Limits of authoritarian upgrading in syria: Private welfare, islamic charities, and the rise of the Zayd movement

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 595-614

  Pierret, Thomas ^a   Selvik, Kjetil ^b  

^a PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTHORITARIANISM; BIOGRAPHY; ISLAMISM; NEIGHBORHOOD; SOCIAL MOVEMENT;

DAMASCUS; DIMASHQ [SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC]; SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC;

EID: 77949845524     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: 14716380     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743809990080     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. The title Hajj ("pilgrim") is theoretically given to someone who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. In Syria, as a more general way to emphasize piety, it is traditionally used for merchants.
2. Observation by the authors, 27 April 2007.
3. For a history of Syrian associations since the French Mandate, see Soukaina Boukhaima, "Le mouvement associatif en Syrie," in Pouvoirs et associations dans le monde arabe, ed. Sarah Ben Nefissa (Paris: CNRS édition, 2002), 77-94.
4. On Syrian secular NGOs in the early 2000s, see Mathieu Le Saux, "Les dynamiques contradictoires du champ associatif syrien," Revue du monde musulman et de la Méditerranée 115-16 (2006): 193-209.
5. For an overview of recent works on Islamic charities, see "Conflict and Development," ISIM Review 20 (2007): 4-19.
6. On Kaftaru, see Annabelle Böttcher, Syrische Religionspolitik unter Asad (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut, 1998).
7. For the post-1997 period, see Leif Stenberg, "Young, Male and Sufi Muslim in the City of Damascus," in Youth and Youth Culture in the Contemporary Middle East, ed. Jørgen Bæck Simonsen (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 2005), 68-91.
8. Benoît Challand, "A Nahd. a of Charitable Organizations? Health Service Provision and the Politics of Aid in Palestine," International Journal of Middle East Studies 40 (2008): 227-247
9. See, for instance, Sami Zubaida, "Islam, the State and Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt," Middle East Report 179 (1992): 2-10.
10. Janine A. Clark, Islam, Charity and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2004).
11. See also Iman Farag, Croyance et intérêt: Réflexion sur deux associations islamiques (Cairo: CEDEJ, 1992).
12. See Béatrice Hibou, Privatising the State (London: Hurst, 2004), 38-39;
13. Charles Tripp, "State, Elites and the 'Management of Change,'" in The State and Global Change: The Political Economy of Transition in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. Hasan Hakimian and Ziba Moshaver (London: Curzon, 2001), 211-231
14. Steven Heydemann, Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World, Saban Center Analysis Paper 13 (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 2007), VII.
15. Amélie Le Renard, "Pauvreté et charité en Arabie Saoudite: La famille royale, le secteur des affaires et 'l'Etat-Providence,'" Critique internationale 41 (2008): 137-156
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17. Heydemann, Upgrading Authoritarianism, 8;
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19. The Ministry of Social Affairs allocates a yearly grant of S£20,000 (around $400) to every charitable association. Buthayna-Awad, "Hal Turid al-Hukuma an Tatakhallasa min Fuqara'iha?" (Does the Government Want to Get Rid of its Poor?), Abyad wa Aswad 225 (May 2007): 2-4.
20. One of the very rare exceptions is the proregime Kaftaru Academy, which receives formal financing from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. See al-Thawra, 2 February 2007, http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/- archive.asp?FileName= 17138424020070201195055 (accessed 1 February 2008).
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22. The roots of this lack of legitimacy are too complex to be discussed here, but the regime's authoritarian nature; its rural, socialist, and secular origins; and the dominance of the Alawite minority at the highest levels of power are all contributing factors.
