Many Islamic charities around the world have been accused of acting as front organizations for Islamist political parties. In the West Bank, all 93 zakat committees were dissolved in 2007, and placed under the control of the Palestinian Authority, on the charge that they were affiliated with Hamas (Levitt M. 2006, Hamas), though little to no evidence supports such accusations (Schaeublin E. 2009, West Bank Zakat committees in their local context). Such debates about political affiliation call for a refined distinction between narrow party politics, and more general efforts in redefining the social bond and collective engagement in the public realm. This paper engages with this dichotomy of hizbiyya (party politics) vs. the battle for political subjectivity. It would be a mistake, I argue, to approach these Islamic charities by ascribing to them a unique rationale, e.g. creating a reservoir for political militancy. Instead, Islamic charities are embedded in more general structural transformations taking place locally and internationally. The paper considers three Arab cases based on both primary and secondary sources – Islamic charitable organizations that are not formally attached to political parties or zakat committees in Palestine, kinship associations in Jordan, and a few Yemeni Islamic charities. These charities exemplify the gradual (for many, paradoxical) process of secularization of religious institutions in Muslim majority societies. Calls for the Islamization of society by charities have often been misread by outside observers in essentialist terms (predominance of religion over politics), when in reality they signify deep discontent with local politics and neoliberal reforms imposed from outside (relayed by complacent local regimes). Evidence from Palestine and Jordan suggest that charities are resisting “the pedagogy of neoliberalism” (Parker C. 2009, “Tunnel-bypasses and minarets of capitalism”, 111) and that they are organizing concrete responses in times of economic hardship and state failure (Baylouny AM. 2010, Privatizing Welfare). Furthermore, the fact that some Yemeni charities openly refuse the game of hizbiyya is more proof that they are de facto adapting to modern party politics (Bonnefoy L. 2009, “How transnational is Salafism in Yemen”, 339). The paper links the concept of political subjectivity with Islamic charitable work in order to understand the multi-faceted challenges of Arab societies. As party politics have not managed to yield better results in terms of enfranchisement and popular participation, many Islamic charities prefer shifting the focus of their action to more general political and social themes and promote a different political subjectivity.