Religion and Religious movements in Syria: The weakness of secularism in the Arab world is not accidental. It is partly due to Saudi funding and sponsoring of the most reactionary and religious groups, and partly due to the public detestation of ostensibly secular movements, like the cruel Ba`th Party in power. I just read a very important article by the best correspondent in Syria, Ibrahim Humaydi of Al-Hayat, on the rise of religious movements in ostensibly secular Syria. He reports that 30 % of the Syrian population attend Friday's prayers, which is a very high percentage. He further reports that some 12 million out of 18 million Syrians "receive" the Friday sermon. The number of mosque in Syria is between 7,000 and 8,000, with 5,000 pulpits and 5,000 preachers. Other sources estimated that the number of mosques in Syria is 10,000, and that 4 million people attend Friday prayers. And if you factor in the children and the "wives", some 12 million are "getting" the message. In contrast, the Ba`th party has 2 million members (and 99% of them are bored to death with the ideology of the party--that is my estimate of course, not Ibrahim's). Official Syrians newspapers sell no more than 60,000 copies (more than half of them I am sure are paid by organs of the Syrain government itself). Ibrahim ends his article with this pessage: "Syria has witnessed in recent weeks some indicative cases of "Islamic extremism" in some Syrain cities. And this entailed the arrest of Islamists. And the authorities announced investigating some 4,000 Syrians who fought in Iraq." And I dont think that the recent appointment of a relatively progressive cleric as Mufti of Syria will solve the government's problem. If anything, it will further make the government's version of religion lacking in credibility.