He was well known in his home country for appearing on a TV program for an anasheed competition before he emigrated to join the Islamic State in 2013. He also appeared on al- Bidayah TV Channel.[2] He became famous as the singer behind some of their most famous and popular anasheed which are regularly played as background music in combat and execution videos released by Islamic State. Meshaal spent five years working as an munshid and an imam at a mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before joining ISIL in April 2013, the Saudi Gazette claims.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]