Social Capital, Faith-Based Welfare and Islam

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.