Youth-Led Pathways to Social and Political Change:

Faith and Service in Contemporary Egypt

Barbara Lethem Ibrahim, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, and Betsy Mesard

Introduction:

The massive youth-led movements for change that emerged in 2010-2011 in

Tunisia and Egypt were remarkable for many reasons, not least of which was the failure of
observers to predict their timing or numeric strength. Instead, most observers of Arab
youth in recent years emphasized the absence of public participation and seeming passivity
of this generation, coupled with what was seen as a retreat from society into growing
religiosity. In the light of a dramatic Arab popular awakening, this paper sets out to
reconsider the nature of youth public participation in recent years.

Our findings are based on field interviews in a prominent youth-led social service
organization in Egypt, both before and after the uprising of January 25, 2011ii We found
that within the authoritarian climate existing during the late Mubarak era, large numbers of
youth had devised alternative spaces in which to practice citizenship, often in arenas not
typically considered relevant to political change. Their activities were dismissed as
unimportant by most analysts, who equated social services with charity work. Most saw
youthful volunteerism as an outgrowth of the revival of religious discourse and practice, a
space assumed to be antithetical to politics or democratic practice. Instead, we posit this as
a significant arena which prepared young participants for rapid mobilization in the early
weeks of 2011 as part of an unprecedented youth-led national movement.

The importance of this phenomenon was underestimated, we believe, because of its

localized character in communities and its association with the religious values of Islam.
This illuminates a set of assumptions we wish to problematize about what constitutes
political action. Religiously motivated charity work, particularly in Islamic societies, has
been alternatively considered as no more than a recruitment tool for groups like the Muslim
Brotherhood, or cynically as a government panacea,iii or is seen as completely apolitical
a safety outlet for youthful idealism diluting the chances for political activism. But our
interview data suggests otherwise; that this understanding of the relationship between
charitable service work and political transformation is far too simplistic. [need citations]

We define volunteer social service as it is practiced by young Egyptians --- a range

of activities directed toward relieving poverty and exclusion such as distributing foodstuffs,
clothing and medicine, marriage assistance, and tutoring in underprivileged urban
neighborhoods. We posit a spill-over effect that those experiences prepared young
Egyptians to easily enter another public sphere and take part in the determined popular
ii
From 2007-2009 and from 2011-2012. Perhaps a more detailed discussion of the field methods here
dates, locations, etc? (Leah, we had this section in a previous long version of the paper, can you resurrect
it?)
iii
Such criticisms are often made against Hamas and Hezbollah, or currently, the Ennahda party in Tunisia.

1
uprising of early 2011. Our research suggests that collective social action at community
level, described by participants as building the umma, brick by brick iv contributed to the
formation of attitudes and dispositions not unlike those of their youthful counterparts who
were practicing overt street politics in the period leading up to early 2011. It was those
orientationstoward social justice, civic consciousness, and inclusive decision-making
that contributed to the mass mobilizations that began on January 25, 2011 and gave them a
unique character, uniting compassion and service with the struggle for political change.

This thesis builds on recent conversations in the literature about the relationship
between religion and secularism, ethical formation and politics. Contemporary theorists
including Saba Mahmood, Charles Hirschkind, Charles Taylor and Jeffrey Stout, have
indicated the possibility of a complex relationship between religious practices and political
community, and this paper explores how this relationship might be playing out in the
Egyptian context.

In spite of a wide variety of views among volunteers, we found an overarching

sense of solidarity with the January 25 movement and the values that it represented. We
heard from a significant number about their participation in the activities that made Tahrir
square unique and powerful political force-field. These findings suggest a more complex
relationship between faith-based volunteering and mass political mobilization which we
explore below.

Religion and Civic Culture

Youth have been in the vanguard of a trend toward more religious piety and
practice in Egypt since at least the 1970s. They have introduced novel forms of dress,
discourse, and social interaction based on adaptive expressions of what it means to be
young and Muslim in the contemporary world. The essential role of youth in forming new
and expansive forms of Muslim public space has been obscured in all but a few academic
circles, however, by the assumption that the revival of religious discourse and adherence to
Islamic practice is antithetical to the creation of democratic citizens. Youth are presumed to
be disaffected from society by unemployment and other forms of exclusion [footnote
Assaad] and to take individual solace in religion and the mosque. The notion that religious
motivation could lead to greater social responsibility and collective interventions has been
propounded mainly by those concerned about extremism or violence. Peaceful community
service and its potential role in transforming the consciousness of volunteers has been
neglected until recently. (Jerome, Mahmoud)
At the macro level, debates over the conditions required for transformation to
participatory societies often rely on the notion that a democratic society is necessarily a
secular one. Equal opportunity for public participation and regular circulation of power, it
is argued, can only exist where no one religion plays a dominant role in organizing societal
life. The truth claims of most faiths are presumed to dissuade citizens from embracing
diversity and choice. Respect for religious freedom is indeed foundational to democracy.
However, this does not require religion to be relegated to the private sphere. One aspect of
organized religion that could in theory contribute to democratic culture is the
iv
The term umma denotes the entire community of Muslim believers. Many Muslims describe an
obligation to prioritize the umma over the local, national, ethnic, or other narrowly defined groups.

