THE ISLAMIC WELFARE STATE

A scholar explores the role of Muslim charities in Pakistan.

“Welfare services in much of Africa, the Americas, and Asia resemble that of North America and Western Europe in the early nineteenth century,” writes Candland, who emphasizes the centrality of religious organizations in providing health care, education, and emergency aid. As this case study of Pakistan reveals, even when government-run schools and hospitals are available, they “are the least preferred option”; private religious charities offer higher quality and more reliable services. And while Pakistan is home to more than 10% of the world’s Muslim population, scholarship that focuses on the Southeast Asian country’s welfare state has been virtually nonexistent. The author considers Pakistan an ideal lens through which to explore the competing interests of Muslim charity and state government. As such, Candland offers an expansive definition of security, noting that while militaristic governments focus almost exclusively on coercively maintaining government power with a preoccupation on “national security,” religious organizations fill the void in “human security” through their focus on essential health care, educational, and charity work. Most Muslim charity workers cited in the author’s research “claim that they are helping to build an ‘Islamic welfare state,’” which they define as “a community of care created by charitable Muslims.”

The book’s first half offers historical and religious context on Pakistan and social welfare in Muslim societies (“the Prophet Muhammad invented the welfare state” is a common mantra among charity workers). The strength of the book lies in is longest section, Part 4 (“Charities”), which covers more than 100 Pakistani charities encountered by the author in trips to the region between 2010 and 2019. The book’s final section applies its case studies to broader implications of the Islamic welfare state and offers a robust assortment of appendix material, including a full list of charities studied and a glossary of Arabic and Urdu terms used. The book includes an interesting discussion of its approach to translations and transliterations that rejects the Western preoccupation with capitalization (neither Arabic nor Urdu use capitals). The capitalization of terms like shariah, per the book’s astute analysis, have profound repercussions that reinforce Western misunderstandings of Muslims and Islamic culture. A professor of political science and founding director of the South Asia Studies Program at Wellesley College, the author marshals an impressive body of research to substantiate his arguments. The highlight, of course, is the author’s personal engagement with more than 100 charities during his 60-something weeks in Pakistan. This original research is enhanced by the author’s solid understanding of the related academic literature, and the book offers readers more than 20 pages of references. While a definitively scholarly work that provides an important new perspective to its field, the book’s approachable writing style welcomes readers from outside academia. Candland’s emphasis on accessibility is demonstrated by including almost two dozen maps, tables, photographs, and other visual sources. And while the book has much to say about the inefficiencies and violence associated with Pakistani politicians and military leaders, its insistence that “almost every Muslim in Pakistan…is an active participant in the Muslim charitable sector” offers important insights into Islamic societies.

A groundbreaking, thorough case study of Pakistan’s charitable work sector.