Christopher Candland | Wellesley College

Prof. Christopher Candland's book, The Islamic Welfare State: Muslim Charity, Human Security, and Government Legitimacy in Pakistan, has been published by Cambridge University Press. Hardcopies and electronic copies are available through the Cambridge University Press website. Electronic copies may be free to you if you or an institution or professional institution with which you are affiliated subscribes to Cambridge Core. Currently, the lowest price for the book is US$32 in hardcover, through Walmart.

A note from Prof. Candland: Living in Pakistan on and off for more than 30 years, I observed that the humanitarian spirit of Islam inspires Pakistanis to provide essential welfare service to others – keeping each other alive, educated, and healthy – while the political use of Islam permits Pakistani politicians to justify intolerance and sectarianism. The book explains how Pakistan’s most important political concept – that of the ‘Islamic Welfare State’ – inspires compassion, empathy, hope, humility, and solidarity from below and yet permits the idea that Islam must be imposed on a Muslim society from above, through the state-mandated sentiments of ‘faith, unity, and discipline,’ the national motto of Pakistan.