Building a House in Heaven: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt

Acknowledgments

This project has traveled a long way and I have accrued numerous debts in the process. My thanks go first and foremost to those with whom this research was conducted. Numerous people generously invited me into their offices and worlds; they permitted me to write about their organizations and were generous with their time in speaking to me. The warmth and kindness of too many Egyptians to name individually made my fieldwork not only possible but also immensely enjoyable. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Halim Omar opened numerous doors that would have remained closed, and he warmly welcomed me into the Saleh Kamel Center for Islamic Economics at al-Azhar University, offering frequent stimulating conversations. I thank him and the entire faculty and staff for their guidanceandsupportduringmyfieldwork.IamalsoindebtedtoMohamed, my research assistant in Cairo, whose presence during interviews facilitated entry into numerous spaces and whose dedication to the project was unyielding. I would like to thank my entire extended family in Egypt for their generosity , thoughtfulness, and conversation over so many delicious homecooked meals. I owe special thanks to Wael Hassan Atia for his friendship, benevolence, and humor during my stay in Egypt; to Tamer Elbatesh, who facilitated access on so many occasions; to Tante Rusha and Tante Nadia for their constant care; and to Khalu Nagi for making sure I stayed out of trouble. I am blessed to have had the companionship, intellectual support, and uncompromising friendship of Dina Sherif, as well as the support of the Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, especially its director, Barbara Ibrahim. I thank the Bi-national Fulbright Commission in Cairo for funding a full year of this research and providing me with Egyptian research clearance, and in particular Noha El-Gindi for facilitating my entry into government ministries . I am grateful to Egypt’s revolutionaries, who planted and fought for the seeds of change in the country and inspired me to rethink and clarify Acknowledgments • ix • x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS my work years after its completion; and to Ahmed Faheem for sharing his photographs of the uprising. I am so grateful to my intellectual community on this journey, especially Ananya Roy for inspiring since my first course with her in 1998 and for continuing to provide invaluable support, feedback, friendship, and intellectual challenge. I thank Katharyne Mitchell, Matt Sparke, and Vicky Lawson for asking the right questions, challenging me, and offering their guidance and support; Elvin Wyly for believing in me before anyone else; Arzoo Osanloo for her intellectual stimulation and friendship; and Nezar AlSayyad for his encouragement and feedback on the full manuscript, in thefield,andbeyond.Iamgratefultonumerousfriendsandcolleagueswho provided generous feedback: Chris Aggour, Wendy Larner, Melani McAlister , Ananya Roy, Inken Wiese, and Jessica Winegar for reading the manuscript in its entirety; Ozan Karaman, Helga Leitner, and Eric Sheppard for guidance during my visit to the University of Minnesota; and the colleagues who offered support for my work in small but greatly appreciated ways: Hiba Bou Akar, Jonathan Benthall, Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Nathan Brown, Marieke de Goede, Katie Herrold, Moustafa Khalil, Daromir Rudnyckyj , Rachel Silvey, and Amy Singer. I would also like to express gratitude for my current intellectual lifeline, the “what is the political” reading group in DC. I was fortunate to receive financial support for numerous stages of research and writing. I thank the IIE Fulbright fellowship and the Islamic Civilizations Grant for funding my first year of research in Cairo. At the University of Washington, I am indebted to the Department of Geography , the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Nancy Bell Evans Center for financial support, and the Graduate School for granting me the Dissertation Fellowship as well as the Universities’ Distinguished Dissertation Award. At George Washington University, I thank my colleagues in the Elliott School of International Affairs and the Department of Geography , especially Marie Price and Elizabeth Chacko, as well as Nuala Cowen and Richard Hinton for their excellent cartographic skills. I am especially grateful to the Institute for Middle East Studies for sponsoring my book workshop, which was one of the most satisfying days of my life; for providing me with invaluable research assistants, including Kaylan Grieger, Sarah Jasmine Knight, and Maro Youssef; and finally, for supporting follow -up research trips from 2009 to 2012. Graham Cornwell started work with me as a research assistant but came to play a much larger role over the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi years and I am indebted...