2
encouragement of social cohesion, where people feel bound to one another by mutual
responsibility, shared values, and a sense of a good that is greater than the self.

The idea that religion is necessarily contrary to or counter-productive for a

flourishing political community is of quite recent origin. Certainly, religion is a complex
social force that has contributed to conflict between communities. But there are many
historical examples where religious groups and faith-based activity were pivotal forces in
shaping cultures open to democratic practice. Alexis de Tocqueville, as he toured the
United States in the early 1800s, noted that Americans had an exceptional sense of personal
responsibility for the good of the whole, and posited that this was due to the strength of
civic and religious communities. Churches and religious communities forged disparate
immigrant groups into a polity with common purpose and trained their members into the
behaviors and habits that underlie effective citizenship: In America, religion is the road to
knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom.v Far from
requiring the exclusion of religion from the public sphere, communities built around faith
were integral to the creation of an emergent democratic culture.vi

While Toquevilles context may seem a part of the distant past, the example is
helpful insofar as it reminds us of the variety of ways in which faith can be beneficial for
democratic life. Religion continued to be a motivational force in American public life at
pivotal moments, such as the abolition of slavery movement and Martin Luther King, Jrs
mobilization of the civil rights movement. Thus there are good reasons for scholars and
others who may hold secular notions of what constitutes effective democracy to be
attentive to the ways in which religious institutions and ideas also provide pathways to
democratic transition.

Youthful Participation in Egypt

During the time that we began conducting field research in 2008, Egypt was a
self-proclaimed democracy with almost none of the true practices or institutions that give
citizens a voice or effective political participation. Dissent was punished harshly, one
party dominated political life, elections were universally viewed as manipulated, and the
ruling regime had been in place for almost 30 years. In this environment, there was little
space or encouragement for civic involvement. Sullivan and Abed-Kotob provide a good
characterization of the climate during this time when they write, civil society exists in
Egypt, but it is severely restricted and ever under siege by a government concerned first
v
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. ed. Richard Heffner (New York: Signet Classics, 2001), 47.
De Tocqueville acknowledges the complexity of the relationship between religion and democracy and the
dangers of a religion which has settled into dogmatism. Yet he makes clear that while it can be inimical to
democracy at times, it is also its foundation: It is natural that they should hasten to invoke the assistance
of religion, for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without
faith.(34).
vi
Invoking Tocqueville to posit a link between religious communities and civic engagement does not imply
that this moment in American history should be normative as a pathway to democracy; to do so would
ignore the inequalities and injustices of that time -- oppression of women, slavery, economic disparities,
vi
etc. Nor is the example of Americas early experience meant to imply an ideal or model for civic life
elsewhere.

3
and foremost with its own survival.vii Added pressures against civic engagement came
from economic stagnation, a squeeze felt sharply by young Egyptians, as inflation and
unemployment grew, while a tiny minority close to the ruling regime accumulated vast
wealth and influence. Youth in all but the most elite social groups were deflected from
public participation by the day-to-day challenges of finding work and accumulating
sufficient savings to become engaged and married.viii

Those realities however, shielded another trend. Over the past decade, a rise in the
number of youth-led social initiatives was signaling greater willingness to engage in the
public sphere. Rather than accepting exclusion from politics, civic life, or the market,
some young Egyptians were forging new forms of engagement. Overtly political action
coalesced around mass protests beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Protestors
under the banner of the Kefaya movement made a number of pushes for political change
in the lead up to the 2005 presidential election, and discontent swelled again in 2008.
These efforts led to the emergence of activist youth groups such as Youth for Change and
later the 6th of April Movement taking on domestic issues as well. Youthful bloggers and
those using web-based social networking spaces proliferated, some risking arrest to
broadcast their views and calls to action. Youthful self-employment and entrepreneurship
were also growing, as young people in the formal labor market faced unemployment as
high as 50% for new entrants.ix

A less well-studied arena of public participation is that of youth-founded and

youth led organizations providing local social services. Involving less risk than political
participation, and more oriented toward public social benefit than entrepreneurial
initiatives, these organizations proliferated in Egypt in the decade beginning roughly in
2000, as documented below. They are for the most part sustained by volunteer efforts of
tens or hundreds or thousands of members. Members of these organizations identify and
meet community needs for services such as after-school tutoring, providing for the poor,
or offering computer and language training to youth in need of marketable skills. They
differ from more conventional NGOs in that the leadership is young less than 25 years
old and there is less reliance on external donor support as members contribute monthly
dues and solicit further contributions from the Egyptian public.

