This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Hilman Latief obtained B.A. in Islamic Studies from at the State Institute for Islamic Studies, Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta. He earned MA degrees from the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University-Indonesia and from the Department of Comparative Religion, Western Michigan University in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He received a Ph.D. degree from Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands in 2012 and became a research fellow (postdoc) in 2013 at KITLV-Leiden, the Netherlands. He is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). He has published three books on Islamic philanthropy in Bahasa Indonesia, and several articles published in Journal of Southeast Asia Research, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Studia Islamika, Journal of Pacific Affairs, Journal of Indonesian Islam, Al-Jamiah Journal of Islamic Studies, as well or book chapters published by Amsterdam University Press and Cambridge University press. His research interest includes religion and development, Islamic philanthropy, as the Muslim NGO sector.
While there have been studies on the development of Islamic philanthropic organizations in fostering social welfare in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the role of international Islamic aid agencies, including those from Gulf countries, in their dealings with Southeast Asian domestic welfare issues remains unexplored. This essay discusses the growth of Gulf charitable organizations operating in Southeast Asia, particularly the reasons for this phenomenon and the types of activities in which these organizations are engaged, and then takes an in-depth look at two Gulf charities that are active in Indonesia, namely the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Asian Muslim Charity Foundation (AMCF) and Qatar Charity.
