Prayers and playthings

IN THE souks of old Damascus modestly clad plastic dolls lie alongside carved wooden Koran stands. There, as in Cairo and other Islamic capitals, vendors tout calligraphic renderings of devotional texts, bookmarks with the 99 names for Allah and strings of coloured prayer beads. “E-rugs” are prayer mats with an alarm for the five prayer times and a compass that points towards Mecca.

Religions rarely praise consumerism. But 2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims are a big market. Sales of books on the world’s two biggest faiths are soaring, with interactive Korans and Bibles among the innovative products. Last year sales of religious books in America grew by 8% in a declining industry.

Three years ago Fehmida Shah set up Smart Ark, a London-based online firm that sells Islamic books, toys and gifts, mainly for children. “HSBC [a bank] was doing Islamic bonds and religious books were selling well, so I thought why not tap into the niche but growing market?” she says. Customers from Britain to Singapore have bought her products. They include a pricier Fairtrade range that includes stickers of mosques around the world and a book on why Muslims should recycle.

Christians have a larger range of goods to chose from than their Islamic fellow-believers. Most goods are aimed at evangelicals, who make up the bulk of the big-spending consumers, according to a recent study by Baylor University in Texas. Specialist retailers in America sell “Smile, Jesus loves you!” blankets and nail files emblazoned with “Woman of God”. Swanson Christian Products of Tennessee sells golf balls alluding to scriptural texts and devotional sayings, such as: “I once was lost but now I’m found!” Since 2007 Walmart supermarkets have stocked talking biblical action figures, including Jesus.

Islamic toys do not depict the Prophet Muhammad (that would be blasphemous). But they do try to compete with toys, such as Barbie, that they take to embody Western decadence. Fulla, for example, is a popular slimline mannequin with a headscarf manufactured for the Muslim world. She has no male companion (Barbie has Ken) and modest clothing that covers her knees and shoulders. Hala al Duwik of Newboy, Fulla’s UAE-based manufacturer, says over 1.5m dolls have been sold since 2003, plus a range of spin-offs including hand wash and chewing gum. In Iran Barbie is banned outright (but consumers can buy locally made, plumper dolls, such as Sara and her male pal Dara). Sales are rising as Islamic festivals become as consumerist as many Christian ones.

Many importers source their products at trade fairs. CBA, an association of 1,700 Christian stores across America, holds a yearly get-together to show the latest goods—the next one is the International Christian Retail Show, in Orlando on July 15th. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries often host Islamic trade conventions: the Islamic Clothes fair will take place in Istanbul in September. Curtis Riskey, CBA’s head, says some Christian stores like to sell local artisanal work to differentiate themselves from high street chains. But many products are mass-produced in Asian countries, not just because it is cheaper. “Products from the Arab world are generally garish and low quality,” says Ms Shah delicately, recalling her attempts to import Islamic stationery from the Middle East. She now has most of them made in China and Sri Lanka. “Everything here used to be made here,” says a vendor close to the Ummayad mosque in Damascus. “But now so much is imported from China.”