Previous research by Ibrahim examined the sources of motivation for this wave of
youthful volunteering, as well as the social and economic factors that encourage it by
excluding youth from the labor market or access to other avenues of participation in
society. In that study, volunteers overwhelmingly cited religious belief as their primary
motivator, with secondary mention of desires to build a fairer Egypt and to add meaning
to otherwise boring, stalled lives. The present analysis builds on that observation and
examines the relationship of religious piety, social solidarity, and volunteerism, and the
evolving definition of the open political culture that young Egyptians would like to claim
vii
Dennis Sullivan and Abed-Kotob, Islam in Contemporary Egypt (London: Lynne Reinner Publishers,
1999), 135.
viii
Barbara Ibrahim and Diane Singerman, The Costs of Marriage in Egypt: A Hidden Dimension in the New
Arab Demography Cairo Papers in Social Science (2003).
ix
Tarek Yousef and Navtej Dhillon, Generation in Waiting (Brooking Institution Press, 2009)

4
for their own. We argue that this arena of youth participation has contributed
significantly to a broader political culture that gave birth to the January 25th uprising.

Resala: Exemplar of Youth Innovation

The research on which this paper is based began in an attempt to understand the
recent surge in volunteerism, exploring why it has emerged in this particular time and
place, and what motivates young Egyptians to volunteer. Three youth-led organizations
were originally studied through in-depth interviews with founding leaders, long-term and
recent volunteers. The analysis reported here focuses on the largest of these
organizations, Resala, which was established in 1999 and ten years later had over 90,000
volunteers, mainly in urban centers. [Add methodology here.]

In exploring the discourse or talk explanations for their participation offered

by young volunteers we found that the rationale behind involvement provided insight
into a way of thinking about identity and roles in society that defied many of the usual
associations between faith and public life. It suggests reformulations of what young
people understand as the political along lines noted recently by Bayat with regard to
street actions and Mahmood in terms of new functions for mosques and prayer groups. In
the following pages we relate the perspectives articulated by volunteering youth as they
speak about how they understand themselves, their responsibilities toward society, and
the dramatic changes that began to unfold in early 2011. We begin with a description of
the organization.

In 1999, a young engineering professor at Cairo University, Sherif Abdelazeem,

started reflecting on civic responsibility in his course on Engineering Ethics. He had
recently returned to Egypt after finishing a PhD in Canada, with what he calls a deep
curiosity about how the societies of the west and east can learn from one another. In
Canada, he had noticed the prominence of communal responsibility, often embodied in
volunteerism and community service. He began to ask questions in his engineering class
about the way in which Egyptian society was structured, the responsibilities of its
members to one another, and the ways in which it could be improved. Why do we
throw garbage in the streets? he asked, Why do we write on the walls? He
encouraged his students to think about their own roles in society, but his goals were
primarily focused on classroom learning. Thus, he was surprised when his students
began to push things further. I wasnt planning to create Resala, he explains.
Students came to me and said, Ok, what are we going to do? I was shocked. What
were we going to do? I didnt know. So I asked them, and we decided to start a student
club.
That same year, his students initiated the group Resala, which means both
mission and message. The mission was to contribute positively to the community and to
spread the message that everyone who can should give to support the poor, and that
young people can be effective participants in their society. The founding members ran
clean-up campaigns and blood drives, visited nursing homes and spent time helping in
orphanages. Resala had 60 volunteers in its first year; in its second year a piece of land
was donated and Resala evolved from a student club to a registered non-governmental

5
organization (gamaya). From that beginning the organization has grown to encompass
60 branch chapters with over 100,000 young volunteers (as of early 2012) in its database,
a large percentage of who are female.x

A visit to a typical branch site in the afternoon or evening finds it brimming with
activity and purpose. Volunteers run a Big Brother/Big Sister program pairing volunteers
with orphan children for regular visits, literacy programs in poor neighborhoods, and
services for deaf and blind students, including Braille computer courses. Volunteers
deliver medicines and food to indigent families in urban neighborhoods and villages on
the outskirts of Cairo. One popular program collects unwanted household gift items from
middle class families to redistribute to poor couples readying their apartments for
marriage; another program collects, cleans and resells used clothing at low prices.

Dr. Abdelazeems narrative emphasizes that he helped to catalyze what was

essentially a youth-initiated organization. University-aged youth were at the helm in
naming Resala, selecting activities, and promoting membership widely among their
peers. They continue to pioneer new program areas; Abdelazeem jokingly laments the
100 phone messages he says he receives daily where he is bombarded with ideas.
When asked to explain the rapid growth and popularity of Resala, Dr. Abdelazeem posits
that it fills a deep need for young people, who have few other outlets, to be engaged in
meaningful activity. Egyptian Christians, he says, have paths open to them to volunteer
through their churches, but Muslim youth have fewer institutional opportunities.xi
Abdelazeem attributes the rapid growth of Resala to the desires of youth to do something
beneficial with their time, to be proactive and feel they can affect their surroundings
positively. He makes clear that while helping under-served groups in Egypt is a priority,
that is in some ways more of a side-effect. Resalas primary goal is to be a vehicle
through which youth can learn and practice contributing to their society.xii