23. For Iran, see, for instance, Ahmad Ashraf, "Bazaar-Mosque Alliance: The Social Basis of Revolts and Revolutions," International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 1 (1988): 538-567
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25. Muhammad Hasan al-Humsi, Al-Du'at wa-l-Da'wa al-Islamiyya al-Mu'asira al-Muntaliqa min Masajid Dimashq (Preachers and Contemporary Islamic Call Stemming from Damascus's Mosques), 2 vols. (Damascus: Dar al-Rashid, 1991), 1:263-282
26. Boukhaima, "Le mouvement associatif," 83-85.
27. The Muslim Brothers retained a relatively important influence on the ground through semiclandestine networks until the 1979-1982 uprising, when they were eradicated through bloody state repression. Even though the movement's London-based leadership still constitutes the main component of the exiled opposition, the Muslim Brothers have probably ceased to exist as an organization at the domestic level; there has been no report of dismantling an active cell for about two decades. Since the 1990s, most of the Islamic activists jailed in Syria belong to the Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party) and Jihadi networks.
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29. Volker Perthes, The Political Economy of Syria under Asad (New York: I. B. Tauris, 1995), 50-53.
30. Philippe Droz-Vincent, Moyen-Orient: Pouvoirs autoritaires, sociétés bloquées (Paris: PUF, 2004), 240-243
31. Hanna Batatu, Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of its Lesser Rural Notables, and their Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999), 271-272
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34. Observation by the authors.
35. Observations by the authors in Damascene mosques during the celebration of the Prophet's birthday, 4, 9, and 15 April 2007.
36. In May 2008, however, the government decided to set a maximum quantity of subsidized fuel available to each family.
37. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Poverty in Syria 1996-2004: Diagnosis and Pro-Poor Policy Considerations (Damascus: UNDP, 2005), 12.
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43. We thank Laura Ruiz de Elvira for this information, which she obtained from a Syrian researcher working for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. The ministry denies formal access to its own register of licensed associations. Approximate figures sometimes given to the media do not differentiate charitable associations from cultural, professional, sports, and housing ones.
44. Ittihad al-Jam'iyyat al-Khayriyya bi-Dimashq.
45. 'Awad, "Hal Turid al-Hukuma," 4.
46. We consider associations "Sunni Muslim" on the basis of at least one of the following criteria: a name referring to Islam, headquarters located in a mosque, or a board that includes clerics.
47. Al-Hayat, 5 January 2006, http://www.daralhayat.com/special/features/01- 2006/Item-20060104-96c4b119-c0a8-10ed-0025-b64d4f24edab/story.html (accessed 1 February 2008).
48. SANA, 19 May 2008, http://sana.sy/ara/7/2008/05/19/175097.htm (accessed 1 February 2008).
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53. An example of these small Islamic charities is the al-Ta'awun association, which, in 2007, was giving an average monthly benefit of S£1,000 each to 650 families of the Baghdad Street quarter ('Awad, "Hal Turid al-Hukuma," 2).
54. This is the case with al-Ghayth, launched in 2004 by disciples of Ahmad Kaftaru's right-hand man Rajab Dib, and al-Shahba'Association, founded in 2005 by Aleppo's Islamic MP-Abd al--Aziz al-Shami.
55. Hifz al-Ni'ma's official website, http://www.hifz.org/home.htm (accessed 1 February 2008).
56. Observations by the authors, Damascus, 2006.
57. Sariya al-Rifa'i, Friday sermon, Zayd bin Thabit mosque, Damascus, 2 March 2007.
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59. Al-Thawra, 28 July 2006, http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/-print-veiw.asp? FileName=9529216200607272 21614 (accessed 1 February 2008).
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61. Al-Humsi, Al-Du-at wa-l-Da-wa, 1: 267.
