‘A way to paradise’: Pious Neoliberalism, Islam and Faith-Based Development in Cairo - A talk by Mona Atia October 15, 2010

This lecture explores faith-based development organizations (FBDO) in Egypt as a melding of Islamic piety and neoliberal development values. Focusing on four Islamic development organizations, the study demonstrates how Islamic development organizations promote volunteerism, self-help rhetoric and management science as important components of religiosity and how this manifests in geographically specific ways.

Mona Atia is a professor of Geography and International Affairs at George Washington University. Professor Atia's research lies at the intersection of civil society, geopolitics and financial networks in the contemporary Middle East. Using ethnographic methods, she explores how a transnational Islamic revival, growing Islamic banking and finance industry, and intensified security measures have shifted Islamic charitable practices away from direct handouts and towards faith-based development projects.

Atia's publications include "In Whose Interest? Financial Surveillance and the Circuits of Exception in the War on Terror," and a forthcoming chapter on "The Arab Republic of Egypt" in From Charity to Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy. In 2008, her dissertation "Building a House in Heaven: Islamic Charity in Neoliberal Egypt" was awarded the University of Washington Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/quadrantcal.php