Egypt: Telepreacher Amr Khaled under threat over alleged Jewish sympathy
Sep 1st, 2009 | By Bikya Masr Staff | Category: Culture, Islam, Media, News, Religion
The popular telepreacher is under Egyptian government scrutiny. *Amr-Khaled.com
CAIRO: Egypt’s leading television preacher Amr Khaled finds himself once again facing controversy after discussing the story of Moses and alleging the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s killed male Jews during this period in history. The telepreacher’s controversial story was part of his “Stories of the Qur’an” series that has been airing since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
A number of Egyptian viewers and religious leaders have accused the prominent telepreacher of arousing sympathy for the Jews.
An Egyptian state security officer has issued a report stating just that as well as “attacking the Egyptian government.” The report, number 314, has reportedly referred to Khaled’s other program “The Human Being” as a campaign to assist residents in building new homes in poor villages across the country.
This program is under threat due to Gamal Mubarak – son of President Hosni Mubarak who has been tipped as the next president by most observers – and his “Thousand Villages” project aimed at building grassroots support and helping poorer areas of the country.
The controversies have prompted some to argue that Khaled was forced to leave Egypt this past June after the interior ministry asked the telepreacher to “tone down his activities.”
However, a close friend and journalist, Mohamed Fathi, denies any ministry involvement with Khaled’s departure to London, saying he intended to return to Egypt during the month of fasting.
“He is currently in Saudi Arabia performing the Lesser Pilgrimage,” he told Al Arabiya news network. “He will also fly to the UAE to take part in the international Qur’an competition then come to Egypt.”
The Moses story had been prepared and posted on Khaled’s website this past May with questions posed to visitors.
“Think about these questions,” he wrote. “You will not find their answers in any book. They just need brains and imagination.”
On his site, the questions range in substance. “Why did the Pharaoh order male Jews to be killed? What do you think was Moses’ political goal? Was it saving the Israelites or talking the Pharaoh into believing in God? Why didn’t Moses call upon Egyptians to join his faith?”
Average Egyptians seemed unconcerned with the controversy, with many of his supporters arguing the government does not know what they are getting invovled in by accusing the telepreacher as being sympathetic to Jews and in turn, Israel.
“The security doesn’t have a clue. Khaled is popular. I watch him with my friends every day because we want to learn and understand what he is asking of good Muslims,” said Omar Nasser, a 21-year-old marketing student at Cairo University. Nasser and young people like him make the bulk of Khaled’s viewers, who have found the American University in Cairo-educated preacher inspiring.
“He speaks to one of us as if we belong and his advice is taken seriously. The government should be careful,” he added.
BM
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As with many too popular public personas, the government is trying to find an excuse to shut him down. Sympathy with Israel, especially when you’re talking about a story 6000 years old, sounds very petty though.
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don;t worry allah will protect us
He never pointed to things like ” sympathy with israelis ” he pointed to things that convict them of obtaining racism from their own hate to us; the arabs, muslims, because we followed Allah, unlike what they did. He was not saying anything good on their behalf, and he was pointing the question ” Why all this racism, and where did you get it ya Bany Isreal?” As a viewer of his show Qasas Al-Quran and a big fan of mr. Amr, he didn’t do anything for them to
scrutinize him and treat him like that.
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What I got from watching this program is that Amr was drawing a clear paralles between what Ramsis did to the Israelites and What the Egyptian Government has managed to achieve during the past few years of Mubarak’s rule.. which is nothing short of creating two races (classes) in one country… One that got the gold mine and the other that got the shaft .. You got it ?!!! The whole focus of the story was ” The Humiliation of an Entire Nation” by Pharaonic Tyrants. That’s what is really upsetting……
to the Egyptian government.
History repeats itself, doesn’t it !! Let’s wait and see !!