Begging and Almsgiving in Ghana: Muslim Positions Towards Poverty and Distress Book

List of figures and tables     5
Prologue     7
Introduction     12
Almsgiving within the 'Muslim sphere'     19
Social capital and wealth     25
Muslim positions towards poverty alleviation     27
Investigating the 'Muslim sphere' in Ghana: Sources and previous research     31
Islam and Muslims in contemporary Ghana     37
Accommodation or rejection?     37
Muslim political activity from the colonial to the present period     41
Contested loyalties: Muslims, the civil society and the secular state     46
Undercounting the Muslims? The census debate of 2002     52
Increased manifestation of Muslim presence in Ghana     56
Poverty, violence and the Muslim community     59
Poverty in Northern Ghana     62
Beggars and poor people in Tamale     68
Economic and societal marginalization of Muslims - imagined and real     76
'Muslim beggars' and 'poor Northerners': The view from the South     76
Declaring begging to be illegal     86
'Ordinary peoples' perceptions: Lazy people making money out of begging     92
The beggar's voice     96
Muslim voices: Break the circle of poverty through modern education     98
The expansion and activities of Muslim NGOs in Ghana     110
To reinterpret zakat or not?     129
Zakat and poverty alleviation: Voluntary or organized?     132
Zakat, ushr and/or sadaqa in the North?     138
Institutionalizing Zakat: Many local and regional funds or a national Zakat fund?     140
Local initiatives     141
The Ahmadiyya     143
Visions about a Zakat fund     146
Assistance to the poor, hospitality towards strangers     150
Almsgiving in a global age     154
Concluding reflections     157
Appendix I     160
Appendix II     161
Bibliography     162