Globalization, Islam and Democracy
By Abd al-Kader Cheref
The last decade has been marked by rapid and
dramatic economic, political, social, and technological changes on
a worldwide scale. Transcending borders and accelerating people's
ability to communicate and to trade across continents, this global
revolution has been represented as the process of “globalization”
or, as some view it, the “Coca-Colization” of the world!
Like the rest of the world, Muslim societies,
from Morocco to Indonesia and from Gambia to Uzbekistan, have been
profoundly affected by globalization. The lives of their peoples
have been changed, as have their thought patterns, and sense of
creative expression. Some have welcomed these changes, while
others worry about the nature of the transformations taking place
and the capacity of those affected to respond appropriately. One
of the underlying causes of such anxiety has been a multifaceted
cultural concern: how to protect a unique heritage in the face of
global pressure while upholding Islamic traditions; to preserve
“linguistic purity;” to defend social institutions; and,
ultimately, to maintain a viable identity in the midst of a
rapidly changing global environment.
The world is marching toward greater economic
integration. Borders between countries are disappearing in this
new era. There is now an imperceptible freedom of movement of
commodities, labor, capital, and information to anywhere on the
planet. But, for some Islamic countries, all the fundamentals of
the process of globalization have been implemented over the past
decade as “structural adjustment programs.” Some of the Muslim
countries have deregulated foreign investment, liberalized their
imports, revoked currency controls, emasculated the direct
socioeconomic role of the state, hampered the public sector, and
laid off thousands of workers.
Globalization has economic roots and political
repercussions, but it has also brought into focus the power of
culture in this global environment –the power to unite and to
divide in a time when the tensions between integration and
separation tug at every issue that is relevant to international
relations. In this regard, 9/11 generated a new type of terrorism
–global in its structure and objectives. A terrorism with no
claims, i.e., not in the sense of claiming the independence of a
given country, or tangible political concessions, or the crowning
of a particular regime. This new terror expresses itself as a
denunciation of what Edward Said calls “the European Western
Experience.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, the West has
feverishly looked at Hamas, Hizbullah, Al-Aqsa Brigades and even
the PLO (viewed by large numbers of Muslims as Liberation
Movements) as terrorist groups. So did President George W. Bush
and his National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice when they
declared that these groups should be eliminated. Syria, Iran, and
Iraq are also considered as part of “the evil axis.” This
illustrates the ambivalence of definitions in the West and in the
Islamic World. What is defined as terrorism by the West is
considered by the Islamic World as Jihad, a legitimate violence to
achieve political ends.
Technology is not only revolutionizing the
world; it is creating its own metaphors as well. Satellite-TV now
enables people on opposite sides of the globe to be exposed
regularly to a wide range of cultural stimuli. Viewers in
North-Africa are hooked to European TV channels and Middle Eastern
rulers have indicated CNN as a prime source for local news! The
Internet is an increasingly global phenomenon with active
development under way on every continent.
Technology has also devised the possibility and
even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax
machines, satellites, and cable TV have swept away the old
national cultural boundaries. Global entertainment companies shape
understandings and dreams of ordinary citizens, wherever they
live. It is no wonder to see a shepherd, in the middle of nowhere,
humming a Michael Jackson tune! Are local Islamic cultures, then,
inevitably falling victim to a global "consumer" culture? When one
considers the distribution of indigenous forms of representation
like the Friday-prayer sermon, one should be optimistic.
Yet, media manipulation in some of the Islamic
countries is everybody’s secret. Severe government restrictions
over everything bar their respective citizens from a genuine
democracy. Not all of the 42 predominantly Muslim countries have
made consequential strides toward the institution of a democratic
system. And the only bloc resisting this worldwide tendency toward
political pluralism and the alternation of power through the
ballot box is to be found in the MENA region (the Middle East and
North Africa).
Some analysts view this resistance to political
change ingrained to Islamic culture. Well, it has nothing to do
with Islam. Actually, the reality evidences the opposite. Rulers
in many anti-democratic regimes in the Islamic world are secular
figures who proscribe and criminalize political opponents and veto
any election verdict that is incompatible with their interests.
