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Muslim Humanitarianism” WORKSHOP “MUSLIM HUMANITARIANISM” Date 15 – 16 May 2019 Place The Graduate Institute, Geneva (Room S7) Convenor Dr TILL MOSTOWLANSKY Department of Anthropology and Sociology The Graduate Institute Geneva Studies on the emergence of humanitarian thought tend to put emphasis on the global, and often violent, spread of Western- centric ideas and practices. This perspective has provided important insights into the Christian genealogy of humanitarianism, the secular translations of its ethical foundation, and processes of contemporary neo-colonial diffusion. Many of these studies on global humanitarian government and its links to the politics of emotion have focussed on large-scale institutions conventionally seen as linked to Western societies. However, more recently research highlighting the complex entanglements of actors situated in different humanitarian genealogies has gained traction. In practice, these actors have long interacted with each other and continue to re-translate concepts of humanitarianism, development, philanthropy and charity in the course of everyday encounters. At a historical point in time at which Muslim societies are frequently seen as sites where Western ideas and practices are violently contested, this workshop seeks to explore humanitarian encounters beyond pre-conceived binaries. Bringing together scholars with different empirical and disciplinary backgrounds, it attempts to challenge such clear-cut distinctions. Against this backdrop, the workshop employs an ever-provisional notion of Muslim humanitarianism – an array of different actors and practices relating to Islam and humanity – as a way of de-centring humanitarianism and a means to think together what is often deemed to be apart. It thereby aims to address the following sets of questions: • How can we think about and conceptualize Muslim humanitarianism? Who are relevant actors and organizations? When and where have they emerged? • How do Muslim institutions negotiate and navigate humanitarianism in relation to concepts of development, philanthropy and charity? In what ways do they change, accommodate or adapt them? • What political and ideological regimes of power exert influence on Muslim humanitarians? What kind of social, spatial and material transformations are thereby fostered? • What are the methodological implications of studying Muslim humanitarianism across time and space? Summaries of the workshop contributions will be made available in the series MUHUM – Muslim Humanitarianism at Allegra Lab. Speakers and Discussants Benthall, Jonathan (Anthropology, University College London) Speaker Billaud, Julie (Anthropology, University of Sussex) Discussant Derbal, Nora (Department of Sociology, Egyptology & Anthropology, The American University in Cairo) Speaker Gupta, Radhika (LIAS, Leiden University) Speaker Iqbal, Basit (Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley) Speaker Möller, Esther (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz) Speaker Monsutti, Alessandro (Anthropology & Sociology, The Graduate Institute Geneva) Discussant Mostowlansky, Till (Anthropology & Sociology, The Graduate Institute Geneva) Convenor & Discussant Osella, Filippo (Anthropology, University of Sussex) Speaker Rodogno, Davide (International History, The Graduate Institute Geneva) Taylor, Christopher B. (Sociology & Anthropology, George Mason University, USA) Speaker Varley, Emma (Anthropology, Brandon University, Canada) Speaker Schedule WEDNESDAY, 15th MAY 2019 9.00 Welcome and introduction PART I – SOCIAL FORMATIONS AND SPACE 9.30 – 10.30 FILIPPO OSELLA (University of Sussex) “Islam, Religious Charity and Humanitarianism: Becoming and Being Muslim in Kerala” 10.30 – 10.45 Coffee break 10.45 – 11.45 EMMA VARLEY (Brandon University) “At Odds with the 'Impulse': Muslim Humanitarianism and its Exclusions in Northern Pakistan” 11.45 – 12.45 RADHIKA GUPTA (Leiden University) “A Postcolonial ‘Civic’? Shi‘i Philanthropy and the Making and Marking of Urban Space in Bombay/Mumbai” 12.45 – 14.30 Lunch (speakers and invited discussants) PART II – HUMANITARIAN GOVERNMENT AND CONTESTED ALLIANCES 14.30 – 15.30 ESTHER MÖLLER (Leibniz Institute of European History) “Muslim and Secular, National(ist) and International(ist): The Egyptian Red Crescent in the 20th Century“ 15.30 – 16.30 JONATHAN BENTHALL (University College London) “The Choking of Islamic Aid Flows since the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War” 16.30 – 16.45 Coffee break 16.45 – 17.45 NORA DERBAL (The American University in Cairo) “Saudi Arabia, Humanitarian Aid and Knowledge Production: What Do We Really Know?” 19.00 Dinner (speakers and invited discussants) THURSDAY, 16th MAY 2019 PART III – ETHICS AND MORAL ECONOMY 9.30-10.30 CHRISTOPHER B. TAYLOR (George Mason University) “Reflections on a