At the pulpit of an inner-city Chicago mosque, the tall blond imam begins preaching in his customary fashion, touching on the Los Angeles Lakers victory the night before, his own gang involvement as a teenager, a TV soap opera and then the Day of Judgment.
“Yesterday we watched the best of seven. … Unfortunately we forget the big final; it’s like that show ‘One Life to Live,’ ” Imam Suhaib Webb says as sleepy boys and young men come to attention in the back rows. “There’s no overtime, bro.”
The sermon is typical of Webb, a charismatic Oklahoma-born convert to Islam with a growing following among American Muslims, especially the young. He sprinkles his public addresses with as many pop culture references as Quranic verses and sayings from the prophet. He says it helps him connect with his mainly U.S.-born flock.
It’s something of a throwback. I recall reading that Julian the apostate tried using Christian terms and models to try to revive pagan worship and practice. I wish this fellow every bit as much luck in trying to use stale methods to preach untruth. Modern methods aren’t likely to have much effect when you have to sell a religion based on force and death threats. It never did *argue* its way into a place, it converts and converted at sword point.
#1 — I’m not sure how working to connect with the culture of those you’re trying to reach would be considered “stale.”