Newsreel (June 2007)

Newsreel

Egypt Today

June 2007

Available at: http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7423

Photo by: Nasser Nasser

Our Hero

Egypian televangelist Amr Khaled has made Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The only Arab Muslim on the list, Khaled can be found in the “heroes and pioneers” category. Along with five others on the list, he gave a speech to 600 influential people in a ceremony held last month in New York.

Khaled’s is a household name in the Arab world. The young preacher was described by Time as “a rock star for a segment of the Islamic world.” His website has far surpassed American talk show host Oprah Winfrey’s in popularity and had over 26 million hits last year.

The Time list was unranked, but it is newsworthy to note that Khaled finished thirteenth overall in an online poll of Time’s readers. The ranking was based on the average rating of influence (75 out of 100) and not on the number of voters (6,122). According to this same list, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling ranked sixth and American Idol competitor Sanjaya Malakar was third.

Khaled’s new show A Message to Co-exist, is being aired on four satellite channels and is translated into four languages. He currently resides in Birmingham with his wife and two sons.

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