Finance, Protest and Walāyah: Occupy Wall Street in the Mirror of Islam

The cycle of protests that swept the United States beginning in
2010 has its roots in the growing disillusionment of a
significant portion of the American populace in the prospects
and opportunities for growth and development. Despite the
extensive myopia of various sectors of the American public vis a
vis the rest of the world, if there is one thing much of the
American public holds dear is the belief in the so-called
“American Dream.” This involves, in part, a belief in equal
opportunity for economic success for those who strive. In the
wake of the grossly inequitable distribution of responsibility for
the 2008 financial crisis in favor of the banking sector,
accompanied by the reduced prospects for today’s youth for
economic advances, much of the white middle class has risen up
in protest against the government. In this paper, we discuss
what has come to be known as the Occupy-Wall-Street (OWS)
movement in the lens of an Islamic framework for development.
What are the benchmarks for economic injustice? What are the
principles for protest against the status quo? From the
collective examples of protests by three Companions of the
Prophet of Islam, we will explore the beginnings of the
construction of an Islamic framework of protest in the 21st
century in the United States.