This aspect of personal development is also reflected in interviews with recent

volunteers, but with a distinctly different framing. When asked why they volunteer, most
respondents root their answers firmly in their Muslim faith. One young male volunteer
articulated the belief that his generation is learning how to cultivate more faithful lives
compared with past generations. The Muslim society is weak because our parents
generation moved far away from religion. We have come back and now know more than
they did at our age about the true path.

x
http://www.resala.org/pages/about (accessed August 25, 2012)
xi
We note that this is the converse of Bayats analysis of what he calls social non-movements, where
everyday activities that aim to provide basic services (like movement of goods, provision of electricity, and
so forth) have the side effect of shaping society in ways that turn out to be politically significant, even
though this is not the primary goal.
xii
Peterson and Sparre draw attention to Resalas success in their insightful review of youth organizations
in Egypt. They categorize it as a social welfare organization, defined as catering to the poor and
underserved, while overlooking an explicit goal to teach youthful participation and community
engagement.

6
 Other volunteers express more personal objectives; they speak of feeling less
frustrated, close to Allah, and at peace when they volunteer. Interview data suggest that
volunteering with Resala provides a way of coping with difficulties in the lives of young
Egyptians who participate. When asked why they volunteer, interviewees almost
unanimously began with to help people, and for Allah and my religion. But they also
moved on to explain that Resala provided a way to get out of the house where they were
otherwise doing nothing; to meet other young people; and to build up some credentials as
they pursue jobs. In some instances, Resala has even served as a kind of informal marriage
market, as it is not unusual for young volunteers to meet there and become engaged.
Volunteering therefore provides a way to manage the multiple frustrations youth face in
their day-to-day lives.xiii Thus, within a climate that discouraged political participation and
yet was receptive to religious activity, youth have found it easier to gain approval for social
service from their families, teachers and other mentors. Once parents are assured that
Resala is not a step toward militant religious activity, they tend to support volunteer service
as productive and safe for their children.

Politics or Religion?

It is significant that, among volunteers, the choice to work at Resala is nearly always
framed in religious language. Islamic doctrine enjoins believers to give attention to the
needs of the poor, through compassion as well as required sharing of wealth through the
institution of zakat. But for the second half of the twentieth century, the Egyptian state
monopolized the provision of welfare, centralized the distribution of charitable
contributions, and discouraged popular participation in the solution of social problems.
By the beginning of the 21st century that experiment was widely perceived to have failed.
While most Egyptians placed at least partial blame on bad governance and corruption, a
parallel strand of thinking blames the secular neglect of Islamic norms and values. Thus,
the religious discourse used in explaining motivations to volunteer and as a recruitment
tool is a reflection of the view of a generation that has lost faith with secular
development or state-led solutions to social problems.

Most volunteers state their primary motivation in terms of Islamic teachings.

More specifically, many explained that they chose to volunteer because of the notion of
thawab, the idea that one receives rewards from God in this life and the next for good
deeds. One young man explained, I am accumulating good capital in this life and in the
next. Another volunteer explained that thawab is a large part of why new volunteers
begin coming. Even for those who dont initially think in terms of thawab and come for
other reasons, perhaps because they are unemployed and lacking meaningful activity,
thawab becomes a powerful motivation to continue as they learn more about it from their
co-volunteers. Other members reiterated that through Resala, people learn the true
practice of Islam.

Given this vocabulary, which makes almost no reference to matters of politics or

governance, the significance of developments in youth volunteering can easily be
xiii
These motivations are further analyzed in a forthcoming article by Barbara Ibrahim.

7
considered irrelevant to political change. As Saba Mahmood points out in the Politics of
Piety, activities that do not fit conceptions of transgressive behavior, like explicit protest
and opposition, are often disregarded in political analysis. Mahmood looks at womens
mosque groups in Egypt to illuminate the subtle ways in which individuals can find
agency and participate in transforming their environments. In contrast to positions that
assume that "secularism's progressive formulations necessarily exhaust ways of living
meaningfully and richly in this world,xiv Mahmood argues that women's piety in
contemporary mosque groups have a much more significant effect that might be initially
apparent. She states, "It would be wrong to characterize the women's mosque movement
as an abandonment of politics. On the contrary, the form of piety the movement seeks to
realize is predicated upon, and transformative of, many aspects of social life.xv

In the Middle East, the opposition movements that attract the most attention are either
Islamist challenges to the ruling regimes or secular challenges to the religious
establishment. In an environment of limited space for political participation, however,
individuals and groups often create forms of resistance and self-expression that may not
seem overtly political, and yet have important consequences.xvi Youth volunteering, and
the institutional and communal structures it has created, should be understood as one of
these forms.

