Page 46 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

thoughts [tishaghallak "ala tul]. The sermon, on the other hand, makes you think
of God, and brings you feelings of humility [khushu"] and regret [nadam].

The woman then quoted a verse from the Quran, but the boy immediately
pointed out to her that the verse made no mention of music. “Yes,” she con-
curred, “but it leads you to the reasoning of why music is haram.” The driver
nodded in agreement. The boy, not to be defeated, countered, “Love is not haram
in Islam.”
This conversation reveals a number of characteristics of a kind of public de-
liberation that has become increasingly prevalent in Egypt in recent decades.
Note, to begin, the rather unstructured and informal character of this exchange.
Circulating outside the boundaries of prescribed ritual practice, cassette ser-
mons have helped to create the context for this type of public argument, one
that, as we see here, cuts across generational and gender lines in ways not pos-
sible within the ordered, sex-segregated space of the mosque. The relation be-
tween the speakers is not that of teacher to pupil nor of social superior to social
subordinate but rather that of coparticipants in a common moral project, their
speech structured around an orientation to correct Islamic practice. As opposed
to the position of khatib within the mosque, which is reserved only for men,
the duty of da"wa falls to both men and women. 5
In addition, and contrary to what has often been suggested, reference to
authoritative Islamic sources does not close debate. Instead, the lines of argu-
ment pivot precisely upon the proper interpretation of those sources. Whereas
in liberal society religious authority is generally understood to impose undue
constraints on free and open discussion and is thus unwelcome within the secu-
lar public sphere, here it provides the foundation upon which opposing view-
points are articulated.
The exchange also points to a new familiarity with bases and styles of Islamic
argumentation, evidenced, for example, in the boy’s knowledge of the speci¤c
hadith as well as its classi¤cation within the authoritative traditions. The advent
of modern mass education, literacy, and the wide availability of written texts
has equipped recent generations of Muslims in the Middle East with new com-
petencies in styles of scholarly argumentation and their associated textual ma-
terials, both classical and modern (see Eickelman 1999, 1992). Cassette sermons
and recorded mosque lessons, likewise, enable listeners to expand and bolster
their knowledge of Islamic traditions in moments of the day when the sort
of concentration demanded by written texts would be impossible—and to do
so, moreover, without the literacy skills required by such texts. All the men I
worked with had sought to acquire competence in these traditions, a task that
has become easier with the proliferation of new institutions of Islamic learning
associated with the revival movement, such as mosque study groups, private Is-
lamic institutes, da"wa centers, and a vibrant market in Islamic books and tapes.
For many of those I worked with in Cairo and who participated in the fash-
ion of listening to cassette sermons, da"wa entailed a commitment both to learn
Islamic virtues and to encourage those around them through personal appeal

Cassette Ethics 35