Why do some Islamist movements develop large-scale social services? How and where do they do so? What benefits do they derive from their efforts? Are these Islamic social services primarily about political strategy? And how much do we really know about them? Social services have been seen as ways for these movements to win votes, build support, establish deep roots in society, or to demonstrate their competence in providing an alternative to the state. A wave of new research has begun to test these claims, offering new historical, theoretical, and comparative insights into these questions while developing new datasets and methodologies. On September 23, 2014 POMEPS convened a workshop with scholars who have written on this topic from a variety of perspectives and countries to discuss the state of the literature, the validity of prevailing claims, and avenues for future research. The memos prepared in advance of the workshop will be available here individually, as well as in POMEPS Studies 9 “Islamist Social Services.”
“Pious Neoliberalism” Mona Atia, George Washington University
“The Rise of the Machines,” Kevan Harris, Princeton University
“Social Services and Political Islam in Southeast Asia: Two Failures,” Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University
“Assumptions and Agendas in the Study of Islamic Social Service Provision,” Steven Brooke, University of Texas at Austin
“Neoliberal Islam and Emergent Forms of Social Service Provision in Turkey,” Gizem Zencirci, Providence College
“A State without a State: The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Social Welfare Institutions,” Abdullah Al-Arian, Georgetown University
“Islamic-Based Civil Society Organizations Between Myth and Reality,” Moustafa Khalil, University of Manchester
“How Hezbollah helps (and what it gets out of it),” Melani Cammett, Brown University
“Why Do Islamists Provide Services, and What Do Those Services Do?” Tarek Masoud, Harvard University