In fact, many observers dismiss South-East Asia's new-found piety precisely because it seems to have more to do with fashion than conviction.

ECONOMIST: Islam in South-East Asia

As ever in Turkey's mix of official secularism and popular piety, the truth is more complex.

ECONOMIST: Religion in Turkey

Turkey's problem is that any form of religious piety is considered to be fundamentalist.

ECONOMIST: Feeling deflated

Playing at being non-partisan is an important piety in American politics but it's for the birds.

BBC: Defiant Obama speech draws battle lines

Intriguingly, research on Turkey's devoutly Muslim heartland finds a strong positive link between Islamic piety and capitalist success.

ECONOMIST: Religion and economics

Piety wasn't exactly evident in Jesus Jeans's first ad campaign in the 1970s, under different ownership.

WSJ: If You Take These Jeans' Name in Vain, Prepare to Meet Their Maker

Over the past 30 years, encouraged by the government and influenced by the Middle East, Malaysia's growing prosperity has gone hand-in-hand with a heightened piety.

FORBES: Canings, cows' heads and ethnoreligious apartheid.

In this week's poll, supporters of the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's two biggest Muslim organisations, plumped for many different candidates of varying degrees of piety.

ECONOMIST: Indonesia's presidential election: Now, at last, the voters are in charge | The

Many Arab governments, including Egypt's, had come to regard Salafism, with its focus on Sunni orthodoxy and punctilious personal piety, as a useful foil to the more politically engaged pan-Islamism of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

ECONOMIST: The authorities want to control the airwaves��if they can

Mr Baykal's shrillness is drowning out legitimate fears about Turkey moving to a more restrictive social environment because of a more aggressive piety.

ECONOMIST: Turkey's president