Amr Khalid tops Forbes Arabia Da’awa Stars list with USD 2.5 million net income!

Forbes Arabia magazine, the leaders in issuing pointless lists, has issued a new list titled “Da’awa Stars”, the new one-of-a-kind list focuses on the income of religious preachers generated from their institutions and individual activities.

The top preachers/scholars are:
1) Egyptian preacher Amr Khalid tops the ranking with USD 2.5 million net income
2) Kuwaiti preacher Tariq Swidan with USD 1 million
3) Saudi Arabia’s Ayed Al Qurani with USD 533,000
4) Egypt’s Amr Abdul Kafi with USD 373,000
5) Saudi’s Salman Aouda with USD 267,000

But is it ethical to generate money using religion?

I know that those guys are human beings and they need to work to make living, but religion is all about giving without expecting anything in return, especially money, usually the spiritual aspect inspires people to give in their lifetime in order to be rewarded afterwards, in heaven.

The numbers seem to be a little bit big, at least to me, I mean to generate a net profit of 2.5 Million USD in one year is something that raises questions about your credibility and goals.

Preachers usually tend to enlighten people that life is just a temporary stage that leads you to the final salvation, which is heaven, they encourage people to live simple lives not worrying about money or power, cause it’s all going to disappear eventually, if this is case why don’t those preachers donate these money to the poor?

Below is the press release sent out by Orient Planet PR Agency:
Amr Khalid tops Forbes Arabia preachers’ earning list with USD 2.5 million net income
Magazine issues “Da’awa Stars” list of 2007 highest income earners among religious preachers

“Forbes Arabia” magazine has issued a new list entitled “Da’awa Stars”, in which it ranked Islamic religious preachers/scholars with the highest incomes for 2007. According to the list, Egyptian preacher Amr Khalid tops the ranking with USD 2.5 million net income, followed by the Kuwaiti preacher Tariq Swidan with USD 1 million, Saudi Arabia’s Ayed Al Qurani - author of the famous book “Don’t Be Sad” - with USD 533,000, Egypt’s Amr Abdul Kafi -who is a resident of the UAE - with USD 373,000, and Saudi’s Salman Aouda with USD 267,000.

According to the March 2008 issue of the magazine, the source of income of the scholars is mainly from TV production and programs on Arab TV channels, as well as royalty earnings from voice recordings from CD and religious tapes, in addition to religious and literary books by the scholars released in 2007 and the previous years.

The editorial of the “Forbes Arabia” magazine mentions that Da’awa (Call) in religion is based on individual and institutional activity, but it has become a source of income to many preachers, mass media, and printing, publication and technical production companies, and as such it is not deemed different from other business activities. The magazine emphasized on the importance of religious Da’waa “religious call” and Islamic teachings.

The list included statistics for a number of intellectual books and voice recordings by the five preachers. The magazine also published biographies highlighting the turning points in each scholar’s life, while also touching upon their future plans, particularly new editions of books and TV programs under production.

It is worth mentioning that the list of “Da’waa Stars” is the first such list in the Arab World, which tracks incomes of religious preachers generated from their institutions and individual activities. The list is prepared on the basis of a number of criteria, including income from intellectual property rights, which the preacher gets from technical production companies against his voice recordings, as well as income from selling his writings, which he gets from publication and distribution companies. The list also takes into account the income from the remuneration the preacher receives from TV programs which he presents, in addition to the income from other intellectual activities such as training and lectures. The magazine excluded from the list, income which is not related to Da’awa activities, as well as donations and financial endowments which the preacher receives, either from governmental or non governmental institutions.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under Arabia, Controversial, Lists, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.