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The public sphere in the Middle East and elsewhere is changing rapidly due to the global availability of new technologies of mass media. As a result of the growing influence of Islamist and pietistic movements in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities in the West, an increasing Islamization or ‘pietization’ (Turner 2008 )o f the public sphere is discernable. Also with regard to the cultural sphere attempts are made to bring art, leisure and entertainment in accordance with religious commitments. Pious sensibilities seem to be a moving but not necessarily dominating force in the creation of new forms of artistic expressions and leisure activities. Secularism, in particular, and ‘the grand project of nationalist progress’ (Schielke, this issue) are still very influential in the field of art. In much of the Arab world, mass culture is still one of the few remaining bastions of secularism (Salamandra, this issue). Secularist regimes perceive art and entertainment as important strongholds that are in need of defence. For that reason religious notions of art, leisure and entertainment are highly contested. Journalists, Islamists, artists and art consumers redefine the relationship between religion, art and leisure activities. The debates are raging within and between the secularists and the Islamist groups and profoundly discuss the place of religion in the public sphere. This special issue is the outcome of a panel organised on this topic at the MESA conference in 2007. We will highlight several examples of the ways piety is creatively merged with art and sketch the development towards a pious cultural sphere. Yet equally important is how these projects are debated, consumed and contested by diverse actors inside and outside the piety movement.

Creating an Islamic cultural sphere: contested notions of art, leisure and entertainment. An Introduction