Islamic Charitable NGOs: Between Patronage and Empowerment

Abstract

There was a time when Western relief and development agencies working in Muslim majority countries would, as a matter of course, choose secular or non-Muslim NGOs as their local partners (or, not infrequently, help in establishing such NGOs to be their counterparts). Even where there were Islamic organizations, often much better connected at the grassroots level than the secular actors, these were generally not perceived as proper NGOs and distrusted because of their religious nature and unfamiliar agendas. During the past decades, however, the number and range of activities of Islamic associations involved in charity, relief, and the empowerment of underprivileged groups have dramatically increased; they can no longer be ignored.