic life and his move out of Egypt has been perceived as directly linked to a ban on Khālid's preaching in 2001 by the Egyptian authorities. Khālid, nevertheless, never publicly specified which authorities gave him the order to stop his practice.

Some of the Egyptian newspaper reported that the authorities' official explanation for the ban was that his preaching permission from al-Azhar expired and that he was not considered qualified as dā^ciyah.⁽⁶⁾Whether Khālid was expelled from Egypt remained a rumor and has never been confirmed by either Khālid or the authorities. Muhammad Hamdī Zaqzūq, the Minister of Religious Endowments then, denied being responsible for an expulsion order of Khālid.⁽⁷⁾

Speculations on the Causes to Ban Khālid's Preachings

The widespread explanation of the incident in Egyptian and foreign media was that the government felt threatened by Khālid's enormous and ever growing popularity among Egyptian youth and therefore decided to put a ban on his preaching. Some commentators went on claiming that the political and extremist content of Khālid's preaching became too much for the state authorities. Other believed that just the fact that Khālid was able to gather masses of people for his shows and live preaching was threatening enough for the government to react, regardless of the content.

In contradiction to these explanations, other voices suggested that the ban was a subtle strategy of the state which wanted to support the ^cAmr Khālid trend to counterbalance more extremist preachers and therefore deliberately victimized ^cAmr Khālid in order to increase his popularity.⁽⁸⁾While this theory was a mere speculation there was no doubt that the sales figures for cassettes and videotapes with lectures by Khālid grew sky-high after his ‘exile’.

Given all the different positions and theories that prevail concerning the preaching and status of ^cAmr Khalid, it was apparent that many groups on the Egyptian political and religious scene were taking an advantage of his image to advance their own views.⁽⁹⁾

^cAmr Khālid as Preacher: Style and Message… The Essence of His Success

It is almost impossible to find an article on Khālid that does not comment on his looks and his preaching style simply because these are essential elements of his success. Khālid's enormous impact and appeal to young Muslims throughout the world can be at least partly explained by his outer appearance by which he introduced an absolutely new style of preaching in the Muslim world. His fashion of preaching is revolutionary compared to the al-Azhar scholars using the learned language of classical Arabic, and whose style and message might have little connection to the daily life and outlook of modern young people.

Al-Ahram Weekly captured the essence of Khālid's appearance in following words:

‘He is the cool preacher, the Islamist in jeans, who knows how to talk to young people about religion in a language they understand. […]Khālid wears a slick beige suit and perfectly matching grey-blue shirt. He carries the latest Nokia communicator. And his business card is a model of understated elegance.’⁽¹⁰⁾

^cAmr Khālid is often compared to American evangelist preachers and televangelists due to his charismatic and personal appeal, friendly tone of voice and the special studio setting framing the television shows. Characteristic for these shows is the interaction with a studio audience who are invited to share their personal life stories and religious experiences with Khālid.⁽¹¹⁾

According to interviews with Khālid, he and his television producer intentionally copied the American 'televangelist' concept as branding strategy. This turned out a huge success for Khālid, who has millions of viewers in the Arab world. According to al-Ahram Weekly Khālid's website is among the 1000 most popular in the world and that the possibilities of going on satellite television and the internet altogether had the effect that Khālid's reach expanded beyond imagination.⁽¹²⁾He has reached the level of pop star in fame and popularity among youth throughout the Muslim world.

^cAmr Khālid is a business man and he does not make a secret of it. Becoming rich might not be the primary goal, but being rich is not shameful in Khālid's moral universe. His audience is predominantly the wealthy population in Egypt, and Khālid appreciates wealth and welfare as signs of success and products of good work and additionally as a potential to change things in society for the benefit of the poor and everyone else. Besides targeting the well-to-do segment of Egyptian society, Khālid is said to have a special appeal to women. This great influence on women allegedly led thousands of formerly unveiled women to wear the hijāb.⁽¹³⁾

One of the marketing strategies of ^cAmr Khālid and other new preachers like Khālid al-Jindī is to team up with famous actresses and artists, who appears in their shows and supports their views and causes, turn religious, start to wear the hijāb or even end their acting career as a sign of their moral awakening due to the influence of these new star-preachers.⁽¹⁴⁾

Ethics in Khālid's Preaching and War on Iraq

Because of his therapeutic approach and for some, soft ethics many scholars have seen Khālid's da^cwah mostly as a means to pacify youth from political religious activism. Nonetheless, Khālid has developed throughout his career and kept adding new dimensions to his enterprise. Starting out as preacher of ethics and moving on to become tele-preacher.

