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CAIRO — In his gatherings and TV shows, young televangelist Moez Masoud speaks about relations between men and women and Islam’s view of music and art.
“I’m just about everyday things, you know?” Masoud told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview published on February 24, as he prepared for an event at a Cairo hotel to discuss romantic love and marriage in Islam.
“It’s about keeping it real,” added 29-year-old Masoud, who is usually dressed in stylish Western clothes.
A rising star in the world of Islamic da`wah, he reaches out to millions of people, mostly young men and women, via TV programs broadcast on satellite channels across the Middle East.
Masoud, who holds a BA in economics, talks about Islam’s message of love and tolerance, encouraging art and music and socializing with members of the opposite sex, as long as encounters are chaste.
He preaches that Muslims should hate the sin of homosexuality, not the sinner, and encourages women to pursue fulfilling careers.
His ultimate goal, Masoud says, is to fight against those who dangerously abuse Islam in today’s world.
“It scares me. It scares me because you can build so much and they just tear it down so quickly.”
He recorded an episode of his latest show, “The Right Path”, in London to denounce the 7/7 terrorist blasts that killed 52 people.
Masoud recently penned a song about Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher jailed in Sudan after allowing her students to give a teddy bear the name Mohammed, which some considered an insult to Islam.
“I felt it was a horrible misrepresentation of some childish, infantile people who happen to be cultural Muslims.”
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir pardoned Gibbons thanks to the good offices of British Muslim peers Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi.
Personal Journey
Masoud says that talking to young Muslims about challenges and temptations they face fits him because, for a long time, he was on the other side himself.
Raised in an affluent Egyptian family and brought up in American schools in Kuwait and Egypt, he led a party-hard lifestyle of alcohol, drugs and dating.
“For a while, I just went with the flow,” he told The Telegraph.
“Coming from a rich, or at least better-off family, and going to American schools, the flow was partying,” he recalls.
“I didn’t think it was wrong. I just did what came naturally.”
Masoud came to discover his right path the hard way.
At first, he lost three of his closest friends to a drugs overdose, a car accident and to cancer.
It wasn’t long before he himself faced a near-death experience as a result of a spleen tumor.
Several months later, Masoud narrowly escaped what would have been a fatal car crash after a night of heavy drinking at a New Year’s Eve party.
Something inside him changed.
Masoud took an oath to change his life, finish his study and give up alcohol, drugs and bad company for good.
Now a husband and father, he believes those experiences help him connect with young Muslims.
“Honestly people, the lecture was more than perfect,” Egyptian Maha wrote on one of three Facebook groups established by his mostly educated and middle-class young fans.
“This guy is awesome, God bless him for what he is doing.”
Posted by: Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, info@al-amana.org
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