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Ideology. Special interests include political Islam, religion and politics, and post-secularism. The author wishes to add the following acknowledgments: I extend gratitude to all who have read and given advice for this piece. Any remaining errors are my own. Enormous thanks to all participants for their sadaqah. Appreciation to the Leverhulme Trust for their support and funding for this project. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The model of secularism as the overarching framework for managing the relationship between religion and politics has come under increasing scrutiny in recent International Relations (IR) scholarship, particularly in the wake of the so-called "postsecular turn". Where once religion was thought to be an entity that was easily identifiable, definable and largely irrelevant to politics and public life, these assumptions are being increasingly brought into question. This special issue makes a specific contribution to this recent questioning of secularism within IR by noting and interrogating the multiple ways in which the boundaries between the religious and the political blur in contemporary politics. Our contributors explore the multifarious dimensions of this critical issue by asking whether the relationship between religion and politics has taken on significant new forms and dimensions in our contemporary globalised age or if we are simply beginning to recognise a pattern that has always been present. In this introduction we canvass some of the parameters of current debates on the religious and the political. We note that there are multiple and (at times) competing understandings of such key terms as religion, secularism, secularisation and the post-secular that shape and are shaped by ongoing discussions of the relationship between religion and public life. Our goal is not to close down these important points of difference through the imposition of singular understandings. We simply wish to highlight the points of contestation that continue to be significant for how we understand (or obscure) the boundaries between the religious and the political.

Muslim charitable giving has increased within the U.K despite ongoing austerity measures.Simultaneously, Muslim financial actions have faced increased scrutiny as financial links to 'terrorism' have risen in political rhetoric with anything labelled as 'Islamic' being perceived to be in requirement of study in terms of its relation to "fundamental British values" (Kundnani, 2014). Exploring Muslim charitable giving in the UK and its relationship with neoliberal frameworks (which are an assumed feature of contemporary British life), it will be posited that much of Islamic charitable practices sustains a relationship with neoliberalism without being entirely reduced to it. The post-9/11 environment 'has led to renewed scholarly interest in the relationship between the economy and Islam and more specifically the incorporation of Islamic value in daily economic life ' (Rethel, 2019, 2). Islamic charitable practices potentially offer a resistance to the inegalitarian effects of neoliberalism whilst simultaneously being both a part, and a consequence of, neoliberal dominance. Moreover, Islamic charity in the UK acts as an expression of Muslim community against a backdrop of security and surveillance. Thus, while potentially offering a 'radical' alternative to neoliberalism it is a non-violent and non-conflictual alternative which offers an 'and/both' rather than an 'either/or' approach.

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