The ethical emphasis in his preaching is critical and demanding of the Arab fellows. It is an inward perspective calling to Muslims to change their inner lives by returning to the spirituality and the roots of Islam, because this shall change the conditions of the Arab world.

This position was reflected in his approach to the war on Iraq. During the war the Iqra' channel aired Khālid’s program called 'Until They Change Themselves.' The title was taken from a Qur'ānic verse (Qur'ān 13:11) and implies that whatever tragedies the ummah is faced with, e.g. the war in Iraq, God will not change these conditions before the Muslims return to the religion and change their spiritual life to obey the Qur'ān and the Sunnah. Khālid additionally called for a boycott of American and British products as a means of protest.⁽¹⁵⁾

Khālid perceived the war as a sign of the several diseases the ummah have suffered from collectively during the past hundred years. In his worldview, the ummah has a central position and its destiny is shared by all Muslims. He requires that Muslims are primarily loyal to the ummah as opposed to a blind following of the West and to a prevailing individualism and selfishness in society in general.⁽¹⁶⁾

Appeal to Stop the Victimization of Ourselves

Khālid aims at a revival of the Arab world pointing to the current obvious backwardness in the region when it comes to welfare, unemployment rates, health, educational level and scientific progress. In order to mobilize the Arab and Muslim youth to change this, he calls for inward evaluation and improvement of the individual instead of clinging to conspiracy theories and the prevailing victimization.

He directed a harsh criticism towards his Muslim fellows stating:

‘We Muslims are living as parasites on the world. Our problem is that we have got used to taking without ever giving. Don't tell us it is a Western conspiracy against us, it is not.’⁽¹⁷⁾

In another comment he diagnosed the state of the Egyptian society saying:

‘We will not change unless we wake up from this indefinite coma that we live in. We have reached rock bottom in all the domains of life. I cannot imagine that we can go anywhere beneath the level we have reached, simply because it is rock bottom.’⁽¹⁸⁾

Khālid believes the engine driving a revival must be a sincere return to religion by all citizens. He stresses that the nahdah (the revival) includes the whole Egyptian nation meaning the Christians also. Although, his focus is on the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and the holy Qur'ān as method in general, he has engaged Christians in his activist programs as well and is proud of it.⁽¹⁹⁾The ambition of developing the Arab nations which must be fed by religion and spirituality is not an exclusively Islamic project for Khālid.

TV Program ‘Life Makers’

Khālid's activist development agenda was launched with the airing of the television program 'Life Makers' (Sunnā^c al-Hayāh) on ART Satellite television network. Through this interactive show Khālid reached, it is said, millions of young people who took part in sharing their visions for a revival of the country and participated in forming concrete projects and carrying them out in life.

In opposition to a purely ritualistic approach to Islam, Khālid's goal is to enlighten young people about the practical dimension of true faith. In the 'Life Makers' program he said:

‘Islam is not only about how to pray or fast; this is not in any way an underestimation of ibādah (worship). However, many people have stopped at that point and consider Ramadān and the hijāb (the veil) to be the ultimate end. This program aims to correct this misconception. Islam is all about making life; it is all about successful and excellent people who understand the true essence of Islam.’⁽²⁰⁾

The television program had 46 episodes but the ambitious work on projects has continued after this and is planned to cover development work on following areas; industry, agriculture, health, and environment, adhering to religious values, education and tourism. Among the first projects carried out by the 'Life Makers' were for example an anti-smoking campaign and clothes collection campaign.⁽²¹⁾

Muslim Brotherhood Agenda?

Rumors about the relationship between Khālid and the illegal but tolerated Islamist Muslim Brotherhood Organization are commonly perpetuated in Arab press.⁽²²⁾

Nevertheless, Khālid has his own audience and his own projects but commentators still discuss whether or not there is political content in his preaching close to the Brotherhood agenda, and whether he is just applying a new strategy to let this agenda penetrate the society. In this line of thought, some analysts, among them Wahīd ^cAbd al-Majīd, deputy of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, claim that Khālid in some way took over the failed Islamist mobilization project in the 1990s, which mainly targeted the poor people in Egypt. Thus, what Khālid is doing now, according to ^cAbd al-Majīd, is to try to mobilize another segment of society, namely the middle and upper class but for the same religious political current.^{(23) c}Abd al-Majīd also stated that the prevailing cultural and political vacancy in Egypt is the reason why people gather around superficial and popular religious preachers like Khālid.⁽²⁴⁾

Conservative or Innovative?

