Egypt's Ministry of Religious Endowments boosts its imams' media skills
Media trainings aim to give Awqaf's imams better verbal skills — not only against extremist views but also against their rival Al-Azhar.
CAIRO — Will a one-week training enable Egypt’s imams to sound more reassuring, more emphatic and appear more camera-friendly on television? The Ministry of Religious Endowments certainly hopes so.
The media trainings were launched three months ago by Maspero, the Radio and Television Union, in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and a number of media colleges and institutes; four training sessions have been held so far, the last one on Oct. 8-15. They target the imams of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and aim at developing their public speaking and persuasion skills. Courses include teaching the imams how to speak in talk shows, telephone interviews and TV debates. It also teaches them body language for interviews on TV as well as writing sound bites for various types of televised interviews.
