1. See http://www.ameinfo.com/147875.html.

2. See http://www.arabwashingtonian.org/english/article.php?issue = 22andarticleID = 946.

3. Scholars of the Global North favor the term FBO, whereas those studying the Global South use the term FBD. I use the term FBDO as a melding of these two and define it following Clarke and Jennings's (2008) definition of an FBO as an organization “that derives inspiration and guidance for its activities from the teaching and principles of the faith or from a particular interpretation or school of thought within a faith” (6).

4. Geographical contributions to development studies have been vast and go beyond the scope of this article, but they have tended to ignore religious-based NGOs in favor of secular ones.

5. Clarke and Jennings's (2008) edited volume includes three chapters on Islamic FBOs, two of which are focused on the Middle East (Clark 2008; Harb 2008 Harb, M. 2008. “Faith-based organizations as effective development partners? Hezbollah and post-war reconstruction in Lebanon”. In Development, civil society, and faith-based organizations: Bridging the sacred and the secular, Edited by: Clarke, G. and Jennings, M. 214–39. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  [Google Scholar]; Kroessin and Mohamed 2008 Kroessin, M. R. and Mohamed, A. S. 2008. “Saudi Arabian NGOs in Somalia: ‘Wahabi’ da’wah or humanitarian aid?”. In Development, civil society, and faith-based organizations: Bridging the sacred and the secular, Edited by: Clarke, G. and Jennings, M. 187–213. London: Palgrave Macmillan.  [Google Scholar]). These scholars highlight how the work of Islamic organizations is not fundamentally distinct from their Western counterparts.

6. FBDOs also have a complex relationship with modernity, as they draw on elements of tradition derived from religion while drawing on modernity narratives produced by the project of development. FBD exemplifies the coupling of religion and modernity because development itself is a decidedly modern project. Due to space considerations, I have chosen not to engage with the immense literature on multiple modernities.

7. The literature on evangelism and neoliberalism (Hackworth 2007 Hackworth, J. 2007. Neoliberalism, social welfare, and the politics of faith in the United States. University of Toronto Center for Urban and Community Studies Research Report 210. http://www.citiescentre.utoronto.ca/Assets/Cities+Centre+Digital+Assets/pdfs/publications/Research+Papers/210+Hackworth.pdf (last accessed 16 June 2011) [Google Scholar]; Roca 2007 Roca, R. S. 2007. Dinheiro vivo”: Money and religion in Brazil. Critique of Anthropology, 27(3): 319–39. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Elisha 2008 Elisha, O. 2008. Moral ambitions of grace: The paradox of compassion and accountability in evangelical faith-based activism. Cultural Anthropology, 231: 154–89. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Mian 2008 Mian, N. 2008. “Prophets-for-profits”: Redevelopment and the altering urban religious landscape. Urban Studies, 45: 2143–61. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) has been more attuned to FBD than the literature on Islam.

8. All research was conducted with approval of the University of Washington Institutional Review Board and a research permit from the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education. I performed semistructured interviews with Islamic scholars, NGO administrators, local volunteers, ministerial staff, bankers, and philanthropists.

9. The interviews were by and large conducted in Arabic and were not recorded due to in-country restrictions dictated through the Fulbright Commission in Egypt. Instead I transcribed verbatim on-site during the interviews, using simultaneous translation and transliteration. I use quotations despite the fact that these are not the word-for-word replications of what was said in the interviews. The language in these quotations is my best approximation of what was actually said, but I acknowledge the usual issues that translation and lack of transcription pose. At the request of organizations, I use their actual names, but I employ pseudonyms for all individual interviewees to protect their identities (with the exception of Dr. Sherif, whose quotes come largely from his public speeches).

10. In terms of scholarly work on Khaled, Winegar (2008 Winegar, J. 2008. Purposeful art between television preachers and the state. ISIM Review, 22: 28–29.  [Google Scholar]) argued that Khaled emphasized the importance of art and culture as part of religiosity, and Moll (2010 Moll, Y. 2010. Islamic televangelism: Religion, media and visuality in contemporary Egypt. Arab Media and Society, 10(1): 1–27.  [Google Scholar]) analyzed Khaled as the forefather of Islamic televangelism, discussing the importance of media to the promotion of a modern Islam.

11. Reasons for Egyptian citizen dissatisfaction with their government include a lack of political freedom (including the right to criticize Mubarak, restrictions on political parties, human rights abuses, surveillance, and security policies), the government's cooperation with Israel and the United States, and widespread corruption (Ibrahim 2002 Ibrahim, S. E. 2002. Egypt, Islam, and democracy: Critical essays, with a new postscript, Cairo, , Egypt: American University in Cairo Press.  [Google Scholar]; Dunne 2003 Dunne, M. D. 2003. Democracy in contemporary Egyptian political discourse, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).

12. Zakat (alms) is one of the five pillars of Islam and is used to support the eight categories of zakat recipients as outlined in the Quran, Surah 9, Verse 60: “Alms are for the poor and the needy, and those employed to administer the (funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to Truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer: (thus is it) ordained by Allah, and Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom” (Yousef Ali translation).

13. According to http://www.alexa.com, http://www.amrkhaled.net has had more reach (number of views) and a higher global rank than http://www.oprah.com since March 2004. In addition, http://www.amrkhaled.net had a ranking of 1,252 globally (this includes e-mail sites and transnational corporation sites) and forty-ninth in Egypt (http://www.alexa.com, last accessed 22 July 2007).

14. Nahda literally means awakening in Arabic but is used to refer to an Islamic renaissance. The term is traditionally traced to the nineteenth century when Rifa’ Al-Tahtawi and subsequently Jamal al-din Al-Afghani used the term. Al-Afghani is considered one of the most influential figures in the ideology of the MB.

15. Weber (1992 Weber, M. 1992. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism., London and New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]) discussed the idea of productive time and the desire to make use of every minute. There are startling similarities between the rhetoric of neoliberal Islamism and Weber's analysis of the Protestant ethic in relation to “productive” capitalism.

16. In the first episode of Life Makers, Khaled compares Arab countries to other “underdeveloped” countries and Western countries, using statistics that measure illiteracy, average yearly income per citizen, patents, number of engineers working in research and development, number of daily newspapers, numbers of translated books, and computer usage.

17. In 2006 the exchange rate was US$1 = 5.74 LE.

18. Historically, volunteers in Islamic charities are retirees or homemakers.

19. The emphasis on thinking as religious practice is also present in Weber's discussion of the Protestant ethic: “Inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the expense of one's daily work. For it is less pleasing to God than the active performance of His will in a calling.”