Globalization and the Muslim World

1
Globalization and the Muslim World

• Prof. Mahmood Monshipouri
• Middle East and Islamic StudiesSFSU
• February 24, 2009

2
Definitions

• Globalization is a thoroughly contested subject
  and there are competing definitions
• Roland Robertson (Univ. of Aberdeen)
  Globalization refers both to the compression of
  the world and the intensification of
  consciousness about the world as a whole.
• Technology- and economic-driven processes
  facilitated by global capitalism, consumerism,
  transnational migration, online communications,
  and identity politics.
• Globalization is a set of contradictory and
  contingent processes.

3
Features

• Thomas Hylland Eriksen (Univ. of Oslo)
• Disembedding distance is becoming irrelevant,
  relative, or at the very least less important
  (de-localization)
• Acceleration (speed an important feature of
  globalization)
• Interconnectedness (transnational connections and
  information era ? global symbols, events,
  solidarities)
• Re-embedding concerns with local power and
  community integration, national and sub-national
  identity politics.

4
Paradoxes

• Globalization does not create global persons.
• The disembedding forces of globalization are
  complemented by re-embedding projects seeking to
  retain or recreate a sense of continuity,
  security, and trust.
• Identity politicsreligious, ethnic, national, or
  regionalis a typical form of resistance to
  globalization.
• Paradoxically, identity politics insisting on the
  primacy of the local and unique tends to draw on
  globalized resources such as international NGOs
  and computer networks.

5
Is There a Glocal Way?

• Meshing the universal with the particular?
• In some societies, the freedom of the individual
  is seen as the highest value, while in others,
  the integrity of the family, which gives the
  individual security, is deemed more important.
• Human rights must be interpreted, contextualized,
  and sometimes prioritized in order to be useful.

6
Views on Globalization

• Traditionalist resistance to globalization they
  see globalization as a new form of cultural
  imperialism.
• Globalizers Economic interdependence is
  inevitable. So is cultural change.
• Transformationalists Culture flows are not
  simply one-way. States and cultures are not
  going away, but seeking a new way to accommodate
  changes without losing national features and
  cultural values.

7
Islam

• Islamic resurgence a reaction to defeats in wars,
  corrupt secular regimes, and disruptive
  modernization trends.
• Islamic piety as an alternative construction of
  modernity, cognizant of non-materialist
  dimensions of progress and their place in an
  ethical, Islamic social formation.

8
The Rise of Islam

• Anti-colonialism
• Renunciation of the antiseptically secularizing
  tendencies of modernity
• Calling into question political and cultural life
  that are lacking in ethical or moral content.
• Anti-globalization largely in a cultural sense

9
Piety in Islam

• Piety as faith
• Piety as covenant
• Piety as a social movement
• Piety as a resistance to foreign intrusion
• Islams appeal also lies in being able to connect
  the faith, the covenant, and the mobilizing
  elements to produce powerful resistance to
  foreign intrusion.
• The crucial dimension is not economic but social.

10
Islamic Perspectives

• Traditional Islam orthodox, non-modern, relying
  on Sunna and the holy book
• Neorevivalist (neofundamentalist) Islam militant
  and radical Islam resistance and revolutionary
• Pragmatists accepting the other, faces up to
  this challenge by reminding us of the eternal,
  but Herculean, task of balancing utility, with
  responsibility and justice.
• Secularists Benefiting from its positive
  opportunities in knowledge, science, and
  technology, without necessarily losing ones
  cultural individuality Arab-Islamic,
  Persian-Islamic, and Egyptian-Islamic identity.

11
Reactions

• Traditionalists globalization is a form of
  cultural invasion. It undermines our distinct
  cultural personality. It destroys our heritage
  and poses a threat to our authenticity,
  beliefs, and national identity.
• Islamic radicals have been in fact strengthened
  by globalization. They benefit from an increase
  in the flow of information, speed of
  communication, and mobility more than any other
  political movements in the region.

