Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (I-CSR) in Malaysia: Beyond Western Frameworks

• In Event: Muslim Moralities in Asian Capitalisms - Sponsored by the South Asian Muslim Studies Association (SAMSA)

Abstract

A contemporary capitalist principle with global “cachet”—Corporate Social Responsibility, the premise that a company should concern itself with the needs of the society around it—has become, for many Malay Muslim corporations, Islamized. Debates about how a corporation can balance self-serving actions (that is, increasing profits for shareholders while addressing the needs of “stakeholders” beyond it) remains a topic of concern for Western capitalism’s detractors and neoliberalist defenders alike. Meanwhile, corporate Islamic elites in Malaysia describe what they call I-CSR, an Islamic model. To shari’ah scholars, CSR merely seeks to “ingratiate capitalism with a rightly suspicious public,” a response to a flawed Western capitalism which lacks “an absolute principle of ethical or moral conduct to guide social responsibility.” Muslim capitalists are required to submit to God and his laws about social responsibility and justice; I-CSR thus concerns very different “stakes” than those reflected in CSR. I-CSR shares with its secular version a fiduciary role, holding a corporation responsible for addressing social impact. It may also share with its secular version a fiscal role – that is, enriching the bottom line through tax benefits, public relations, and increased profits. But I-CSR follows maqasid al-shari’ah (shari’ah’s objectives), and does not balance profits with (or privilege them over) costs. Finally, through I-CSR, money is donated in the millions to mostly Muslim causes and interests to produce what practitioners in Malaysia’s Islamic businesses seek, that is, “more of Islam.”

Author

• Patricia Sloane-White, University of Delaware