ISLAM & GLOBALIZATION

1. ISLAM & GLOBALIZATION Lec# 9

2. Globalization: economic and social point of view Globalization empowers international markets at the expense of state power, eventually creating a borderless world. What is the impact of globalization on social relations and social identities? “The intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” (Malcolm Waters)

3. Globalization impacts • Globalization creates an environment in which international relations are no longer shaped exclusively by the interaction of states. • Societal forces within each state are able to interact with each other on a global scale. • Globalization has opened the Pandora’s box of national politics and allowed them to infect international politics.

4. Globalization impact on social identity (expl. on Islam) • Globalization may expand one’s horizon by creating a consciousness that all are citizens of a global village. This optimistic scenario about the positive transformative impact of globalization on social identities posits that “transnational flows of both people and ideas blurred the sense of separation between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ on which national identity rests.”  pan Islamism, spirit of ummah, humanism and universalism ideas. • Globalization may work to expand boundaries of political conflict and instability. It weakens state boundaries and, thus, exposes previously contained domestic social, political, and economic problems at the global level.  globalization of Palestinian conflict, global “jihad”, terrorism, clash of civilization.

5. “G” for “R” • In Islamic countries, middle east, repressive state systems dominate in alliance with global political centers but do not channel the social mobilization of societal actors into participatory institutions. • By weakening state boundaries, globalization uproots societal forces in such countries by helping their upward social mobilization. Globalization enables them to gain access to global education and more importantly to global communication. • Societal forces who live even under extremely closed political systems are empowered to express themselves on a global level.

6. Utilizing Globalization for Islamic Society • Islamic identity has emerged as the vocabulary to express an anger in the Islamic world rooted in structural factors. Globalization may help alleviate this anger if it helps channel social mobilization into participatory institutions. Without such institutions, however, globalization helps social actors to express their brute anger. • Globalization emancipated social actors and allowed them interaction with other actors in similar conditions in the international system.