In some ways, this is not surprising. Research in western settings links the growth of
volunteerism with vibrancy of civic society participation. In developing countries,
volunteerism has been considered a positive predecessor of democratic change.xvii
However, the primacy of religious motivation in Muslim societies has led some to
conclude that volunteering of this kind leads to a strengthening of Islam but not
necessarily the strengthening of civic participation. Wiktorowicz and Taji-Farouki argue
that charitable organizations in the Middle East are part of a struggle at the level of
discourse, culture, and behavior to promote the values of Islam over cultural
imperialism of which democracy is one manifestation of western influence.xviii Thus it is
assumed that there is an anti-democratic impulse driving participation.

xiv
Saba Mahmood, The Politics of Piety, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005), xi.
xv
Charles Hirschkind has done similar work on the role of the piety movement. He points to the example
of sermons on cassette tapes, which have cultivated space for debate and deliberation about social
practices. He notes they create the moral space within which public argumentation takes place,
orienting the interlocutors toward the goals and goods that define that space. Charles Hirschkind, Civic
Virtue and Religious Reason: An Islamic Counterpublic Cultural Anthropology 16:1 (February 2001)
xvi
See James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, CT: Yale
University, 1987)
xvii
Mark West, The Spirit of Volunteerism: Re-building Civil Society and Delivering Jobs through Youth
Networks in Turkey Center for Information and Society, University of Washington (March 2008);
Volunteering as a national resource in the new stage of development in Kazakhstan Statement by Mr.
rd
Haoliang Xu, Resident Representative of UNDP in RK, and Resident Coordination of UN in RK for the 3
National forum on Civil Society of Kazakhstan.
xviii
Q. Wiktorowicz and S. Taji-Farouki, Islamic NGOs and Muslim Politics: A Case from Jordan Third
World Quarterly 21 (2000): 685.

8
 Exploration into the views of volunteers at Resala, however, shows that neither of
these explanations adequately described the youth engaged in organized social service in
Egypt. Our interviews show a more subtle understanding of the relationship between
religion, culture, and socio-political change. Most volunteers do not see what they are
doing as explicitly political. Neither do they believe their work represents a battle
between the values of the East versus those of the West, as if this were a clear-cut
dichotomy. Indeed, on a number of occasions during our conversations, volunteers
pointed to European and North American countries as examples of how societies find
ways to provide well for citizens. At one time, however, some members posted calls to
boycott Danish products in response to the publication of cartoons disrespectful to
Prophet Mohamed. So the attitudes toward western ideals and practices are mixed and
can shift in response to external events. We believe that Resala and other youth-led
charitable organizations can be understood as mainly challenging a particular
understanding of social service and cultural practice as separate from the realm of
politics; challenging, that is, the very definition of politics. We observed youth working
through the discourses of religion and culture to carve out and own new spaces for civic
participation for, as they put it, nurturing a new Egypt.

How, then, to understand the role of religion and politics in these practices? For
many youth, the dissatisfaction with their social condition ran deep. It was not hard to
dive quickly into heated discussions with Resala volunteers about corruption, inequality,
and non-responsive government; moreover, as we will discuss further below, after the
January 25 uprising, volunteers consider their work now to be as important as ever in
some cases more so. They expressed a desire for change, but articulated a sense that
almost all personal opportunities appeared closed. One volunteer stated bluntly, before
the revolution, all doors in Egypt were closed; the only door open was volunteering.
Adult-run NGOs did not include them, families were places in which elders dictated to
the young, and political expression, even internet use and blogging could be dangerous.

When speaking publicly about Resala prior to 2011, the founder was always
careful to deny political or macro-social goals. Leaders emphasize that Resala is
unapologetically charity; it is about the joy of giving and the goal is to practice
giving. Abdelazeem called it the Academy of Giving and he intends this to sound as far
from oppositional organizing as possible. Furthermore, he and many volunteers insist
that Resala is not inherently a Muslim organization - we were told that anyone who
wanted to give time was welcome. (We did note that some who wanted to utilize Resala
as a preaching platform eventually left.xix)

However, while most participants did not explicitly identify their actions as
political, some were eager to explain that aspects of social change are embedded in their
work. One volunteer said they were not just giving charity to the poor but branching into
more systemic development activities: job-training programs, providing work for the
unemployed, literacy programs, and tutoring for students. This volunteer asserted that,
though the work was not politics, it was changing peoples lives in ways that would be
xix
We did not, however, hear from anyone who explicitly described herself as non-Muslim, whether
Christian, secularist, or otherwise.

9
lasting and would change the fabric of society. Furthermore, she explained that it is the
educated and elite who tend to have the power to change society; unless we spend time with
those who are in greater need, she noted, how can we know what changes are necessary?
Resala provides opportunities for its volunteers to have cross-class exposure and learn
about the situation and needs of different socio-economic brackets. Several volunteers
explained Resalas impact on them in just these terms: it was not until they traveled to the
poor neighborhoods outside of Cairo that they really understood the poverty of many of the
compatriots.xx This knowledge can be seen as contributing to the growth of ideas of social
justice, solidarity, and the need for greater equity in society. Moreover, volunteers note the
powerful impact of actually seeing the response of those they serve both volunteers and
recipients feel empowered by observing that they neednt rely on an impersonal
government institution.

