FBOs and Change in the Context of Authoritarianism: The Islamic Center Charity Society in Jordan

Abstract

Throughout much of the Middle East, faith-based charities affiliated with Islamist groups and/or parties comprise some of the largest and most effective organizations addressing the needs of the poor. Jordan is no exception, with the Islamic Center Charity Society (ICCS), the charity of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), being the largest in the country other than those established or patronized by members of the royal family. The ICCS forms what most scholars regard as the charitable or social wing of the MB while the Islamic Action Front (IAF), an umbrella party of the MB together with independent Islamists, forms its political wing. Scholars of Islamist movements tend to focus on the political significance of these movements, and specifically their political parties, making reference at best to the recruitment function of the charities (Clark 2004a, 2004b, 1995; Wickham 2002;Wiktorowicz 2001; Wiktorowicz and Farouki-Taji 2000; Kandil and Ben Nefissa 1994; Sullivan 1994).¹ Yet charities affiliated with Islamist movements, such as the ICCS, are integral to the movements within which they are situated, and their presence and activities have implications for the movement’s relations to the population at large, the internal politics of the movement and the movement’s relationship with the regime and state. The socio-political nature of the ICCS, furthermore, has numerous implications for development.