These autocrats seem to ignore that Islam and democracy are an
inevitable mix.
If the West views freedom of speech as the
touchstone of a society's democratic and egalitarian values, in
some of the Islamic societies this definition has a different
implementation. It is subjected to the will of the rulers. In some
of the Islamic countries there is only one state-owned TV channel.
They are Orwellian in their conception and programs. There are
also some private but dependent press in these countries. The
audiences/readerships have simply turned to other media outlets.
They turned to Al-Jazeera, CNN, LCI, Fox-News and BBC World for
the news, MTV and VH1 for music, and French channels for
documentaries and movies. This is, ultimately, one of the
advantages of globalization.
Western academies usually consider Islamic
expressions in a negative sense, as a hindrance to modernity and
globalization. Muslim mentality should take the blame not Islam.
It should be noted that Islam, right from the very outset has been
a global message. As one peruses through the Qur’an, one will
certainly find that it addresses the entire humanity and not just
a specific ethnic group or community. Furthermore, the first
Islamic state established by Prophet Muhammad was founded on a
written constitution (Pact of Medina) guaranteeing and protecting
the rights of all minorities by which internationalizing the
character of Medina society. Through his last sermon, the Prophet
launched a New World Order and a declaration of human rights. This
was the commencement of globalization of the human society. This
historical fact is but a refutation of those allegations that the
9/11 attacks are a blow to globalization.
Islam, which ostensibly acknowledges Judaism
and Christianity as its precursors in an Abrahamic monotheist
religious tradition, also preaches equality, justice, and human
dignity. Needless to point out that these ethoses had a
significant role in occurrences as disparate as The Christian
Reformation in 1517, the American Revolution in 1776, and the
French Revolution in 1789. Islam encompasses principles and
practices that are consistent with political pluralism. Among this
modus operandi we can mention Ijma (consensus), Ijtihad
(interpretation, individual inference), and Shura (consultation).
Neither Islam nor its culture is the major
impediment to political modernity, even if undemocratic rulers
periodically use Islam as their excuse. In some of the Islamic
countries the ruling groups relied on Islam to justify their rule.
Islam's teachings have been selectively modeled to bolster their
authoritarian corrupt systems. They have perverted a Qur’anic
verse that clearly condemns the use of religion for material or
hegemonic purposes: “O mankind! We created you from a male and a
female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know
each other.” (Koran 49:13)
If Wahhabism was so nocuous in Afghanistan at
the time of the Taliban regime, Ba'athism in Iraq or lingering
communism in some former “Soviet Central Asian Republics” brook no
real opposition. Ironically, many of these belief systems were
customized on Western ideologies; Ba'athism, for instance, was
influenced by the European Socialism of the 1930's and 1940's.
Everybody knows that these dogmas gave birth to Nazism in Germany,
Fascism in Italy and Spain, and, most of all, paved the way to
Auschwitz.
Globalization radically offers to all citizens
of the world the chance to construct their individual cultural
identities through voluntary action, according to their penchants
and intimate motivations. Now, citizens are not always required,
as in the past and in so many other places in the present, to
honor an identity that imprisons them in a concentration camp from
which they can never escape. In this regard, globalization must be
embraced because it significantly expands the horizons of
individual liberty. Muslims now want political, economic, and
social systems that better their lives, and in which they have
some say. They want a system which features majority rule,
fraud-free elections, a free independent press, protection of
minority groups, equality of political parties, and full women's
rights in everything from the top dollar job in government to the
right to have a driving license.
Refuting the opinion that Islam is the future
global adversary of the West, the Tunisian Muslim scholar, Rashid
Ghannouchi, stated that cultural or religious differences do not
justify conflict, but instead can provide ground for cooperation
rooted in a mutual recognition of complementarily. “We appeal for
and work to establish dialogue between Islam and the West, for the
world now is but a small village and there is no reason to deny
the Other's existence. Otherwise, we are all doomed to
annihilation and the destruction of the world.”