Beyond providing a context for self-expression and for developing a sense of

responsibility and social justice, we believe the activities of these youth indicate an
emerging conception of the relationship between religion, politics and social change. In
discussions with volunteers we noted a sense of a strong link between ethics and social or
political change: charity and virtue were part of a vision of creating a stronger society.
These youth see what they are doing on a religious and cultural level as laying the
foundation for a different kind of social and political culture. They were paving a new
path through what Mohammad Arkoun describes as either the idealist, apologetic
sermons of religious leaders, or official calls for a secularized civic conscience both of
which circumvent the need to reactivate ethical concern with building civil societies qua
new historical platforms for the genesis of effective spaces for citizenship.xxi

Part of changing society involves attention to creating a culture of virtuous,

responsible individuals. One practices good deeds in order to become a better person, and
one attempts to become a better person in the belief that if people can change, society
will change. Thus one volunteer said that at Resala they are trying to transform society
from the bottom up. The analogy of building up a new and better society brick by
brick was mentioned repeatedly by young volunteers.

The notion that one can change ones society through the cultivation of socially
bonded and ethical communities is part of a broad ethos that has precedents in ancient
Mediterranean societies and stretches through classical Arabic and Islamic moral thought.
This ethos finds expression in the modern West and in contemporary Muslim societies.
In the republics of Greece and Rome personal virtue formed a significant aspect of
building a civic culture that would be politically responsible. The founders of American
democracy stressed the importance of a virtuous citizenry, which played out in the
debates between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. In the West, however, that notion
was often abandoned in favor of a liberal framework in which institutions would establish
justice regardless of the moral standards of the people. However, more recently the
xx
This element of evidence of seeing the impacts of ones contribution is often missing from traditional
practices of giving.
xxi
Mohammed Arkoun, Locating Civil Society in Islamic Contexts in Civil Society in the Muslim World, Ed.
Amyn Sajoo (New York: I.B. Taurus and Co.), 38.

10
debate has been revived with an acknowledgement that for a democracy to function
adequately it needs a populace that is committed to civic good, holds the government
accountable, and ideally, fosters a sense of community built upon responsibility and
compassion toward others. Indeed, Amyn Sajoo notes that while contemporary
liberalism tends to separate civic and ethical norms (preferring to privatize the latter), a
different trend may be emerging. He explains:

That pattern appears to be reversing itself in some contexts, notably of transitional

states where the frailty of the rule of law leaves ethical norms to play a key part in
sustaining public orderThere is no substitute for the rule of law, of course; yet both
strategic and moral purposes are served by anchoring civic life in the revival of
ethical discourseAfter all, appeals to religious tradition already colour political
militancy; engaging and reshaping that discourse is a challenge that civic actors can
ill afford to ignore.xxii

The role of religious and charitable organizations can therefore be understood, in

part, as contributing to the creation of communities that are oriented towards justice and
social concern. As an Academy of Giving, Resala offers training or apprenticeship for
future civic roles, teaching youth that they can indeed impact their social environment.
Cultivating this sense of responsibility an empowerment turns out to be an eminently
political practice. We have found this to be confirmed in our conversations with Resala
volunteers during 2011-2012.

Resala Youth in the January 25th Movement

Shortly after mass street protests began in 2011, one of the authors spoke with the
founder of Resala. He reported with some amazement that scores of members had
contacted him from Midan Tahrir (Tahrir Square), slept there, and participated in the
unique blend of political protest and civil solidarity that characterized the movement.
Many were also involved in new youth groups that formed in the wake of the initial
protests. He said that volunteers felt well-prepared by their Resala experience to convert
community-service skills into democratic organizing with almost seamless rapidity.

We learned subsequently that few of the Resala volunteers were among the initial
planners who catalyzed early protests starting on January 25th. Those were largely
activists with several years of street protest experience, including young activists with 6th
of April, labor groups and Kefaya.xxiii However, many Resala volunteers had signed up
on a Facebook group to attend protests on the 25th, which coincided with a national
holiday for Police Day. The crowds were larger and better organized than anyone, most
xxii
Amyn Sajoo, Civil Society in the Muslim World (New York: I.B. Taurus and Co., 2004), 22.
xxiii th
We did speak to a couple of Resala volunteers who had also been involved with the April 6
Movement. However, these members chimed in with their non-activist peers in affirming the importance
of Resala remaining distinct from politics. (THIS IS A FASCINATING POINT, I THINK THAT SOME OF THE
YOUTH WERE INVOLVED IN RESELA, NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE SCARED OF MORE POLITICAL ACTIVITY,
BUT BECAUSE THEY SAW PURE POLITICAL ACTIVITY AS INSUFFICIENT AND RESELA AS FILLING IN AN
IMPORTANT NEED) I agree and suggest we pull this out of a footnote and into the text.

11
particularly the government security forces, had expected. As sunset fell, some protesters
decided spontaneously to stay in Tahrir. That brought forth brutal police attacks in the
night and many injuries. As medics and other protesters responded with improvised field
stations, this formed the beginning of a wave of other services in the Midan. By the
following Friday demonstrators had organized food, water, clean-up and toilet facilities
to serve the crowds that poured into Tahrir that day. Over subsequent days other
innovative services sprang up cell phone charging stations rigged to lampposts, a lost
and found, and security cordons in each of the feeder streets checking to make sure that
weapons and government infiltrators were kept out. These were activities and spaces that
Resala volunteers understood and where they could make a contribution.

