Armed conflicts have proliferated over the years, across the Islamic world, ranging from North Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, to Central Asia and Southeast Asia. These conflicts have triggered various humanitarian debates on how to ensure compliance with the law of war in order to safeguard the precarious humanitarian situations on the battlefield of those participating in armed hostilities as well as the civilian population. The asymmetrical nature of the types of conflicts – regardless of their national and/or transnational characters – has rendered those humanitarian objectives increasingly more difficult. It has also raised the question of the very compatibility and adaptability of international humanitarian law (IHL) to govern contemporary warfare in those settings. Conversely, the classification of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) fighting the state armed forces in various theatres of conflict itself has pushed back such attempts to enhance compliance with and/or reform IHL. As a result, the jurisdictional scope of application of IHL has been denied under those circumstances and a humanitarian dialogue has been compromised. Providing training to and negotiating humanitarian access with Islamic fighters – now categorised as terrorists – on behalf of impartial humanitarian organisations has become increasingly difficult.