Social Capital, Faith-Based Welfare and Islam

Jane Harrigan and Hamed El-Said

Chapter 2 in Economic Liberalisation, Social Capital and Islamic Welfare Provision, 2009, pp 8-26 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Over recent years, the concept of Social Capital (SC) has attracted great scholarly and academic awareness. Despite the rise in the prominence of SC analysis, ‘relatively little scholarly attention has been given to the role of religion in social capital formation’ (Smidt 2003 p.2). The upshot has been an insufficient and unconvincing explanation for the phenomenal, recent and rapid rise of political Islam in most Muslim societies. It seems that thirty years since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini brought to the modern world the idea that Islam might be a formula for governance, political Islam has gained vast momentum in almost every Muslim and Arab state. From Morocco through Jordan to the Gulf, Islamists’ voluntary charities and networks seem to have transformed themselves into successful political parties and congregations, winning parliamentary elections or registering important victories in local, municipalities and professional associations. For most scholars and observers in the West, the recent political elevation of Islamic charity organisations is seen as a ‘surprise’ (BBC News 2006), unexpected, and even ‘ambiguous’ (Abdel-Latif 2005). Muslim societies are going through a crisis; ‘The crisis of Islam’ is reflected in political Islam itself and the political rise and prominence of voluntary religious organisations demanding large sacrifices.

Keywords: Social Capital; Arab World; Economic Liberalisation; Bonding Social Capital; Welfare Provision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-00158-0_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137001580

DOI: 10.1057/9781137001580_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().