Social welfare

Social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa

Upphovsperson:	Weiss, Holger
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2002
Ämnesord:	economics, Educations, Islamic Countries, Religion, Social welfare, Sufism, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

In recent decades there has been an increasing attempt by Muslim intellectuals to reflect on the provision of social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa. One reason for this is the few, if not non-existent, possibilities of the states to provide for the basic needs of their subjects, a situation that has become painfully evident in most African states not only the Muslim ones. However, public as well as private provision of social welfare is not a new phenomenon in the Muslim world. Whereas government and public involvement in the provision of social welfare has been haphazard, despite various attempts at direct state involvement especially in the post-colonial world, private and what might be labelled semi-official activities, such as the establishment of pious foundations and the activities of the Sufi orders, have a solid foundation in local Muslim societies in Africa. This book attempts to emphasise the variety of both agents and ways to provide social welfare in Muslim societies in Africa. In addition, social welfare, as such, is both reflected upon and debated by Muslim intellectuals. The aim of this book has therefore been to capture both the theoretical as well as the actual dimension of social welfare.

Begging and almsgiving in Ghana : Muslim positions towards poverty and distress

Upphovsperson:	Weiss, Holger
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Muslims, Islam, Economic conditions, Marginality, Poverty alleviation, Social welfare, Social security, Political islam, Ghana, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The vast majority of Muslims in Africa generally do not 'objectify' concepts such as poverty and religion in discussion. Poverty is a situation for 'ordinary' poor people in rural or urban poor areas where people seek to make marginal gains in income to avoid ever-threatening destitution and social disintegration. Most of these 'ordinary' poor people, especially poor and illiterate women, do not really believe that things can change. There exists, however, in all Muslim societies and communities in Africa a minority that criticize social and political conditions in society with the stated aim of striving for an Islamic solution to poverty and injustice. The common denominator for this group is that they are urban educated Muslims, having both a traditional educational background and, usually but not always, a modern, secular one, too. For them, the concept of poverty more readily forms part of a religious discourse involving feasible strategies for change. Their basic idea is to highlight the possibilities of generating new forms of financial resources by combining Islamic ethics and norms with a modern development-oriented outlook. Their vision is the usability of obligatory almsgiving in a modern context, namely that, instead of the traditional individual-centred 'person-to-person' charities, zakāt or obligatory almsgiving should be directed to become the source of communal and collective societal improvement. This study focuses on the conditions of poverty and the debate among Muslims in Ghana, a West African country with a substantial but largely economically and politically marginalized Muslim population.