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.