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Social Welfare Program of Islamic Political Party: a Case Study Of SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAM OF ISLAMIC POLITICAL PARTY: A CASE STUDY OF BANGLADESH JAMA’AT-E-ISLAMI Faroque Amin A thesis submitted to the Religion and Society Research Centre, School of Social Science and Psychology, University of Western Sydney in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Principal Supervisor: Dr Jan A. Ali Associate Supervisors: Prof. Adam Possamai DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my parents Mohammad Abu Taher and Fazila Begum. I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I want to thank Allah. I then want to thank my principal supervisor, Dr Jan A. Ali. It has been an honour to be his first PhD student. I appreciate his constant support, patience and continuous guidance which have enabled me to complete this research. Professor Adam Possamai, my co-supervisor and the Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre, University of Western Sydney, has always given valuable feedback, suggestions and unceasing support. I am thankful for the excellent example he has provided as a researcher and the most patient and gentle academician I have ever met. Dr Arskal Salim, my second co-supervisor, has also critically appraised the study and given helpful feedback. Without their valuable support throughout my candidature as a Higher Degree Research Student, I would not have been able to conclude the thesis. I am therefore indebted to them all and I thank them wholeheartedly. A number of people and institutions have supported me during this study. My PhD program was made possible by the College of Arts International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) provided by the University of Western Sydney. Ms Vanessa Goldie-Scot helped me to improve my writing skills. Rhubarb Academic Editing carried out the tedious work of proofreading and editing the thesis. Scholars, staff and colleagues in the Religion and Society Research Centre and the School of Social Science and Psychology at the University of Western Sydney helped me to continue to the conclusion of this study. Among them, Ms Eva Garcia, former coordinator of the Centre, Ms Vicki Fox, Senior Administrative Officer of the School, Firdaus, Zen, Muttaqin, Farjana, Lisa, and Juni gave me their support and advice during various phases of this research. I am thankful to all of them for all their valuable support and for the friendly and inspiring academic milieu they have created in the Centre. I am indebted to many teachers and friends in the International Islamic University Malaysia, Al-Imam University Riyadh and International Islamic University Chittagong. I have benefited from discussions with them and academic resources provided by them. I would like to thank my family for all their love, encouragement and support. Last, but not least, I offer both my thanks and apologies to those who have assisted me in various ways, but who are too numerous to be mentioned here. Thank you all. II DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted, either in full or in part, for any other degrees at this or any other institution. --- --- (Faroque Amin) III ABSTRACT Engagement in the provision of support for people in need is often motivated by religious ideology. Doctrinally, helping others is one of the general characteristics of most faith-traditions; major monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Judaism, and non-monotheistic ones such as Buddhism and Hinduism convey principles and teachings that exhort their believers to perform various kinds of social services. Islam, also, has such a history of dealing with humanitarian issues through providing assistance to the underprivileged classes of society; ordaining Zakat (lit. almsgiving) as one of the five pillars of Islam or encouraging Waqf (public charity) are major examples of this. Currently, social welfare provision in most developed countries is organized predominantly by their governments, yet the intellectual influence of religion through biblical references in the historical development of this institution is obvious. This religious influence is more prominent and prevailing in underdeveloped countries, where the state is not capable of providing comprehensive social welfare for its citizens. A very interesting perspective in this discourse was introduced when social welfare provision was adopted as an organizational effort, concurrent with the political trend of contemporary Islamic revivalism in the twentieth century. This thesis discusses social welfare organization by an Islamic political party in Bangladesh, namely, Bangladesh Jama’at-e-Islami. The dynamics of the social welfare program are not necessarily identical among the multitude of contemporary Islamic political movements arising in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies. However, the existence of this program, and, more importantly, its recent effectiveness in terms of social achievement and gaining popularity, are an undeniable reality. The effective measures of social welfare provision undertaken by the religion-based political parties are now manifested in some major Muslim countries, such as in the cases of AKP (Justice and Welfare Party; Turkish: Adaletve Kalkinma Partisi) in Turkey, Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement; Arabic: Ḥarakah al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah) in Palestine, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Middle East, and Hizbullah (Arabic: lit. Party of God) in Lebanon. The scholars who have studied these movements generally acknowledge this aspect of their makeup in their analyses. IV Although participation in social welfare organization by an Islamic political party has been a political phenomenon in Bangladesh since the early 1970s, it has not yet been studied and examined sociologically. This research focuses on the social welfare activities of the major Islamic political party in Bangladesh and their implementation in Chittagong, Bangladesh, through Islamic Social Welfare Council Chittagong. It will demonstrate why an Islamic political party ventures into organizing social welfare activities and how it organizes them. It will also show that the relationship between political aspects and social aspects of the party are reciprocal, and, therefore, success or failure in the party’s political activities affects its social welfare activities and vice versa. This study aims to assess the status of the social welfare program in this party’s overall agenda, as well as its outcomes and potentials. Using a methodology involving in-depth interviews and focus groups, the study presents an ethnographical inquiry into the social welfare program of the Jama’at, particularly in the health and educational sectors. It attempts to explore those activities using a qualitative approach to understanding the motives and perceptions of both the providers and recipients of the service. It has been proven in many Muslim countries that the provision of faith-based social welfare greatly assists the public acceptance of religious political parties in those societies where state-supported social welfare is ineffective or nearly non- existent. In this context, the core argument of this thesis is that the Jama’at in Bangladesh, also, has attempted to utilize this valuable resource in order to mobilize support, but that this attempt has been greatly (and negatively) affected by the prevailing political circumstances. The evident success of Islamic political movements in some other Muslim societies, that engage in social welfare provision as a significant way of engaging the community and thereby gaining its approval of the party, is likely to ensue in Bangladesh also, if the Jama’at is able to manoeuvre its social welfare program with a pragmatic approach that suits the local cultures and societies. V Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 Background .......................................................................................................... 3 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................... 6 Political Islamic Revivalism .............................................................................. 10 Identity of the Jama’at ....................................................................................... 13 Social Welfare of Political Islamic Revivalism ................................................. 16 Argument of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 18 Aim and Objectives of the Study ....................................................................... 21 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 21 Limitations and Delimitations of the Study ....................................................... 23 Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 2: ISLAM IN BANGLADESH ............................................................... 28 Current Affairs of Islam in Bangladesh ............................................................. 29 The Advent of Islam in Bengal .......................................................................... 33 Muslim Rule in Bengal ...................................................................................... 40 Reformist Movements .......................................................................................
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