Syrian Refugee Faith Leaders in Lebanon

Abstract

Abstract With the “localization of aid” principle being re-asserted during the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, humanitarian work has been emerging as a complex set of hybrid moral assemblages and genealogies, rather than a “Western afflatus.” While hegemonic humanitarian actors are primarily involving local faith leaders in countries receiving refugees, the involvement of refugee faith leaders in relief assistance has remained overshadowed. This chapter is based on the author’s fieldwork with Syrian refugee faith leaders in Lebanon between 2018 and 2019, some of whom subsequently relocated to Turkey and Sweden. Such faith leaders locate themselves at the intersection between donors and implementers of aid, often providing services themselves. The chapter shows how they view transregional forms of aid not only as an effective way of restoring their own socio-spiritual role outside of Syria and of gatekeeping moral and religious knowledge in displaced communities, but also as an instrument of peacebuilding and social justice among the Syrian displaced worldwide. The author specifically interprets their aid work through the sociology of aiding inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa’s “spiritual activism” (2015), which combines practices of spirituality with political activism.