Muslim FBOs, Charity and Development. Karama Solidarity and The Islamic Cultural Center of Belgium (eBook)

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Pedagogy - Theory of Science, Anthropology, grade: 12, Leuven Catholic University, language: English, abstract: This thesis aims to discuss the current Islamic charity landscape in Belgium, and more, specificially, in Brussels.

Charity is one of Islam´s five pillars representing the concept of Islamic humanitarianism, charity is considered an act of giving that generates reciprocity; the cycle of reciprocity in the context of Muslim almsgiving is described under a different giving-act context. This act may also be related to dependency theory. However, any act of giving might create a cyclical relationship between donors and recipients that may, in fact, generate a cycle of dependency.

It is noticed, however, that while the literature of development discourse does not focus on the role of Muslim charities, Islamic forms of charity, in turn, are claimed to play an important role in poverty alleviation efforts throughout history. Muslim faith based organization use the Islamic charities to fund their developmental and humanitarian projects; the Muslim community engages with Muslim Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) through the charitable practice.

The overall aim of this thesis ist therefore to estimate the degree engagement of the Muslim community with prominent FBOs, namely, Karama Solidarity organization and the Islamic cultural center of Belgium, and on how such engagement actualizes crucial social solidarity; secondly to examine the importance of charity among the Muslim community, and the extent in which it figures as a central principle in Muslim FBOs and amongst Muslims themselves. The following questions will be asked: what are the possible effects on charity in practice? And where is the bulk of charity is going to; Brussels or abroad?