62. The three are middle industrialists descended from old local merchant families.-Umar Mukhallalati, a clothing manufacturer and a member of the Damascus Chamber of Industry, runs two shops in the Old City's suq.-Umar Sayrawan is also involved in the textile industry and trade. He is the brother of Jamal, one of-Abd al-Karim al-Rifa-i's most prominent disciples, who has lived in exile in Saudi Arabia since 1981. Safuh Al-Samman owns an ironmongery factory. Other directors stemming from well-known merchant upper-middle-class families are Mustafa al-Hakim and Safuh al-Nuri.
63. UCA-D, Al-Taqrir al-Sanawi.
64. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Zayd had a sister organization in Aleppo (Jama-at Abi Dharr), which was founded and run by local-ulama'from the al-Bayanuni family.
65. SANA, 19 May 2008, http://sana.sy/ara/7/2008/05/19/175097.htm (accessed 1 February 2008);
66. SANA, 13 October 2005, http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/-print-veiw.asp? FileName=54411212620051012230519 (accessed 1 February 2008);
67. for Sunduq al--Afiya in Homs, see Al-Thawra, 14 August 2006, http://thawra. alwehda.gov.sy/-archive.asp?FileName=99672875020060813231123 (accessed 1 February 2008).
68. For an analysis of the rationale of a similar project, see Quintan Wiktorowicz and Suha Taji Farouki, "Islamic NGOs and Muslim Politics: A Case from Jordan," Third World Quarterly 21 (2000): 685-699
69. UCA-D, Sunduq al-Mawadda wa-l-Rahma (Damascus: UCA-D, 2007).
70. Observation by the authors, Damascus, 30 March 2007.
71. UCA-D, Sunduq al-Mawadda wa-l-Rahma;
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73. Dar al-Iman is not clearly associated with any specific Islamic network, but its board of directors includes at least one merchant closely linked to Zayd, Anwar Jum-a Zabadina.
74. I'faf, "Al-Mustafidun" (The Beneficiaries), (dead link, accessed 1 July 2008).
75. 'Awad, "Hal Turid al-Hukuma," 4.
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79. Observation by the authors, Damascus, July 2007.
80. Interview with an adept of Zayd, Damascus, 6 May 2008.
81. Instead of following a preexisting Sufi tradition, Zayd has set up its own mystical rituals, both individual and collective, by picking up awrād (litanies) from the Qur'an and Sunna.
82. Sada Zayd, "Ra'yuhu fi al--Ulum al-Kawniyya wa-Hadd Tullabihi-ala al-Nubugh fiha" (His Opinion on Worldly Sciences and His Exhorting His Students to Distinguish Themselves in Them), 9 April 2008, http://www.sadazaid. com/home/play.php?catsmktba=2990 (accessed 1 February 2008).
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86. During the periodsof parliamentarianism that preceded the 1963 coup, al-Rifa-i forbade his followers from running in elections but openly supported candidates from both bourgeois-nationalist and Islamist parties. See Sada Zayd, "Mawqifuhu min al-Siyasa wa-l-Siyasiyyin (His Position Regarding Politics and the Politicians)," 9 April 2008, http://www.sadazaid.com/ play.php?catsmktba=2991 (accessed 1 February 2008).
87. See for instance Sariya al-Rifa-i's praise of al-Siba-i in All for Syria (e-newsletter), 9 September 2007, http://www.all4syria.biz/index.html/index.php? item=view-article&id=7364 (accessed 1 February 2008).
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89. Interviews (names withheld by request), Damascus, August 2007.
90. Sariya al-Rifa-i, Friday sermon, Zayd bin Thabit mosque, Damascus, 2 March 2007. In 2007, money collected in mosques constituted 40 percent of the UCA-D's income. See al-Thawra, 6 January 2005, http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/- print-veiw.asp?FileName =2477707820050105203020 (accessed 1 February).
91. Interviews (names withheld by request), Damascus, May 2007.
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95. Akhbar al-Sharq, 11 January and 11 February 2007; Syrian feminist activist (name withheld by request), interview with the authors, Damascus, 13 May 2007.
96. Osama al-Rifa'i, Shaykh 'Abd al-Karim al-Rifa'i mosque, Damascus, 31 March 2007.
97. Cham Press, 28 August 2008.
98. Al-Thawra, 31 October 2008, http://thawra.alwehda.gov.sy/-archive.asp? FileName=1855190202008 1030210027 (accessed 1 February 2008);
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