The new Arab cosmopolitans

摘要

DURTNG Friday prayers the congrega-tion of Muhammad Yousef, a young puritanical preacher in the Egyptian town of Mansoura, once spilled out into the alleys surrounding his mosque. Now Sheikh Muhammad counts it a good week if he fills half the place. In Cairo, 110km (68 miles) to the south, unveiled women sit in street cafes, traditionally a male preserve, smoking water-pipes. Some of the establishments serve alcohol, which Islam prohibits. "We're in religious decline," moans Sheikh Muhammad, whose despair is shared by clerics in many parts of the Arab world.