Taking the bus in 1920s and 1930s Tel Aviv

This article examines the role and effects of the state on the operation of social capital through a case study of Islamic holding companies in Turkey and their social networks within transnational space. In the last two decades, there has been a proliferation of Islamic enterprises, banks and holding companies which formed their own business organization in 1990. The capital outlay of these holding companies was created, without any legal basis, through mobilizing the savings of hundreds of thousands of pious small savers in Turkey and across Europe. While the state actors initially overlooked, at times encouraged, this mobilization of savings, the development of political Islam in the 1990s raised a concern that political Islam along with its economic base and power posed a significant threat to the secularist political regime. Consequently, the secularist state elites actively intervened in both domestic and transnational spheres to disrupt and undermine these networks which provided monetary inflows into these companies. The intervention and campaigns of the state in Turkey and Europe led to bankruptcy of several Islamic holding companies, exposed the mismanagement of fund by some companies and resulted in widespread distrust toward Islamic holding companies among small local and migrant investors.