X factor for muslim preachers in Malaysia wows television audience

Contestants on Young Imam chant passages from the Koran, not pop covers.
While the concept is based on the hit British and American shows, the young Malaysian men are out to prove they are the best mullah in the land.

The show, now in its third week, is fast becoming a hit in the Muslim-majority country.
The judge who delivers their fate as the lights dim and contestant stand nervously is no Simon Cowell.
Hasan Mahmood, the former grand mufti of Malaysia's national mosque, presides over the ten male contestants aged between 19 and 27.
Instead of a lucrative record deal, the winner will be given a post as an imam at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, a Haj pilgrimage to Mecca and a full scholarship to the Madinah international university in Saudi Arabia.
Just like their counterparts in the West, the Young Imam competitors are fast becoming icons to young viewers.
The show's Facebook page has over 25,000 fans, including prospective mothers-in-law looking to marry off their daughters.

The aspiring imams are given clerical tasks to complete each week.
The first challenge was to bathe and bury a body that had lain unclaimed in a morgue for one month. The man had died of the AIDS virus. They washed the body, wrapped it in white cotton, offered prayers and buried it, with some contestants shedding tears at the grave.
"Seeing and handling a dead body is the most difficult ritual they could face as an imam. The ten boys were brilliant, but the crew was not so good," said Izelan Basar, channel manager of Astro Oasis, which screens the show. "The producer fainted and several crew members vomited."
Other tasks have included trying to teach young street racers caught by the police about Islam and visiting an orphanage. The group is secluded from the outside world in a dormitory on a mosque compound.
Each contestants has to deliver a sermon in a mosque every Friday. Last week, 25-year-old Sharafuddin Suaut was sent home for a lack of clarity over finer points of Islamic theory.

Whats next ........ Big Buddah ?