ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that preaching Islam has always attracted the attention of individuals and states, both Muslim and non-Muslim. It also discusses the genre named "The Stories of the Prophets" is defined in Arabic literature according to its subject matter, and varies between popular and formal religious literature. Initially, the carriers of the cultural heritage passed it on orally, which implies that in fact the flowering of story-telling and preaching dates back to pre-Islamic times. From the beginning of the eighth Islamic century, resentment towards, reservations about, and criticism of the story-tellers increased. The New Preachers emerged in Egypt at a time when the violent radical Islamist organizations of the mid 1990s were either fading away or changing course. The Muslim Brotherhood was embargoed in the political arena, and radical groups like al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya were reworking their philosophies, renouncing violence as a means for political action and change.
