Trajectories of transnational Muslim NGOs

Overview

Transnational Muslim NGOs are increasingly important actors in the field of aid provision. Much of the literature has presented a rather static and homogeneous picture of this group of organisations, overlooking their heterogeneity and changing nature. Tracing the historical trajectories of transnational Muslim NGOs, this article shows how changing political, economic, and social contexts have shaped the identities, activities, and relations of these organisations. Using four specific events – the famine in the Horn of Africa, the wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and the War on Terror – as windows through which to study these trajectories, the article argues that recent history has seen the emergence of at least four types of transnational Muslim NGO: da’watist, jihadist, solidarity-based, and secularised.