| This dissertation examines the transformation of contemporary Islamic charitable practices in Egypt. It uses charity as a prism through which to examine the spaces of interaction between social, political, cultural and economic processes in Egypt. Based on one year of fieldwork, this study is an empirical analysis of how Islamic charity manifests through the implementation of zakat (alms), sadaqa (charity) and waqf (endowments) in the contemporary era. It addresses charity as an economic practice and an act of governing by employing neoliberal governmentality as a framework to understand the relationship between political economy, security, religion and giving. I highlight the changes that the charitable sector has experiences as a result of four factors: economic and political change from 1952-present, the rise of a police state, a mounting Islamic revival and the worldwide growth of an Islamic banking and finance industry. I argue that Islamic economic practices, like all economic practices, are contingent cultural productions rooted in particular places and times. The chapters demonstrate how each of these factors has worked to move Islamic charitable practices away from handouts and towards faith-based development projects. Each chapter speaks to a scale at which personhood takes place, from individual subject formation, through local community organizations, the nation-state and finally the transnational sphere. I use ethnographic narratives to trace how fifteen charitable organizations encourage the formation of entrepreneurial subjects in the name of development. Rather than see the organizations I examined as alternatives to Western social economic practices, I analyze them as hybrid formations embedded in Egyptian society. The study concludes with a discussion of the relationship between Islamic charity and contemporary narratives of modernity. |