Over time, early participants used their social networks to draw in others from
their Resala branches. The skills and discipline honed over months of managing
volunteer activities enabled them to make a vital contribution to the nascent protest
community, helping to form its character and distinct practices. Based on his
communications with volunteers, Abdelazeem hypothesized that volunteers experience
with Resala also enabled them to stay the course when violence and hardship set in.

He noted with further surprise that the Resala mission of building social
responsibility, coupled with the discipline of regular commitment to a cause, was easily
transformed into a desire to push for changes consistent with a democratic ethos what
Talal Asad has called an ethos that involves the desire for mutual care, distress at the
infliction of pain and indignity, and so forth.xxiv We believe this is one of the avenues
through which Resala volunteers largely religious understanding of the need for public
action harmonized with what others recognize as more secular calls for change. What
is significant here is that the dominant calls for change, while varied and creative,
including much native humor, did not express overtly democratic themes. Instead of
calling for democracy, the young demonstrators were practicing it intensively. Bread,
Dignity and Social Justice became the rallying cry (as well as the key demand for
Mubarak to leave power). Those three themes, of course, were central tenants of the
Resala program for over a decade. It is not a stretch to assert that young volunteer
activists reinforced, if not originated, that resonant slogan.

Other slogans in the Midan called for freedom, tolerance between Muslims and
Christians, and rejecting corruption and foreign hegemony. Resalas dominant discourse
prior to the uprising had largely kept away from these themes, while paving the way, it
turns out, for their embrace. We believe this was accomplished through creating a culture
of respect, solidarity, personal virtue and responsibility. Those ideals were consistent in
the end with a desire for, and readiness to demand freedom, justice, and accountability.
Furthermore, it appears to be the case that the skills acquired through participation in
youth service organizations assessing the needs of others, implement solutions,
accommodating plurality of opinion, planning collective action, and disciplining private
preferences to meet a common goal all became important tools for the effectiveness
with which youth-driven action actually resulted in dramatic change in Egypt.xxv Our
xxiv
In Asads Thinking About Religious Belief and Politics in Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies
xxv
See Omnia al Shakrys article in this issue of IJMES, forthcoming.

12
recent interviews confirmed that Resala took the lead with providing medical supplies, as
well as blood donations during periods of violent confrontation. The learning curve was
steep. Volunteers who had not been actively involved in the initial uprising reported
quickly mobilizing for later periods of conflict, for example in November, 2011, in
downtowns Muhammed Mahmoud Street. Moreover, we found that the volunteers
initiative with street-cleaning in the wake of the initial upheaval was based on skills
acquired through the well-established Resala programs geared toward mosque clean-up
and beautification. This program has since expanded even further to include the creation
of small parks and green areas in city centers. These transformations signal a new
appreciation for and sense of ownership of public space.

Summary of Findings

While findings from interviews conducted between June, 2011 and March, 2012
largely support our hypotheses about the relevance of youth volunteerism to the dramatic
changes that have been taking place in Egypt, we uncovered some interesting challenges
to our original ideas as well. Large numbers of Resala volunteers did in fact participate
actively in the 2011 movement to topple the Mubarak regime and set Egypt on a new
course. But the picture that emerges is far more complex and nuanced. In an organization
of over 100,000 members, our interviews uncovered an unsurprising diversity of
viewpoints and responses to the January 25th events.

As mentioned previously, the majority of Resala volunteers are young women,

possibly as high as 90 percent.xxvi They are mostly single and ranging in age between 18
and 25. Many female volunteers we spoke to said that, although they wanted to
participate in the demonstrations, they were prevented from doing so by families
concerned for their safety. In several such cases we heard, I was supporting them in my
heart. One young woman reported having tricked her family into going out and then
sneaking to join in the Midan. A number of others recalled their searches for a suitable
companion before finally being able to go. In most cases, the young women reported
going to the square towards the end of the 18 day period.

Many of the young men who joined did so from the very beginning. All reported
having gone with or been in close contact with other Resala volunteers during these days,
so there was a solidarity aspect to their participation. Some described having participated
in services such as providing medical materials or street cleaning, while others said they
spent their time simply being together and talking with other Egyptians. Such
experiences and practices of being together are themselves important components of
Resalas philosophy. We recorded many reflections from volunteers who stated that
what has impacted them most in their time with Resala has been their opportunities to
talk to different people and to see how poor people really live. This was an oft-
repeated observation by non-volunteers in Tahrir as well, who marveled at the diversity
of Egyptians they were interacting with for the first time.

