Who wants to be a mullah?

• Position: Malaysia - Brief article

At first glance, episodes of Imam Muda ("Young Leader") may look like American Idol, but this is Malaysian reality television--and there's a pious twist. Rather than belt out pop tunes for a panel of crabby judges, the show's contestants, ages 18 to 27, debate religious topics and recite passages from the Koran. The winner gets a job as an imam (religious leader), a scholarship to study in Saudi Arabia, and an all-expenses-paid pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Imam Muda has become the...