ABSTRACT
Madawi Al-Rasheed has argued that Saudi solidarity with the believers has a clear agenda of subservience to religious puritanism, a ‘theology of obedience at home and rebellion abroad in pursuit of turning Islam (Wahhabism) into a hegemonic force in the world’. 1 In this chapter, I explore in detail the International Islamic Relief Organisation of Saudi Arabia (IIROSA), tracing its activities and assessing its impact particularly on the economic welfare of Muslims in the violence prone areas of Southern Thailand. This faith-based NGO was established in October 1978 in Mecca with administrative headquarters in Jeddah. As an Islamic charity, its policies and programmes are inherently religious. The suspicions surrounding Saudi ideological extremism centred on the ideology of Wahhabism and related sects and manifestations of Islamic puritanism. Overall, although religious programs attracted less antagonism from both the Thai state and from the Americans, faith-based economic and social initiatives raised questions and sometimes resulted in disengagement by local partners in Thailand. IIROSA then concentrated on safer projects, as in the 2004 tsunami, fully aware that poverty eradication was too political an issue. Targeting the Malay Muslim poor in the south, and the Muslim Hui in Chiang Rai and Thai Muslims in the northeast was to court controversy and was potentially dangerous for both the international charity as well as its local partners.