xxvi
Interview with Sherif Abdel Azeem, January 2011

13
 Several relevant patterns emerged in the conversations about the relationship
between Resalas work and the famed 18 days. First, the revolution signaled to volunteers
we interviewed that people were changing from within. One young man described the
relationship between Resalas work and the revolutionary spirit as one of seamless
alignment. He offered a theory that what happened in early 2011 was not one revolution,
but three simultaneously: A revolution of politics (overthrowing the regime), a
revolution of cleaning up the country, and a revolution of the self. Many others stated
with pride that during the revolution, people were good. One proclaimed that the
whole of Egypt was an altruistic parallel country in that time. These statements imply
that for volunteers, true change and reform cannot be merely political, but must be
accompanied by deeper changes internal to people specifically the cultivation of virtue
and piety. Indeed, one young woman remarked that what the country requires to stay on
a course for positive change is religion why? Because it creates ethics, and thats
what we need most [right now].xxvii
Second, as a result of the 18 days, volunteers think of themselves as citizens
(muwaaneen) in ways they never did before. One volunteer explicitly connected the
Resala mission to the production of good, useful citizens. Faith was also in the equation:
When asked what it means to be a good citizen he said, using in the best way possible
whatever gifts God has given you. In another striking statement of the new commitment
to country, one girl said, Egypt is like our newborn baby we all want to give it the best
possible care. Thus, for volunteers, being a good citizen is not simply about the secular
duties of voting and tax-paying, but a richer repertoire of commitments and dispositions,
similar to those that drive the Resala organization.

A third and related point: volunteers used the term unity (ittid) to account for
differences between this uprising and previous efforts to mobilize opposition. We were
told that this time around, demonstrations really were about something significant for all
Egyptians it was a project of unity and it was about justice and freedom. This idea of
unity the sense that we are all Egyptians and we can work together to make a better
life for ourselves resonated deeply with Resala volunteers. Indeed it is a large part of
why they have traditionally dissociated themselves from the divisiveness of everyday
politics.

We also found that volunteers have continued to contribute to efforts at the

interface of charity work and street politics. In the year after the initial 18 day uprising,
volunteers described forming a number of convoys to supply medical care, first aid
materials, and organization know-how during periodic times of conflict and
confrontation. For example, in November, 2011 and again in December, downtown
Cairo witnessed heavy fighting between protesters and army and police units in the
blocks between Tahrir Square and the Interior Ministry. Volunteers reported having
provided services to both protestors and this time to uniformed police and military
personnel as well. While this indiscriminate care in some ways reflects a reluctance to
take sides, we propose an alternative interpretation: to be on the side of risk, care, and
responsiveness to need is to be on the side of key democratic transformations which are
in fact consistent with those showcased in the January 25 movement.
xxvii
It should be noted that she clarified any religion meaning not only her faith, Islam.

14
 Whether or not they joined the initial protests, volunteers understanding of their
work has remained remarkably constant. In spite of interviewers attempts to discuss the
dramatic transformations and new opportunities in Egypt in the past year, most
volunteers maintained their focus on the task of service they have not rushed to new
opportunities for more explicitly political engagement, but rather view their work as of
ongoing importance in the new Egypt. Two seasoned volunteers said almost in unison,
theres no need for Resala to change; we always have been and always will be about
helping those in need. With a failing economy and increased social instability, they see
their service role as more important than ever. That unwavering commitment to
volunteerism signals a particular space that these youth have carved out: a space devoted
to building a better society, but one that is buffered from the dramatic fluctuations, gains,
and losses in the battles for state power, what they mean when using the term politics.

Conclusion

The satisfactions, optimism, and sense of unity that characterized the spirit of the
initial January 25th movement have diminished significantly in among Egyptians in mid-
2012 particularly as the country has settled into a new presidency and the crystallization
of fresh divisions and partisan alliances. The optimism and sense of purpose has not,
however, diminished among our volunteer informants. Rather, societal divisiveness
reaffirms their sense that what they call politics contentious, partisan politics, and even
what they call activism or street protest is not the realm in which to carry out the
countrys most important work in the aftermath of the uprising.

In an interesting way, therefore, the Resala volunteers have turned our initial
hypothesis on its head. We asked the question, Did participation in Resala prepare you to
join in the January 25th movement for social change? Their responses were emphatically
in reverse: We have been working for social change all along and are happy that others
of our generation joined us in demonstrating what can be achieved with collaborative
efforts to build a just and virtuous society. That work must continue unabated for the
realization of our generations dreams.

We close with illuminating reflections from the anthropologist Hussein Agrama.

He offers a perspective on the contemporary relationship between religious and political
action that seems to fit our young volunteers own views:

one may not be obliged to ask and answer the question of where to draw the
line between religion and politics [in order] to foster the mutual care, attunement
to pain and distress, concern for truth, nonjudgmental disposition and tendency
toward inclusion [associated with the democratic ethos]xxviii Indeed, the only
xxviii
Agrama is in conversation with Talal Asads reflections in, Thinking About Religious Belief and
Politics, in the Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies (2011).

15
 way to obtain [this ethos] might be to forge the capacity to be indifferent to the
question of their distinction.

Our interactions with the volunteers of Resala suggest just such an indifference. It is
an indifference which, when one looks to the fruits of their efforts, appears not very
indifferent at all.

16