Shortcut to Paradise

It's clear that he never saw it coming. The famous da3eya Amr Khaled has been exposed by Al Azhar to be quoting verses from the Holy Qur'an incorrectly. [click here to read details]

I've referred in a former post to Amr Khaled as a nominee on my 5 Most Hated People list, but if it wasn't for his Azharian colleague, Khaled El Gindy, he would have appeared as number 2. There is nothing I hate more than the kind of brainwash that Amr and his buddies perform. They mess up with the minds of our youth, taking advantage of their ignorance and vulnerability to gain money and fame. Religious talk, which has become a profiting business lately, doesn't cost anything. Anyone who finds in himself the needed charisma and basic religious information can make huge profits in a short time. Thanks to the age of media and open skies. People like Amr Khaled can reach a wide audience in just a matter of months. Then the business gets bigger. The established familiar face can then sell his product on cassette, CD, books, videos or even the internet.

Amr Khaled as most of you know is an accountant. The sign on his office can still be seen in Mohandeseen, Cairo. But with a simple calculation, this accountant was able to see what the brainwashing business can do for him. His acting skills also made him more suitable for the job. He can control the tone of his voice to make his talk authoritative and touching. He knows his audience well. They are young people who have no fixed aim in life and who are ignorant or semi-ignorant when it comes to religion. This lost and confused generation is an easy victim.

But why wasn't he careful when quoting verses from the Qur'an while writing his books or recording his tapes? I guess, the right question would be why be careful. Why give a damn if those people take whatever he says for granted? They will never care to check what he is saying and will never stop to analyse his speech. Yes, they are that desperate! The masses that make up the audience of Amr Khaled are people who are simple-minded. They want a simple religious meal to swallow and sleep. It is a new kind of drug that encourages more isolation and detachment. Amr Khaled and his group offer what can be called "a shortcut to paradise." You don't have to investigate into your current conditions or seek knowledge. They think for you and they get you the magical formula to be the best. Just attend their classes, buy their books and listen to their tapes, and you are the best person that can be. You become better than the western inventor in his lab, better than a Nobel prize winner, better than Bill Gates, better than your successful neighbor who doesn't attend the same classes or listen to the same tapes. All your problems will be solved, just sit there and pray.

Amr Khaled's business prospers the more lazy people become. He has no market in the developed world, where everybody knows his/her aims and works to achieve them. They don't need someone to mess up with their minds. And they won't allow someone to play all the roles of a shrink, a sociologist, a man of religion, a show host, and a counselor together (while being disqualified for any of them). But it in our underdeveloped, or as they like to call themselves "developing," countries he can pass as a highly respectable figure and even a role model for our youth who haven't learned to use their heads. He needs to drain their minds even more. He is like the undertaker who thrives on dead corpses. Thus, he cares to hit famous celebrities, making an actress wear a head scarf, or convincing a football player that he can become a TV da3ya. His audience will then get more and more attached as they see those popular figures revolving in his orbit. And because they have been well trained to cancel their minds they never pause to notice what his teachings have done with Ahmed El Fishawy for example. The once promising star, was well known to be one of Amr Khaled's students. He appeared on many shows on Iqra' satellite channel to show off how religious he has become on the hands of Amr Khaled. Then the next thing we see them as the father of an illegal child. His "teacher" didn't tell him that what he did was a sin, but encouraged him to escape responsibility, while meantime carefully drifting away from a student he was once very proud of (after El Fishawy became a "burnt card" as the saying goes). And all of a sudden the boy faces the scandals without his teacher, who for sure told him all the rotten talk about how a child can never be named after his/her father unless he agrees to it. He rested assured that there is no DNA in Islam and that he won't perform the test against his will. Where has God gone in all his calculations? It is heart breaking how the religion that Amr Khaled and his group offer make people turn to the crust of what this and that Sheikh said about so and so, while moving further from the real essence of religion. God is Just. God is Powerful. God is All-knowing. God doesn't need people like Amr Khaled to enter the hearts of his creation.