Social Movement Theory and Patron-Clientelism

Abstract

This article uses social movement theory to understand the nature and significance of the networks in which Islamic social institutions (ISIs) are embedded, the types of participants, how people participate, and the extensiveness of that participation. In particular, it examines the horizontal and vertical ties within and associated with Islamic medical clinics in Cairo, the Women’s Committee of the Islah Charitable Society in Yemen, and the Islamic Center Charitable Society in Jordan. It argues that ISIs play an important role not in the vertical recruitment or mobilization of the poor but in the expansion and strengthening of middle-class networks. Vertical patron-client relationships within Islamic institutions are often weak. In contrast, middle-class networks, bringing Islamists and non-Islamists together, are expanded and strengthened via ISIs. The case studies confirm that moderate Islamism is a movement of the marginalized, educated middle class, not of the disenfranchised poor.