Friday, February 22, 2008

Emerging trend?

Pop Preacher Sings of a Tolerant Islam -Mark MacKinnon

Egyptian pop star Moez Masoud, 29, is one of a new wave of Muslim "televangelists," converting many to an interpretation of Islam that encourages social contacts between men and women and a rejection of anti-Western fundamentalism.

Critics call his message "Islam lite," but Masoud sees himself as helping reclaim a religion that for too long has been controlled by angry fundamentalists who preach in the name of Islam without following its basic precept of loving other human beings.

"These people have presented views that are just blatantly wrong about women, about homosexuals, about Jews, about jihad," he said. "I'm just removing the extra baggage that extremists have put in," he said.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)

1 comment:

LHwrites said...

It would be nice if this were a spreading trend among the youth. When it has appeared so in the past, especially in Iran, there were always plenty of youth chanting for the extreme fundamentalists as well. It will be interesting to see where this goes, as a better future will only come if the young want a better world and life than their parents knew.