Responding domestically: British Islamic faith-based organisations' crisis response in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Contributing to debates about faith-based humanitarian action and development as well as domestic programming, this article examines the domestic COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) responses of two British Islamic faith-based organisations (FBOs). It discusses how Islamic Relief UK and the Ramadan Tent Project responded to the unprecedented crisis caused by the pandemic by adapting their United Kingdom-based programming. The article is based on qualitative research conducted by members of the two organisations, including interviews, written inquiries, and analysis of internal documents. It highlights the diversity of Muslim crisis response and how the organisations built on their previous domestic emergency response, including during flooding in the 2000s and 2010s and the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. Theoretically, this article makes an important contribution to debates on the roles of FBOs in emergency relief in domestic (rather than international) spaces, challenging (neo)colonial, racialised notions of humanitarian work as something that only takes place in the Global South.