Islam in Africa 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Conference paper |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Islamic NGOs in Africa: The promise and peril of Islamic voluntarism |
| Author: | Salih, M.A.M. |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Pages: | 37 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | Paper was first presented at a research seminar on 'Religious NGO's in Africa - Between Relief Work and Development' in Copenhagen on 1 November 2000 |
| Geographic terms: | Africa Sudan |
| Subjects: | da'wa NGOs |
| Abstract: | Islamic NGOs provide relief and humanitarian assistance to poor communities during emergencies, natural disasters (prolonged drought and floods), famine and epidemics. Others are engaged in long-term development activities, including community development, agriculture, water, health and education in the least-developed Muslim countries. Some Islamic NGOs are involved in Da'wa (i.e. Islamic call, an equivalent to Christian evangelism), conversion to Islam as well as in publishing, broadcasting and disseminating Islamic teaching and values. However, Islamic NGOs distinguish themselves from other NGOs by the fact that voluntarism is a religious duty in Islam, and those NGOs which profess an Islamic identity claim also to be advancing a Muslim way of life and expanding the Islamic umma (community) world-wide. As there is no distinction between ethics and law in Islam, there is also no distinction between social, economic, political and religious functions of NGOs beyond the activities in which they are engaged. This paper examines the varieties of ways in which Islamic NGOs have left their imprints on the African continent, arguing that some of these NGOs have been used as a vehicle for spreading political Islam at an accelerated rate combining faith and material rewards among the disfranchised Muslim poor. In common with western-style NGOs, Islamic NGOs have gained a considerable outreach and become part of the global NGO movement, with all its promises and setbacks. On the one hand, Islamic NGOs comprise a modernizing force operating in the field of development, on the other, they agitate for an exclusive Muslim community (umma), hence embodying two contradictory discourses: one reinforces global or universal values, and the other usurps the specificity of Islam. Muslim NGOs seek to solve this contradiction by being cronies to militant Muslim groups, including an emergent tide of indigenous African Islamic fundamentalist movements. [Abstract author] |