Islam in Jordan

[3] They did not directly hold God responsible for all occurrences; rather, they placed events in a religious context that imbued them with meaning.

Evil spirits known as jinn — fiery, intelligent beings that are capable of appearing in human and other forms — could cause all sorts of malicious mischief.

[3] For protection, villagers carried in their clothing bits of paper inscribed with Qur'anic verses (amulets), and they frequently pronounced the name of God.

[3] To underscore the difficulty in drawing a fine distinction between orthodox and popular Islam, one only needs note that some religious shaykhs were sought for their ability to prepare successful amulets.

[3] In addition, most people did not contribute the required proportion of alms to support religious institutions, nor was a pilgrimage to Mecca common.

[3] Traditionally, social segregation of the sexes prevented women from participating in much of the formal religious life of the community.

[3] Younger women, particularly university students, were seen more often praying in the mosques and could be said to have carved a place for themselves in the public domain of Islam.

Education, particularly of women, diminished the folk-religious component of belief and practice and probably enhanced observance of the more orthodox aspects of Islam.

[3] Women wearing conservative Islamic dress and the headscarf were seen with greater frequency in the streets of urban as well as rural areas; men with beards also were more often seen.

[3] By and large, women and girls who adopted Islamic dress apparently did so of their own volition, although it was not unusual for men to insist that their sisters, wives, and daughters cover their hair in public.

[3] Although Islamic opposition politics never became as widespread in Jordan as in Iran and Egypt, they were pervasive enough for the regime to act swiftly to bring them under its supervision.

[3] By the close of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, government-controlled television regularly showed the king and his brother Hasan attending Friday prayers.