Islamic televangelists preach 'Islam Lite'

CAIRO, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Muslim televangelists are preaching "Islam-Lite" to younger Muslims from Egypt to London as an alternative to the fiery idiom of Islamic fundamentalism.

Moez Masoud, a 29-year-old Egyptian, and several other younger pulpiteers are preaching about Islam using satellite television to promote a more cheery and lenient form of Islam, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

"Moez helps us understand everything about our religion -- not from 1,400 years ago, but the way we live now," an audience member at one of Moez's sermons told The Post.

Televangelism in the Middle East used to be reserved for Islam's top clerics orating from the Koran in mystical robes, preaching about the afterlife and on occasion, jihad and other aggressions.

Yet, as television in the Middle East has expanded rapidly following the explosion caused by CNN's coverage of the first Gulf War, many new faces are preaching "a sweet orthodoxy" rather than "unthinking rage," The Post said.

"Governments have realized that the good old days of controlling what people watch on TV are over," said one media analyst in the Post. "This has also rattled the religious conservatives. They don't like it that suddenly there is competition."