Centering Muslims in Global Humanitarianism and Development

Abstract

How might our understanding of humanitarianism and development be enriched if we centered Muslims, not only as the largest recipients of care but also as significant actors and donors? Despite critical histories and analyses of humanitarianism and development that demystify them as universal projects for "good," logics of the global north persist in dominating the norms of a perceived "global order." 1 Centering Muslims in humanitarianism and development offers the opportunity to rethink universal and normative projects of improvement, rescue, and care. Centering Muslims calls our attention to the many ways that Muslims think, lead, engage, and practice aid and relief. In such an effort to center, neither Muslims nor the Islamic tradition should be taken exclusively as foils, or limited to the position of "speaking back" to secular or Christian powers. To be sure, Muslim practices may indeed decenter hegemonic norms and, at times, do so intentionally. Critical research on religion and international aid demonstrates how religious actors upend dominant logics. 2 Yet, as contributors to this special issue demonstrate, Muslim undertakings may just as often present translations or adaptations of what they understand to be global or international norms. This special issue explores Muslim projects of aid, charity, and relief, not as idiosyncratic examples of a global project led by the global north but rather as telling illustrations of the variegated ways that people today address human need and suffering. Twenty-first century