Understanding Muslim Philanthropy

This book is the outcome of a research grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund a project: “A Muslim Philanthropy Network: Engaging Faith, Religious Values and Spirituality for Social Good” . The work consists of six chapters and an introduction . The introduction sets out the rationale for the project being that contemporary philanthropy is limiting . Muslim philanthropy is more capacious and therefore the former is not entirely capturing the full range of benefactions offered by Muslims, for instance ‘intersubjective acts like smiling and encouraging others to do good as well as abstaining from causing harm and speaking out against injustice’ (p .5) . This is poignantly captured by stating: ‘when efficacy becomes the only measure, the alternative logic that has historically motivated religious philanthropy can get lost, discarded, or ignored’ (p . 4) . It is useful to highlight but, be that as it may, it is difficult to measure such moneyless charity when the focus of the work is mostly on giving wealth, which is perhaps why beyond the introduction, it is not given substantive space . Where the scope of informal philanthropy is mentioned (pp . 74-75), it enriches the work, however brief, and the studies alluded to are helpful . The introduction also highlights some specific issues such as the securitisation of Muslim philanthropy and the effects of Islamophobia in this space. Although the volume shares the giving practices in 18 countries, it is quite terse in this regard, and delves into slightly more detail into several of these.