4Shbab

Negar Azimi , NYTimes.com, Islam’s Answer to MTV, 13 Aug 2010 "“The media is changing everything,” Abu Haiba told me. “Television, the Internet, Facebook. We have to think faster, move faster. Time flies! 4Shbab is part of that change. It’s more than music. We have 25,000 members in the 4Shbab Forum. We get 3,000 S.M.S. a day from viewers. I have fans in Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Iraq — you name it. We think of it as a new kind of preaching for the ‘rebound generation.’ ”"

Also see 4shbab.com

Footnote: On their site I happened upon an article from 2009 on internet 'addiction', which is worth a look (especially for the pictures).

Research on TV

Two useful new pieces of research:

Yasmin Moll, Arab Media & Society, Islamic Televangelism: Religion, Media and Visuality in Contemporary Egypt with references to Mustafa Hosni, Amr Khaled and Moez Masoud.

Secondly, Maurice Chammah, , Arab Media & Society, Cosmopolitan Islamism and its Critics: Ahmed Abu Haiba, 4Shbab TV, and Western Reception

I haven't fully read these pieces yet.

4shbab: 'Your Voice is Heard'

AP/The Star, Islamic Idol lets pop fans keep the faith, 18 May 09 " The satellite station, 4shbab – Arabic for "For the Youth" – is the brainchild of an Egyptian media worker, Ahmed 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," he said on the sidelines of the contest, which aired late last month. The show is called Your Voice is Heard, though Abu Heiba has nicknamed it "Islamic Idol.""

Unfortunate nickname, interesting article.