New preachers feature Islam in a liberal way

Waleed Mansour

The trend of new preachers has attracted millions of young people in the Arab world, and in Egypt in particular thanks to its fresh preaching features away from Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood’s characteristics. It has featured an unorthodox trend of preaching. The new trend of preaching is led by a number of well-known preachers such as Khaled El Guindy, Moustafa Hosni, Amr Khaled, Sherif Shehata and Moez Masoud.

According to a book titled “The Islamic Dispute” written by Ahmed Salem, these preachers are called “satellite preachers”, “air-conditioned Islam”, “cute religious”, “market Islam”, and “bourgeois Islam”.

The trend has been well studied and analyzed in a number of books and researched studies like “New Preachers between Modern Religiousness and Preaching” by Al-Mesbar Center, and “New Religiousness” by Wissam Lutfy.

French researcher Patrick Haenni analyzed in his book “Market Islam”, published in 2005, the new trend and the audience of these new preachers.

The new preachers are a generation that disdained from principles of Islamist movements and adopted new topics like freedom and citizenship, as well as reconciliation with the modern time in the wake of globalization.

The culture of picture

The new preachers highly rely on satellite channels. Therefore, the culture of the picture dominated, and the preachers highlighted specific religious issues.

Haenni ascribed the rising trend of new preachers to the need to foil political Islam through the featuring of liberal Islam, based on the values of equality and freedom, or a modern version of Sufism seeking to comply with the new environment.

Haenni said in “Market Islam” that Islamist musical bands and female preachers emerged as a result of the new trend of preachers.

The new trend is backed and funded by financial organizations and political parties such as the Welfare Party in Turkey and Al-Wasat in Egypt.

Haenni highlighted how Amr Khaled has switched from preaching to human development and taking part in international events organized by the United Nations. Khaled has turned into a social reformer rather than a preacher. Haenni’s book also highlighted how Khaled featured a modern, unconventional way for preaching as an alternative of political Islam.

According to Haenni’s book, the new preachers dress like upperclassmen. They all draw on the satellite channels, the social media, clubs and forums for preaching.

The audiences of new preachers are mostly from the bourgeois class. The new preachers select topics that better suit the youth and women. They do not involve themselves directly in politics, and keep away from complicated issues. They all underscore that wealth and money do not conflict with religion. They tend to use simplified and colloquial language.