Up Close and Personal Admired preacher Amr Khaled speaks about post- revolution Egypt, its priorities, and the role and significance of truly believing. His influence is a force to be reckoned with, and his remedy is a tough personal regime of self-renewal. From preacher to activist, DG conducted an extensive, probing interview with Dr. Amr Khaled…

Is there a difference between Amr Khaled before 25 of January and Amr Khaled after 25th of January?
Before 25th of January I was trapped. I could neither talk, nor reach the youth and Egyptians in general. But after the revolution I am free again, all Egyptians are free now.  I was forced to leave the country back in 2005; I couldn’t even take my bag with me. I used to come to my country as a tourist, stay for a while and then I was obliged to leave again. But thanks to God on the 28th of January 2011 I returned and all the barriers and obstacles were removed. I hope the transitional period ends quickly and safely and we start moving ahead, taking Egypt to its right place and position among nations -- to start building, advancing and progressing.

Were you officially forbidden to work in Egypt? And can you tell us what happened?
Yes I was - for eight years. But I believe that this is not the right time to disclose the secrets. The right time will eventually come, but not right now. My ethics, religion, and the welfare of our country forbid me to talk and reveal what happened with me. I’ll tell you something, we have rear vision mirror in our cars to see the road. However, we can’t remain looking in that direction all the time; surely we’ll have an accident. We glance to the back every now and then. I don’t approve of what the media is doing nowadays. They are talking about the past and what happened. Now it is time to talk about the future and to learn from the past mistakes but not to stick to it. Incidentally, I was offered a lot of money to talk about my experience with the past regime. But like I initially said – it’s not the right time. Perhaps a few years from now and when everything is finished I will tell my story in  order to learn from it.

How do you see the current political situation?
To tell you the truth we are currently facing huge and major risks. I believe that it is all because of the absence of the ruler, the leader. It’s been over a year now, and Egypt still has no president. In the entire world and by constitution any country must have a ruler within 45 days maximum. We are approximately 85 million inhabitants; can you imagine such a vast number of people living devoid of a leader? Of course that could lead to chaos. The dilemma now to politicians and top notch people is the constitutional issue and how to embrace a president without putting the constitution first in order to put the right rules for presidency. Theoretically this is right, but in reality we have been living for more than 200 years without constitution. So now we need a PRESIDENT. This also means conclusive obedience to the elected president. If you read in politics or open any political book you will find that politics means obedience. That doesn’t mean suppressing or restraining freedom but it means if we elect and choose a certain person, we have to give him our irrefutable deference and let him work in the right atmosphere and then judge him afterwards. I want to tell you a story that will summarize everything and show you the magnitude of what I am telling you. When Prophet Mohamed PBUH died, all his friends and followers decided to meet first at a certain place in Al Medina Al Mounawra before they buried him to choose the new ruler subsequent to him. They didn’t come out of this gathering before choosing Abou Bakr Al Sediq. Of course we all know how much they were grieving and how it was the biggest disaster ever - the most beloved person on earth died, but they were extremely wise to plan first for the future and to oversee the welfare of Islam and Muslims, and then to grieve.

What do you think about these terminologies -- Islamic state or modern state or democratic state, and how should we write our constitution?
I am really sad and upset from such an absurd debate. I really do not know why we are fighting? Statement no. 2 in our last constitution was there for a long time and we never fought about it. Whether you are a liberal, salafi, or from the Muslim brotherhood, these are your beliefs and thoughts and we should not argue about that. We should respect each other and learn how to be different yet respect one another. We should speak about one thing now which is our economy and how to develop our country, pay our debts and establish our advancement. I just arrived from the International Economic Forum and people there simply work and work hard. They are only talking about competitiveness. Big countries are ranking developing countries on whether these small counties are moving towards development and progress and if they have potential for investment and of course this is based on certain criteria they apply on each country. Unfortunately Egypt is ranked 94 among other countries. We should think on making Egypt no. 20 or 10, how to get investments back to Egypt -- not what they are doing now...

What is the reason behind that?
The media is playing a very important role in what is happening nowadays. The media should be unbiased and fair to all parties. God will punish those who are fueling the turmoil and unrest.

Who is your idol?
I have more than one person that I consider as an idol. A name such as El Shafei in his boldness, someone like Abi Hamed El Ghazali who renewed the religious thoughts, someone resembling Nelson Mandela in his forgiveness and Mostafa Kamel whom I don’t only see as a patriot but also as someone who highly contributed in education especially that this is my main concern now with my partners and team in ‘Sonaa Al Hayat.’

As we all know that Islam is the most beautiful, easy, and forgiving religion on earth. Why do I feel that nowadays some people are trying to show it as a difficult and complicated belief?
Our religion is so trouble-free and its lenience is the reason behind the multiple explanations to it. Any person can be under the Islamic umbrella and find all the solutions to his/her problems. But the problem is the one track minded people who believe that they are the only right individuals and that their beliefs are the one and only right principle. God is capable of giving us one opinion and solution to everything, but instead chose to give us the liberty to let us think as long as we are doing the right thing and not to cross the red line. God was also capable to create us all the same with no difference but instead created us different as being different is bliss.

What kind of role do you promote women to play in society after the revolution?
I respect women and a branch of my programs talk directly to them. I encourage them to begin civil society work. Even if they’re at school or still studying at university, in the summer you have to work. All women should go out and work, not say that Islam says no! I can’t work with men, etc. There are numerous examples from our history of how women have worked and what they have successfully achieved.

Who do you hope will be the upcoming Egyptian president?
Someone who has a nationalized Egyptian Dream, who can unite people and let them dream with him. Someone who will win our trust, allowing us to start working hardly to achieve our dreams. I believe we need hundreds of dreams and projects that must unite people and move Egypt to a better place...

It was a real pleasure having you with us and hoping all the best for you…
The pleasure was mine and thank you so much…