ABSTRACT
Islamist movements translate their vision of the Islamic message as the solid fundament offering answers to all problems of life into various activities: religious preaching, ethically correcting one's own as well as another's behavior, political activity and, last but not least, organized social work. This social work has given rise to the establishment of numerous voluntary welfare associations. In this chapter, a closer look is taken at the way in which these Islamist NGOs function at present in the Muslim Arab world. First, cultural and political trends of Islamic revival during the last three decennia with the concomitant social networks will be highlighted as basic to the existence of such associations. Subsequently, the assessments of some scholars regarding the nature of these associations – as either patronage-based institutions or the embodiments of relatively horizontal middle class networks – will be presented. Thereafter, the actual political functioning of these associations will be analyzed by looking at their relationship with the state. To finish, some observations on the political significance of these associations as civil society institutions will be made.