Patrick Haenni, a Swiss born doctor in sociology who specialized in Egyptian political development and religious currents, described the content of Khālid's teaching not as political but strongly ethical in its emphasis.⁽²⁵⁾Concerning the message Khālid conveys, Haenni found it morally conservative and one that legitimizes wealth. According to him: ‘^cAmr Khālid is introducing a new way of living Islam, but his message is neofundamentalist.’⁽²⁶⁾

Criticism and Praising of Khālid Activities

In the Egyptian secular tabloid Rose al-Yūsuf, his persuasive influence on girls to start wearing the veil is perceived as a troubling sign of his heavy impact on people in a conservative and extremist direction.⁽²⁷⁾In an October Magazine article the author expressed disappointment that he found Khālid's teachings just copies of old teachings from decades ago, and imitating centuries old conservative teachers. The author mentions his restrictive attitude toward music and partying, which somehow contrasts his outer attitude and language.⁽²⁸⁾

Meanwhile, other writers hail his extraordinary ability to influence youth. Some see him as a savior from alternatives such as religious extremism, Satan-worship and homosexuality.⁽²⁹⁾

Many al-Azhar scholars deem Khālid unqualified as dā^ciyah and they always return to the argument that he is not al-Azhar graduate but 'only' an accountant. Some accused him of using false hadīths in his television presentations that give a misleading picture of the prophet.⁽³⁰⁾

Patrick Haenni agrees that with his new outlook and new departure point to his message compared to traditional da^cwah, Khālid is rebelling against al-Azhar scholars. Although, their judgment of Khālid often deemed him superficial and somewhat ignorant of the essence of Islam, this attitude of arrogance and ignoring cannot change the fact that Khālid did actually reform the religious life in the upper and middle class of Egypt according to Haenni. He concludes that: ‘those Muslim preachers, who oppose him today, will be obliged to adopt his techniques tomorrow.’⁽³¹⁾

According to Khālid himself, he has no conflict with al-Azhar, because he knows his own limits. He is shaykh and dā^ciyah but he never issues fatwás, which only learned muftīs are authorized to do.⁽³²⁾

Muslim Shall Not Copy the Western Way of Life

Khālid has a positive attitude toward dialogue and co-existence of cultures, however, he expressed his criticism of the Western way of life in several interviews.

‘I am an advocate for the cooperation with the West as long as there is no loss of identity.’⁽³³⁾

In a similar statement quoted in The Independent (2006), Khālid emphasized not only the possibilities but also the difficulties of co-existence:

‘To say we are building a bridge does not mean we are making a copy of life in the West. There are some things we don't accept in your [Western] 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] civilization then no one will listen to me, because no one thinks like that.’⁽³⁴⁾

His message to the Arab and the Muslim youth living in the West is the same as he tells young people in Egypt:

‘You must be an effective addition to your society. When you are so, you will be good ambassadors for Islam.’⁽³⁵⁾

Given to during Khālid's efforts to bridge the gap between Muslims and Western societies Khālid's name appeared in a leaked document of the British Government in 2004, which outlined a governmental plan of action to "win the hearts and minds" of young British Muslims. Sir Andrew Turnbull, Cabinet Secretary then, pointed to Khālid as one of the moderate Muslim leaders worth supporting as a model for young Muslims in Britain.⁽³⁶⁾

The Danish Cartoon Crisis

In the aftermath of the publishing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspaper (September 2005), ^cAmr Khālid arranged a two-day conference 'This is our Prophet’ paid for by the Danish Foreign Ministry. The conference was attended by 170 Muslim scholars and preachers. Its aim was primarily to receive the Danish government apology and further to promote and inform about Islam and the Prophet in Denmark.⁽³⁷⁾

Khālid condemned the cartoons. Nevertheless, he called for an increase in awareness of the nature of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark and the Western world in general. On his websites Khālid explained the implications of the conflict thus:

‘The West understands very well the freedom of speech (which we appreciate) but it does not understand Islamic values, such as dignifying the Prophet (PBUH) and other Islamic sanctities. This is where the Western cultural vagueness lies.’⁽³⁸⁾

Khālid's conference initiative was subject to massive debate in the Islamic world and it was opposed by many Islamic scholars headed by Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī, who was against any dialogue with Denmark as long as the Danish government did not offer an official apology for the offence. Qaradāwī called for a boycott of Danish products, while Khālid called for ending the boycotts and protests. Qaradāwī found Khālid's initiative an attempt to appease the anger of the Muslims and giving the Danish government an easy way out of their trouble.⁽³⁹⁾Some scholars saw Khālid's way of tackling the issue as a proof that he is a false dā^ciyah deviating from true Islam.⁽⁴⁰⁾