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The debate surrounding the issue of Islamic social welfare organizations has never been resolved. At a time when scholars of various leanings are struggling to define the concept of civil society, a debate within the debate is swirling around the nature of the Islamic social network. Attempts have been made recently to summarize the literature on civil society in its various strands. Liberals like John Locke almost equated civil society with our current conception of pluralist democracy. G.W.F. Hegel defined civil society as the politics of those progressive administrators who do not depend on voters to buttress their role.1 These two definitions clearly have strengthened the view that civil society is something based on capitalism and a free market economy as two corollaries to a liberal democracy. In this view, civil society develops outside of the state, which is assumed to be non-- partisan, capable of intervening to maintain a balance between competing interests.
But there is also a Marxist view, best expressed by Antonio Gramschi who regards civil society as a watchdog over the state and an instrument opposed to capitalism. Gramschi feels the state is destined to attempt imposing its ideology on society and that civil society offers the only arena where the oppressed can struggle against his kind of dominance. Gramschi identifies this civil society as being composed of certain institutions, such as labor unions, political parties, and the family, which are the only formations capable of performing this role. Civil society then becomes an arena of contestation between the state and the exploited masses.2
Middle East scholars elaborate on these ideas by taking into account the emergence of the Islamic social sector as a visible aspect of state-societal relations. They recognize that certain recent developments particular to the Arab World have led to the proliferation of private organizations. Among these developments is the realization that individual and community needs have not been addressed. These needs, clearly, affected the lower and less affluent classes that lack the basics of a secure socio-economic existence. Whether as a result of delayed consciousness or emanating from a feeling of letdown when such basics were withdrawn within their memory, these classes lament the state's inability to insure the availability of decent housing or healthcare, or to...