Cairo, May 25: Flames burst from the stage for a grand entrance, and fake fog swirls around a young man in a white robe.
He clutches the microphone, gazes seriously into the camera and then, accompanied only by drums, he sings.
“I accept Allah as my God, His religion as my religion, and His Messenger as my Messenger,” he intones, as the audience, divided into men’s and women’s sections, claps along with the rhythm.
The singer is a contestant on a new Islamic version of “American Idol,” launched to find and promote talent for the Arab world’s first Islamic pop music video channel.
The satellite station, 4shbab, Arabic for “For the Youth”, is the brainchild of an Egyptian media worker, Ahmad Abu Heiba, who says his mission is to spread the message that observant Muslims can also be modern and in touch with today’s world.
“We have failed to deliver this message,” Abu Heiba said. “What I am trying to do is to use the universal language of music to show what Islam looks like.”
The channel, which was launched in February and can be seen across the Arab world, is a bid to capitalise on a generation of young Muslims who have become more observant but are also raised on Western pop influences.
But it is hard to hit the right balance between conservative and liberal.
So what does Islam look like on 4shbab? There’s rock and hip-hop from American and British Muslim bands, singing about the struggles of keeping up with daily prayers or dressing modestly.
The Arab singers tend toward a more romantic pop style: young men with smouldering eyes and flowing shirts sing in the rain about leading a virtuous life, going to mosque and supporting their families, from helping their sisters with homework to taking out the garbage.
Abu Heiba said 4shbab is an antidote to the “lewd” music videos that mainstream channels show.
“We give our kids the shadow of holiness because this is basic in our culture and religion,” said Abu Heiba. “But when our kids are exposed to this (un-Islamic) media, it is totally different, they don’t feel like they belong to this culture anymore … their passions are divided.”
For the past two months, listeners called in to 4shbab to sing a song on the air, and a panel of experts judged them.
The 12 best, from around the Arab world, won the chance to compete in the finals in front of a live audience of about 300 people in an open air theater at Cairo’s historic Citadel.
-Agencies