Role of Muslim NGOs to resolutions of conflicts in Islamic countries

The place of non-governmental organizations in the discipline of international relations and their contribution to conflict resolution and peacebuilding are discussed in the literature, alongside with the fact that developments in communication and technology have paved the way for non-governmental organizations to perform functions that cannot be ignored, at least within the scope of supporting roles. In the international relations and diplomacy ecosystem where states have active and central roles, non-governmental organizations, as hybrid and complementary actors, can carry out projects in the context of protection, observation, advocacy, social cohesion, socialization, mediation, service providing and combating radicalization, especially in conditions in which states collapse or weaken. Thereby the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations constitutes the theoretical basis of this thesis, within the framework of these eight functions which are civilian instruments of conflict prevention and peacebuilding. In Islamic countries where security and peace are threatened by terrorism along with armed and covert conflicts, the capacity of the civil society structure and required level of this capacity constitute the main research subject of this study. The civil capacity of Islamic countries within the scope of peacebuilding, and the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations led by Muslim societies in interventions to conflicts are analyzed, based on the case studies of Syria and Yemen, where every phase of the conflict is happened and peacebuilding processes continues at all scales. The study refers to the fact that waqf tradition and conventional civil structures in the Islamic World strengthen social resistance, repair social fault lines and play important roles in positive peace building. Hereby, it concludes that if professional capacity is developed within the framework of eight functions, the rates of constructive intervention to conflicts will increase. By drawing attention to the inadequacies of the existing civilian capacity through case studies, assessments are made on the areas where capacity building is needed in order to implement effective supportive and complementary civil functions. With the belief that it will fill the gap in the literature on civil capacity for conflict resolution and peacebuilding, especially in Islamic countries, it is aimed to contribute to the search for a unique peace formula in the Islamic World.