Philanthropy in the Muslim World

Philanthropy plays an essential role in Muslim practice around the world. Using a new framing, Philanthropy in the Muslim World contributes to the literature by adding Muslim-majority countries that have not been previously included in cross-national philanthropy volumes as well as countries that have important Muslim minority communities.

This book accomplishes five important tasks. First, it provides available research on different parts of the world where Muslims live and practice their faith and philanthropy. Second, it offers a cross-national understanding of philanthropy. Third, it illustrates the diversity and heterogeneity in philanthropic practice across different geographical contexts. It suggests that local culture, public policy, and regulations have an important role in defining local religious practice. Fourth, it helps us to understand how Muslims, in majority and minority contexts, seek to practice philanthropy after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the Global War on Terror. Fifth, it pushes back against the notion of a ‘Muslim’ and ‘non-Muslim’ world, as these terms have little basis in either critical scholarship or Qur’anic discourse.

In the academic world, the book will be important to those interested in the sociology of Islam, scholars of civil society and philanthropy, scholars interested in global philanthropy or Islam in a global context, and students in courses on Islamic faith and practice. However, this book would also be valuable for the non-scholarly educated reader including philanthropists, international NGOs, policy-makers, and practitioners who seek to understand how Muslim philanthropy can play an important role in social good interventions in different parts of the world.