Muslims for hundreds of years have been involved in philanthropic activities targeting poor and needy people through varied types of ‘third sector’ organizations (TSOs). Nonetheless, many people in Muslim majority countries (MMCs), not having freedom from hunger, face human security crises. Not much is known about the TSOs or their human security provisions in MMCs. To fill this knowledge gap, this Volume documents and analyses philanthropy and all types of third sector organizations including the awqaf (Muslim endowments) vis-à-vis human security in MMCs. The study is comprehensive in treating the subject matter (analyzing the legal environment, characteristics, extent and functioning of all forms of the third sector and their human security performances) and in geographic coverage (incorporating all forty-seven Muslim majority countries in Africa and Asia). It is also innovative expounding TSO density analysis, state support score (SSS) and a third-sector capability measure (TCM) tostudy their interrelationships. It is an essential unique reference book for students and scholars of the third sector and human security, international organizations, development agencies, donor governments, security experts and in particular anybody with interests in Islam and MMCs.

Dr. Samiul Hasan is an accomplished academic with teaching experience in universities in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. With interests and expertise in voluntarism, governance, urban studies, human development and Islam, he has published many pioneering research works building a list of about 130 publications. His professional expertise and passion for researching and disseminating new knowledge about Islam and Muslim communities culminated in a major comparative study (as principal researcher and editor) of people, geography, colonial heritage, economic system and political structure and their impacts on human development in all 47 Muslim majority countries in Africa and Asia (‘The Muslim World in the 21st Century: Space, Power and Human Development’, Springer, 2012).