Contending with Capitalism: Fatwas and Neoliberal Ideology

Authors

  • Omer Awass

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2019.843

Keywords:

Capitalism, Colonialism, Embeddedness, Ethics, Finance, Law, Political Economy, World-Systems Theory

Abstract

Neoliberal economic theorists posit that the economic sphere is to be differentiated from the social world and governed by its own rationality that is distinct from religious, ethical, social, or political considerations. My article explores how the issuance of fatwas in the contemporary Muslim world discursively compete with neoliberal capitalist ideology by embedding religious ethics in economic discourse.  First, I contextualize this analysis with a historical discussion on how the Muslim world was incorporated into the capitalist world-system, a process that peripheralized their established economic and cultural practices. Then, I examine the contemporary fatwas on commercial transactions that are issued by an international Muslim organization. My overall argument is that the Islamic moral economy proposes financial arrangements that represent alternatives to capitalist financial practices, which are the standard modes of operation in global financial institutions. Such practices pose a challenge to Muslim economic ethics and law, a challenge that Muslims are trying to negotiate using traditional legal practices such as the fatwa.

References

AAIOFI. 2007. Shari’a Standards. Manama, Bahrain: AAIOFI.

Al-Ahsan, Abdullah. 1988. The Organization of the Islamic Conference: An Introduction to Islamic Political Institution.

Herndon: The International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Arjomand, Said Amir. 1988. The Turban and the Crown: The Islamic Revolution of Iran. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Asad, Talal. 2003. Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, and Modernity. Stanford University Press.

Askari, Hossein and Noureddine Krichene. March 18, 2010. “Betting the Farm on Oil” At: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/LC18Dj02.html. Retrieved November 4, 2017.

Barnet, Richard and John Cavanagh. 1994. Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and the New World Order. New York: A Touchstone Book.

Bromely, Simon. 2005. “The States-system in the Middle East: Origins, Development, and Prospects.” A Companion to the History of the Middle East. Edited by Youssef M Choueri. Blackwell Publishing. Blackwell Reference Online. At: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996423.ch27 Retrieved March 13, 2019.

Chaudhuri, K.N. 1990. Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cox, Richard. 1994. Global Restructuring: Making Sense of the Changing IPE. In: Stubs, R and Underhill, G (eds.) Political Economy and the Changing Global Order. London: Macmillan Press LTD.

Dale, Gareth. 2011. “Lineages of Embeddedness: On the Antecedents and Successors of a Polanyian Concept.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 70, No. 2: 306-339.

Duchrow, Ulrich. 1992. Europe in the World System 1492-1992. Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications.

Gellner, Ernest. 1981. Muslim Society. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1997. Nationalism. New York: New York University Press.

Grider, William. 1997. One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Hallaq, Wael. 2009. Shari'a: Theory, Practice, Transformations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Harrigan, Jane and Hamid El-Said. 2009. Aid and Power in the Arab World: IMF and World Bank Policy-Based Lending in the Middle East and North Africa. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Hassan, M.Kabir, Rasem Kayed, and Umar Oseni. 2013. Introduction to Islamic Finance and Banking: Principles and Practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Helleiner, Eric. 1994. “From Bretton Woods to the Global Finance: A World Turned Upside Down.” In: Stubs, R and Underhill, G (eds.) Political Economy and the Changing Global Order. London: Macmillan Press LTD.

Hodgson, Marshal. (1974) The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Vol. I-III. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ibn Rushd, Muhammad Ibn Ahmed. 1994. The Distinguished Jurist's Primer V.1 [Bidayat Al-Mujtahid]. Translated by Nyazee, Imran

Ahsan Khan. Reading: Garnett Publishing Limited.

______. 1996. The Distinguished Jurist's Primer V.2. Translated by

Nyazee, Imran Ahsan Khan. Reading: Garnet Publishing Limited.

Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). (2018) Islamic Financial Services Industry Stability Report 2018. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Financial Services Board.

Ihsanoglu, Ekmeleddin. 2010. The Islamic World in the New Century: The Organization of the Islamic Conference. New York: Columbia University Press.

International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA). 2009. “Sukūk” Resolution 178 (19/4). Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At: http://www.iifa-aifi.org/2300.html. Retrieved March 14, 2019.

Irfan, Harris. 2014. Heaven’s Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance. New York: Overlook Press.

Issawi, Charles. 1982. An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa. New York: Columbia University Press.

Islamic Shariah Research Academy (ISRA). 2016. Islamic Financial System: Principles and Operations. Second Edition. Kuala Lumpur: ISRA.

Keddie, Nikki. 1981. Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Lapidus, Ira. 2002. A History of Islamic Societies. Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Layish, Aharon. 2004. "The Transformation of the Sharī‘a from Jurists' Law to Statutory Law in the Contemporary Muslim World." Die Welt Des Islams, New Series 44, no. 1: 85-113.

Luxemburg, Rosa. 2003. The Accumulation of Capital. Tr. Agnes Schwarzschild. New York: Rutledge.

McMillen, Michael. 2011. “Islamic Finance: Current Developments and Dynamic Tensions.” Lecture delivered at The Fifth Annual Muslim Law Students Association Conference. February 26, 2011. Philadelphia: Muslim Law Students Association at University of Pennsylvania.

Polanyi, Karl. 2001. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Second Edition. Boston: Beacon Press.

Qamar, Abdul al-Qaher Muhammad. 2007. "Al-Ijtihad Wa Al-Iftā’ Fi Majma' Al-Fiqh Al-Islami Al-Duwali." Conference paper presented at Mu’tamar al-‘Ifta’ fi ‘Alam Maftuh: Al-Waqi’ al-Mathil wa al-‘Amal al-Murtaja. Kuwait: May 26-28, 2007.

S&P 500 Shariah. 2017. “Factsheet.” At: http://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500-shariah-index. Retrieved April 25, 2017.

Schulze, Reinhard. 2002. A Modern History of the Islamic World. Translated by Azodi, Azizeh. New York: New York University Press.

Stevens, Paul. 2005. "Oil and Development." in A Companion to the History of the Middle East, edited by Choueiri, Youssef M. Blackwell Publishing. Blackwell Reference Online. At: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470996423.ch22. Retrieved March 15, 2019.

Vikor, Knut S. 2005. Between God and Sultan: A History of Islamic Law. New York: Oxford University Press.

Warde, Ibrahim. 2010. Islamic Finance in the Global Economy. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2011. The Modern World-System III: The Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s. Berkeley: University of California Press.

______. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham: Duke University Press.

______. 1996. "The Global Picture 1945-90" in The Age of Transition: Trajectory of the World System.” Edited by Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein. New York: Zed Books.

Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Vol: 1-2. Berkeley: University of California Press.

World Bank and Islamic Development Bank Group. 2016. Global Report on Islamic Finance: Islamic Finance: A Catalyst for Shared Prosperity? Overview booklet. Washington: World Bank and Islamic Development Bank Group.

Downloads

Published

2019-03-25

How to Cite

Awass, O. (2019). Contending with Capitalism: Fatwas and Neoliberal Ideology. Journal of World-Systems Research, 25(1), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2019.843