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Islam and Globalization: Friends or Foes? Part 1

29 January, 2017
Q How do you see a connection between Islam and globalization?

Answer

Salam (Peace)

Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question. Please find part one of the answer to your question below. Find the second and final part at the link here.

First, allow me to define the term “globalization” in the light of:

  1. The way globalization is supposed to be 
  2. The way it is actually practiced 

Globalization, as it is supposed to be, is an aspect of human life that has always existed since the beginning of humanity. It corresponds with the natural human instinct and the human tendency towards being a social animal.

It is the tendency with which God has created the human being to live on exchanging his sources and experiences with others around him, in order to achieve and realize the best life. 

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The more civilized humans were able, the more they widened the social circle till they reached, at some point, the global level. Therefore globalization, in its original sense, narrows the gaps that separate between different communities.

This is achieved by exchanging what is beneficial in all aspects of life – economic, social, scientific, and political; as well as exchanging information, values and codes of ethics, and building a common ground, which defends the human nature as God has created it. 

Through this understanding, the whole world becomes like a small village, where the less advanced communities can develop their capacities. In that sense, globalization tends to be a two-way process, which makes it possible for each community to “take” as well as to “give”.  

Even the most primitive societies, if we consider them in an objective way, have something to give to others. It is noteworthy that the foregoing understanding of globalization is that it is a process that takes place in mutual cooperation without coercion. 

Let us compare this vision with the way globalization actually took place, since the expansion of colonialism in the 19th century to the post-colonialism era. 

First, it has become a process that exploits natural and strategic resources, while based on only “giving” when it comes to market expansion and consumerism – without offering the know-how.

Globalization, in its contemporary sense, has become a one-way process directed definitely from the North and West to the South and East.

The objective of which is economic, political, and ideological imperialist greed, which aims at accumulating wealth in the western half of the world, by marginalizing and sometimes enslaving the other half. 

It is no longer an optional process, based on peoples’ free will, which allows different alternative paths of development, as much as being a compulsory policy.

Globalization, as it is called, has become a policy enforced by military power, in order to control other communities through superpowers.

It does not aim at helping the less advanced and marginal economies, but rather it aims to design their social and political spaces according to the interests of the capitalist center. 

In the past, scholars and philosophers, as well as merchants, were the agents of globalization. But now, they are the politicians and economists who carry its banner.

Please continue reading part two at the link here.

Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:

Why Do We Contextualize The Quran?

The Global Economic Crisis- Steps Every Muslim Should Take

Al-Isra: Universality of The Islamic Message

Averroes And The European Renaissance