Theory of Zakat” 10.30-10.45 Coffee break 10.45-11.45 BASIT IQBAL (University of California, Berkeley) “The Moral Economy of Tribulation” 11.45-12.30 Final discussion and conclusions 12.30-14.30 Lunch (speakers and invited discussants) 14.30-15.30 Publication planning (speakers) Abstracts JONATHAN BENTHALL “The Choking of Islamic Aid Flows since the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War” The Reagan Doctrine insisted that communist regimes all over the world should be rolled back. The Soviet–Afghan war of the 1980s has long been identified as a major turning point in the ending of the Cold War, but considered on a longer time-scale it clearly had repercussions for the rise of global Islamist extremism and the “war on terror”. Anti-Soviet military and financial support for the mujahideen is well documented; but there were concomitant interventions by ostensibly charitable entities that were actually facades for the US government. Unforeseen complications for the “humanitarian system” ensued. The blocked evolution of Islamic charities (on account of affinities, real and alleged, with anti-Western militancy) is of practical concern today, but is also treated here as a case study illustrating the fragility of neutrality and non-discrimination as humanitarian principles, which emerged historically in the midst of conflicts, and are always liable to erosion through a kind of social entropy. NORA DERBAL “Saudi Arabia, Humanitarian Aid and Knowledge Production: What Do We Really Know?” This paper critically investigates knowledge production on humanitarianism in the Saudi Arabian context. For decades, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has presented itself as a generous donor of international aid in support of the poor and needy, especially in the context of crisis and extraordinary emergency, thereby fostering South-South cooperation and solidarity among the international Muslim community. The tremendous oil wealth of the rentier state allowed for outstanding aid statistics and financial statements with crass amounts of cash transfer. Yet, beyond the mis-en-scène of the royal regime, there is little transparency or concrete information as to where the Saudi money goes. On the ground, who and what has been sponsored with petrodollars? What results did Saudi emergency aid produce? Who implements Saudi humanitarian aid in the field, how and with what success? These questions have been hardly addressed by the many commentators, who regularly write about ‘humanitarianism Saudi style’ and criticize it for political instrumentalization and religious indoctrination. This paper critically discusses the literature on Saudi humanitarian aid from three angles. First, it investigates the common trajectories established in the literature, which shape our understanding of Saudi humanitarianism. Second, it questions the sources of knowledge production that form the ground for these conclusions. And third, it challenges some of the assumptions by reflecting on my own experience of researching domestic aid in Saudi Arabia for the last ten years. RADHIKA GUPTA “A Postcolonial ‘Civic’? Shi‘i Philanthropy and the Making and Marking of Urban Space in Bombay/Mumbai” This paper will explore Shi‘i Muslim philanthropy in Bombay/Mumbai focusing in particular on the mechanism of the private charitable trust. Through tracing the gradual, historical shift from landed endowments (waqf) to the charitable trust and the diversification of the charitable portfolio in the city, the paper will discuss how “Muslim” philanthropy urges a critical interrogation of conceptions of the “civic” and the “common good” in the postcolonial urban context of India. Shi‘i philanthropy has played an important role from the colonial era onwards in the material and social making of the city. However, in an increasingly fractured, communal post-colonial context, it is also being directed at marking a place for “community” in the city. These varied ends and the legal mechanisms through which charity is routed in contemporary Mumbai grate against the moral pedestal upon which western, secular humanitarianism (encoding ideas of the larger common good) rests. It forces us to ask: Can humanitarianism ultimately only be thought of and work through a communitarian idiom for it to be ethical? BASIT IQBAL “The Moral Economy of Tribulation” The ongoing devastation in Syria has displaced millions to neighbouring countries and beyond. Among the Jordanian organizations that have mobilized in response, the Association of the Book and the Sunna (est. 1993) has massively expanded its support capacity to emerge as one of the largest charitable organizations in the country. It retains its mandate of Islamic reform, which it now expresses through humanitarian work. This paper is based on observation of one of its Amman-based
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