A stack of Qurans sit in uneasy proximity to a rack of Cosmopolitan magazines at a crammed Islamabad book shop; its owner worries recent gains by religious parties will be bad for business.
As a Muslim, bookstore owner Khalid Mahmood says he has no problem with religion. It's when it gets mixed in with the business of politics that things get sticky.
``We want freedom and business,'' said Mahmood, 40, from behind his shop counter on Wednesday.
The religious parties, he says, ``are against the economy of Pakistan, against the freedom of the Pakistani people.''
In the same shopping complex, the manager of a recently opened Pizza Hut explains that once a month he invites local Muslim clerics and their students for free pizzas to clarify that it is a locally run franchise whose money is going into local, not Western hands.
Tensions with the West came to a head in last week's general elections when an alliance of hard-line Islamic parties won a surprising 45 seats in the 342-member National Assembly, making them a player in talks to form a coalition government. Running on a virulently anti-American platform, they promised to withdraw Pakistan's support for the United States in its war on terror and vowed to push its troops off Pakistani soil.
They are also committed to enforcing strict Islamic law.
Many Pakistanis downplay the impact of the bloc of religious parties, known as the United Action Forum, pointing out that their major power bases are rooted in the country's two most rural provinces, areas steeped in religion and poverty. Both border Afghanistan, and many who live there have relatives who went to fight for the Taliban.
The parties ``may pursue their manifesto, but they are not in a position to bring any overall change in the society,'' said Malik Suhail Ahmed, a 40-year-old real estate agent in the southern port city of Karachi.
At the Islamabad Pizza Hut, manager Salman Ahmed said religious party voters were manipulated.
``I think these political parties used religion to get a mandate,'' said Ahmed, 27. ``Their anti-Western propaganda won't get us anywhere in the world. We have people dying from poverty, we have other issues.''
Just a few steps away from the neon signs and air conditioning of the restaurant, Momina Ali Khan, 19, licks her melting chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream cone and denounces America.
A first-time voter, she cast her ballot for the religious parties.
``I'm looking for a better future. They are promising Islam, of being an independent country not living on world aid, (but) standing up on our own two feet,'' said Khan, a computer student. ``All of us are really against America here.''
The religious bloc, whose posters still festoon the shopping center walls with slogans of ``The Victory is Near,'' have not said how they might tackle some of the most daunting of the impoverished country's problems: education, health care and poverty eradication.
In the city of Lahore, 160 miles south of Islamabad, the anti-American sentiment was echoed by Mohammed Tufail as he dished out plates of bread and lentils from a small stand.
``We are happy about the victory of the religious parties. We voted for them to express our hatred of America,'' said Tufail, 40. ``Only this can teach America a lesson.''
Resenting America did not begin with the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, pursuing al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives in the war against terror. It's part of a broader cultural backlash in the region against Western influence, both political and cultural.
In the last few years, Pakistan has been home to an infusion of Western influence. Fast food restaurants are packed and music videos and Hollywood movies crowd television broadcasts.
The blend of traditional and modern can be heard in the hum of Quranic verses from the loudspeakers of an Islamabad music shop as it opens each morning. The same speakers soon pound with the thump of rap music.
Shella Gul, a 37-year-old English teacher, covers her hair with a sheer beige scarf in accordance with Muslim rules of modesty. It spills over her matching traditional tunic.
But for her, the rise of the religious parties is bad news.
``I don't like it at all because they give the wrong version of Islam,'' she said, browsing at the music shop. ``They make (Islam) seem like a fanatical religion.''
Waiting for a bus in Lahore, Sadia Jalil is also disturbed by the religious bloc victory.
``It will hamper our foreign policy. Who in the world will care to talk to these Osama look-alikes?'' asked the 32-year-old homemaker.