A religious revival can appeal as much through intellectual community as through piety

Evidence

Deeply devout, Jaafar took Rami around the masajid of Amman, and Rami walked the city with wide-open eyes, absorbing everything around him. … Each time they arrived around ‘asr, the time for the afternoon prayer, and stayed until after maghreb, the evening prayer, when the lectures began. Hundreds of people would be in the masjid by then, but Rami and Jaafar had been there long enough to secure a place in the front row. Rami loved it. It felt intellectual and communal, serious and spiritual. Man, this is it, he thought, the full-blown Islam! — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 889