Islamic Charity: How Charitable Giving Became Seen as a Threat to National Security by Samantha May

Author:Samantha May [May, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Philosophy, Religion; Politics & State, Religion, Social Science, Peace, Political Science, Islam, Philanthropy & Charity, Security (National & International), General
ISBN: 9781786999412
Google: LwA1EAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 57623258
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2021-07-29T10:22:50+00:00

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‘No one starves in Britain’

Tied to the suspicion cast on British Muslims’ loyalty to the UK is the dispersal of charitable funds outside of the British state. The general assumption in government policy and media outlets appears to be that charity distributed in the UK is a marker of political loyalty to the British state. In contrast, charity dispersed overseas is deemed to mark the donor as possessing suspicious loyalty to the UK’s political system. This prevailing argument is apparent from Kabir who states that ‘British Muslims’ political activity, charitable fundraising, the delivering of humanitarian relief . . . appear to be a protest against the British government. As a consequence, British Muslims have been perceived by some British people as disloyal’ (2010: 10). Overseas charitable donations, particularly those being received in conflict areas, are hampered by banking delays, increased scrutiny and regulation and the politicization of charity and aid generally. The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore the motivations for why Muslims in the UK donate some zakat to territories outside of the UK. As shall be discussed, the reasons for overseas charitable giving are predominantly concerned with perceived duties and obligations to kin, the perceived religious requirement to cater for the most needy and concern and solidarity to the global community of Muslims (ummah). What is absent from all the interview data is any overt, or covert, support to political entities, parties or regimes outside of the UK. This chapter will primarily draw from transcript material derived from interviews with practising Muslims in the UK in line with Erdal and Borchgrevink whose own research suggested that ‘we are not primarily concerned with the theologies and the Islamic teaching underlying each of these ideals and associated practices, but rather with the ways in which the people we interviewed perform, articulate and reinforce Islamic charity through everyday rituals’ (2017: 131). Interview quotations provided are thus typical expressions of the views held by interview participants.

The argument presented here is that policy makers have made an error in their reading that overseas charity necessitates lingering loyalties to other political entities. Equally, it is too reductionist to argue that charity donated to the UK necessarily indicates an uncritical stance on the British state, though this in no way infers disloyalty. What shall be argued over the following two chapters is that in many ways charitable donations within Britain could be read as a critique of inequalities resulting from neoliberal economic policies and austerity measures and a growing awareness of relative poverty in the UK. Similarly, charitable donations to sites overseas do not necessarily entail a political loyalty to the state in question but a humanitarian effort and critique of the receiving state’s welfare failures. This is not to say that residual identification with ‘homelands’ is not a factor or that ‘belongings’ to other identifications other than Britishness have ceased. Neither is it an argument that charitable donations within the UK cannot be read as increased belonging to British society (it is), but simply that the issues surrounding charitable giving are nuanced and contextual.

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