12
The Conflict Within

• James H. Mittelman (American Univ., Washington,
  D.C.)
• The continuing struggles within the Muslim world
  Resurgent Islamic movements project a vision of
  modernity that fuses an ethical dimension for
  establishing an alternative world order with a
  struggle for empowerment.
• These varied groups aim to construct an identity
  denied to them in a globalizing world. (1996
  240).

13
Mutual Adjustments

• Pragmatic Islam A democratizing and synthesizing
  Islam, reflecting influences from the bottom
  (grassroots and social movements), is better
  placed to respond to globalization.
• For the Western world, the task is to acknowledge
  the diversity of the Muslim world, and strive
  toward a solidarity based on mutual recognition
  and respect.

14
Muslims in Europe

• There are 23 million Muslim immigrants in Europe
• In Europe 33 and plus Russia there will
  approximately 50 million Muslim immigrants
• France with 6 million and Germany with more than
  3 million are host to the largest Muslim
  immigrants.
• Islam has gone global through the new
  transnational identity and networks.

15
Globalized Islam

• Olivier Roy Globalized Islam has contributed to
  the sociological Westernization of Muslim
  immigrants, as many European Muslims seem to have
  multiple and overlapping identities.
• Peter Mandaville (George Mason Univ.)
• This is the case especially as second and third
  generation Muslim immigrants tend to have
  trans-local identity.

16
Cyberspace

• Mandaville Cyberspace has created a third
  space for the younger generation of immigrants.
• A growing number of Muslim immigrants, especially
  second and third generation Muslims, tend to
  discover identities of their own, which belong
  neither to their parents homeland nor to the
  country in which they residethat is,
  in-between.

17
Enlargement of Europe

• Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam are
  transnational religious traditions that each have
  their conception of European identity, European
  unity, and even of European modernity.
• Muslim have become permanent members of the
  European societies in large part because of the
  emerging demographic trends.
• Aging population of Europe poses a clear and
  present threat to economic growth of European
  countries.

18
Globalization and Economic Rights

• Roy migration to Europe has created a sizable
  underclass and jobless youth, many of whom were
  born and socialized in Western secular
  democracies.
• They tend to reject their minority status and
  feel utterly dejected.
• Elevating Muslim immigrants economic conditions
  is bound to have a moderating impact on their
  social and political attitudes.

19
Multiculturalism

• If not properly adopted, multiculturalism would
  only serve as a framework for the coexistence of
  separate cultures or groups.
• Assimilation is unlikely to work in European
  multicultural societies. That is an unrealistic
  expectation.
• Headscarf-Hijab issue has become an empowering
  statement of individual and collective Islamic
  identity.
• Should women be able to choose?

20
Identity-Rights Nexus

• Dominic McGoldrick (Univ. of Liverpool) Identity
  is an aspect of individual human dignity,
  autonomy, and self-determination.
• Identity is an aspect of religious freedom,
  expression, and privacy that allows individuals
  to function freely and to enjoy the possibility
  of self-definition and self-determination.

21
Womens Voices

• Globalization has diffused certain effects and
  values. The womens movements have taken
  advantage of such developments to advance gender
  equality.
• Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) is an
  international solidarity network that provides
  information, support, and a collective space for
  women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or
  governed by laws and customs said to derive from
  Islam.

22
Europe

• Integrationist vs. differentialist models
• France equates national identity with homogeneity
  of the nation. A central part of French national
  identity is premised on the idea that it is a
  secular state(Laïcité ).
• Britain whether to give state funding to private
  Islamic schools
• France female students wearing a headscarf in
  public schools?
• Germany whether to grant public corporation
  status to Muslim minorities

23
Conclusions

• Muslim identities are multiple, fluid, and
  contentious, and the construction of identity is
  influenced by the various and complex ways in
  which local cultures and globalization interact.
• There will always be cultural resistance to
  globalization.
• Muslims face two challenges (1) to find a
  balance between their traditions and modern
  standards and practices and (2) to determine
  whose conception of change and modernity should
  prevail?
• The struggle within the Muslim world rages on.