Book Review: The Rise of Islamic Capitalism

John Louis

The Rise of Islamic Capitalism:Why the New Muslim Middle Class is the Key to Defeating Extremism

A Review -

Pious Commercialism: Capitalism and the Muslim Middle Class

In The Rise of Islamic Capitalism Vali Nasr claims that “the key struggle [in the middle east] that will pave the way for a decisive defeat of extremism and to social liberalization will be the battle to free the markets.”¹ Echoing Weber “who first credited Calvinist ethic for the rise of Capitalism” Nasr maintains “for [middle easterners], Islam is a powerful supporter of the drive to modernity.”² Explaining why the Weberian calculus holds for the “new Muslim middle class,” Nasr explores the deeper connection between Islam and Capitalism so “difficult for those in the west to grasp.”³

Post- Colonialism, Kemalism, and Patronage: Authoritarianism and its Discontents

The Middle East suffers from a long and nasty colonial history. Nasr dejects the modern middle east too often took shape “on the back of a cocktail napkin[s]” of European leaders.⁴ Middle Eastern states faced a colonial legacy that was “authoritarian by nature.”⁵ Practicing a strategy of “divide and conquer” colonial empires “exploited religious and ethnic divisions” leaving a “bitter legacy, which sullied all that Europe went on to introduce in the Middle East by way of modernization.”⁶

Nasr’s narrative of top-down modernization focuses on the experiences of Trukey and Iran. There “powerful reformers Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Reza Shah Pahlavi” pursued a strategy of “state-driven… development”⁷ that brought “great advances” but also introduced deeper social problems that continue to adversely impact the region. Nasr, admits that “Ataturk and Reza Shah saved their countries.” .⁸⁹ But “top down modernization had its limits… [as] the leviathans they created” too frequently “succumb[ed] to the temptation of despotism.”¹⁰

State led modernization produced three pathologies in Middle Eastern politics:

[1] “an overreliance on top-down economic decision making led to patronage states, rather than robust capitalist economies.”¹¹

[2] lack of a “middle class of merchants and professionals with their own bases of economic power…. Vital to the push for capitalism and democracy.”¹²

[3] insisting “that secularism was vital to achieving modernity, which led to intense resentment at the suppression of Islam.”¹³

The “harsh, authoritarian imposition of so-called Western style modernity on the region’s populations in the twentieth century,” explains the resurgence of political Islam¹⁴

Islam and modernity: the Case of Turkey’s AKP

Fundamentalism was a reaction to secularization. The state’s attempt to impose secularism “radicalized” Islamic organizations. Opposition activists were systematically oppressed, and barred from ordinary politics.¹⁵ Pushed to the fringes of society “radical” Islamists began advocating extremism and militancy.

In many cases Islam provided the only opposition to an authoritarian state. Islam gained popularity in opposition, both reasserting traditional values against the failures of “Kemalism”, and social services where the state was ineffectual. Yet, “The conservative, devout Islam that has been gaining so much popularity in Turkey as well as in Egypt, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf”, Nasr demonstrates is committed not jihad, but business.

Nasr sees Turkey as a model for the region. The AKP appeal to the social values of their democratic constituency; but “combine[s] strict piety with raging entrepreneurship” to produce and “Islam that is conservative but pro-Europe, pro-democracy, and above all pro-capitalism.”¹⁶ Nasr presents a “mainstream” Islam in the Middle East that is moderate, tolerate and embraces globalization, finding that “Generally, where Islamic parties have done well, as with Turkey’s AKP… success came only after telltale fundamentalists goals were gone.”¹⁷

Conclusion: The Rise of Islamic Capitalism?

Nasr’s hopes for the future of the region rest on the success of capitalism in the 21^st century. He argues that the “rights that we [westerners] hold so dear – the right to vote, freedom of speech… worship.. association.. and the rule of law” will depend on the “evolution of commerce.”¹⁸

Nasr speaks of these values as “global.” However, he simultaneously presents political culture as something malleable, and contextual -- as a part of, and not apart from, the political and economic environment in which it exists. “Values gain currency,” Nasr claims, “when they serve the economic and social interests of people, and they shape the governance of nations when those who hold them gain power.”¹⁹

For Nasr “the right sort of politics follows the right sort of economy.”²⁰ Islam and modernity need not stand on opposite sides of history. Nasr believes market economies do not depend on secularism. Islam supports “the spirit of capitalism,”²¹ that will promote “global values” such as “peace, security, democracy, freedom, and human rights.”²²

Promoting deeper global integration, and advancing trade, industry, and entrepreneurship is vital to the future of the region. The success of democracy, free enterprise, and individual rights requires that we denounce “exceptionalism”, and reaffirm those “global” values. Nasr concludes, “If we do not make the effort to assist the region in unleashing its economic potential, then we can very well expect the worst from it.”²³

1 Nasr. P.25

2 P.25 and p.23

3 P.23

4 P.92

5 P.93

6 Ibid…

7 Ibid…

8 P.100-105

9 P.105-107 Attaturk and Reza Shah were emulated by other Middle Eastern leaders. Coloniel Abd al-Nasser in Egypt, and Muhammed Ali Jinnah in Pakistan.

10 P.109

11 Ibid…

12 Idib…

13 Ibid….

14 P.85

15 P.156

16 P.247

17 P.174

18 P.254

19 P.255

20 Nasr. P.259

21 Max Weber; Peter R. Baehr; Gordon C. Wells (2002). The Protestant ethic and the "spirit" of capitalism and other writings. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-043921-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=4MmligHndssC.

22 P.255

23 P.262