Book contents
- Freedoms Delayed
- Freedoms Delayed
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Part I The Modern Middle East’s Authoritarian Face
- Part II Persistent Social Atomization
- Part III Religious Repression
- Part IV Economic Hindrances
- 12 Unshackled States, Shallow Economic Governance
- 13 Politically Powerless Entrepreneurs and Enterprises
- 14 Islamism’s Missed Opportunities to Promote Liberalism
- Part V Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - Islamism’s Missed Opportunities to Promote Liberalism
from Part IV - Economic Hindrances
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2023
- Freedoms Delayed
- Freedoms Delayed
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- Part I The Modern Middle East’s Authoritarian Face
- Part II Persistent Social Atomization
- Part III Religious Repression
- Part IV Economic Hindrances
- 12 Unshackled States, Shallow Economic Governance
- 13 Politically Powerless Entrepreneurs and Enterprises
- 14 Islamism’s Missed Opportunities to Promote Liberalism
- Part V Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Zakat returned to Middle Eastern political discourse in the 1930s, through modern Islamism. It became one of two concrete initiatives distinguishing an Islamic modern economy from economies ostensibly corrupted by secularists and colonialists. The other was Islamic finance. In both cases, the focus was more on the symbolism of Islamizing a secularized sphere than on solving actual economic problems. Islamism tacitly stripped zakat of all but one of its original functions: poverty alleviation. Sidelining zakat’s role in public finance and the protection of property rights, it frittered away golden opportunities to draw from Islam’s rich history universal lessons for economic progress and rule of law. Focusing on the functions that made zakat a pillar of Islam would have initiated a dialogue with secularists inclined to dismiss Islam as a source of backwardness. A similar scenario has played out in relation to Islamic finance. Nowhere has a categorical ban on interest, which is absent from the Quran anyway, been enforced. In any case, it is unfeasible. In making Islamic finance seem interest-free through euphemisms and accounting tricks, Islamism reduces economic transparency and institutionalizes dishonesty. Weakening rule of law, it also compounds mistrust.
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- Freedoms DelayedPolitical Legacies of Islamic Law in the Middle East, pp. 254 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023