العريفي Superstar

Mohammad al-Arifi, a popular televangelist who has more than two million followers on Twitter, posted comments Friday criticizing Saudi minister of social affairs Yousef al-Uthaymeen who was quoted by al-Yaum daily in 2009 as saying there are only 600 families under the poverty line in the country.

“Either the newspaper is lying to the minister or the minister is lying to us,” al-Arifi said. “The country is full of poor people.”

The tweet by al-Arifi was re-tweeted more than 5,000 times, causing a wave of strong criticism of the minister. al arabiya


One of the reasons I left Catholicism, which is also the same factor pushing Italians towards atheism, is the excessive role held by the Church in politics .
In a country where religion and state are split, the religious authority should limit its presence to the spiritual guidance of the citizens .
But the Vatican barely does that, as we can clearly acknowledge Italy's current moral decay .

In a Muslim country, where the religion is source of law, or at least its main reference, things do change .
Politics and religion are naturally interconnected : just, in my opinion the political leadership should be in a prominent position .
Religious authorities must not be submitted to political power, but they must exercise their role quietly .
They must give their advises and be a source of inspiration for the government .

Dr. Muhammad is very dear to my heart, but like all human beings, he is limited .
When he has these outbursts, that makes problems to himself and to the believers .
Often his lectures and statements are cut and pasted by anti-Islamic groups and used to prove Islam is a bad religion .
This is particularly detrimental for Muslims in the West .
It takes much effort, when colleagues or friends confront us with videos in which he says apparently odd things, to explain them what he meant .
We have to go back to Islamic history, to consider the context, to lay out the general principle first .
Yet people are not convinced .

In this particular case, given that many of his followers consider him as a demi-god (and that is wrong in Islam), he did a great damage to the cause .
Even if the statement had been true or just recent, all he obtained was sparking rage among his fans  .
That is not to raise awareness . That is simply to make a show .
I am sure he is in good faith when stumbling upon this sort of accidents, but since he is such a popular scholar, he should pay more attention to what he says and how .
Otherwise he will be remembered as a "televangelist", and he is much more than that .

May Allah forgive us our sins and guide us to and through His path .