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Globalization and Religion
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By Chandra
Muzaffar,
Ph.D.* |
26/03/2002
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It
was religion that first preached the idea of the oneness of humankind.
More than 2600 years ago Zoroastrianism espoused the ideal of a single
human family. And yet, as globalization drives humankind towards an
interdependent world, the voice and vision of religion has all but
faded into oblivion.
The religious vision of the unity of humankind has very little in
common with the motives and goals of globalization. For religion –
and almost every major religion – embodies some notion of the
oneness of the human family. The essence of universal unity is our
common humanity, derived in some instances from our faith in the one
God. Globalization, on the other hand, is a process by which capital,
goods, services, and sometimes labor, cross national borders and
acquire a transnational character. It is often accompanied by the flow
of related tastes, ideas and even values across boundaries, thus
helping to reshape local political institutions, social relationships
and cultural patterns, and leading inevitably to a single global
system and global unity.
Globalization
To expedite and enhance globalization its champions advocate economic
liberalization, which is a euphemism for the opening up of markets
everywhere to powerful business corporations. Driven primarily by the
desire to maximize profits, these transnational corporations and other
business interests are at the forefront of the globalization process.
To a large extent, the role of government today is to create an
environment that is as conducive as possible for the growth and
expansion of business. Indeed, regional groupings such as Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) and international institutions such as the
World Trade Organization (WTO) are also totally committed to the same
goal.
This nexus between big business, national governments and regional and
international institutions to create an environment in which powerful
economic interests would flourish – which is the essence of
globalization – is not some historical accident. The current
globalization process, it need not be emphasized, has its roots in
Western colonial domination. This is why the major centers of
economic, technological, political and cultural power that are
directing and determining the pace and pattern of globalization
continue to be in the West. When non-Western societies freed
themselves from colonial subjugation in the decades immediately after
the Second World War, they did not achieve complete economic,
technological and cultural liberation from the dominant power of
Western imperialism. If anything, new structures of power and control
have consolidated themselves in the post-colonial era, keeping the
majority of non-Western societies in a state of dependence and
slavery.
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to describe globalization today as a
replication of the Western colonial experience. Quite apart from
obvious differences related to the nature of control and dominance,
one of the most important centers of economic power today, from where
goods, capital and technology have penetrated the world market is
outside the West, it is Japan. Other centers of economic power in
Northeast and Southeast Asia are also beginning to emerge. Capital,
goods, services and expertise from these and other places are not only
flowing across borders within the non-Western world but are also
entering markets in the West in a big way. It is not just capital and
goods; labor from the non-Western world, in spite of all the
restrictions imposed by racist immigration laws, is an integral part
of many Western economies. Perhaps even more significant is the fact
that Chinese, Indian and Japanese cuisine are no longer exotic fare to
the general public in the West!
In other words, globalization is not a simple process through which
capital, goods and tastes are constantly flowing from certain centers
to the rest of the world. While the centers of power in the West
remain dominant, there is also a reverse flow. And there are other
flows at other levels of the global system.
It is this increasingly complex process that we should now evaluate
from a religious perspective. There are undoubtedly both positive and
negative aspects to globalization. Because our perspective is
religious we shall begin with the positive side of the ledger.
Positive aspects of globalization
There is enough evidence to show that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
has helped to reduce absolute poverty in a number of countries such as
Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. By creating jobs
and improving incomes, FDI has, in a way, played a role in providing
the disadvantaged and deprived segment of society with hope and a
sense of well-being. This is an achievement which is in accordance
with religious values.
The
expansion of trade and foreign investments has also resulted in the
acceleration of social mobility and in the strengthening of the middle
class. Consequently, significant groups of people in countries that
were once stagnating have begun to enjoy a degree of prosperity. No
religion denies its followers a measure of material comfort.
Some
of the new communication and information technologies have enabled
students in distant lands to access ideas and information from the
best libraries in the world, just as it is now possible for a medical
practitioner in some middle-income country treating a poor patient of
some rare disease to seek the expert opinion of a top specialist in a
more scientifically advanced country. Globalization from this point of
view can assist in the dissemination of knowledge and in the promotion
of health care.
In fact, the globalization process has made communication much easier
and cheaper. The 1997 Human Development Report, produced by the United
Nations Development Programme, tells us that "between 1920 and
1990 maritime transport costs fell by more than two-thirds. Between
1960 and 1990 operating costs per mile for the world's airlines fell
by 60 per cent." At the same time, the cost of a telephone call
fell by more than 90 per cent between 1970 and 1990, while "the
take-off for the information superhighway, is now used by 50 million
people, with the number of subscribers tapping into it doubling every
year." The barriers separating people are coming down. This is
something that religion should welcome.
This also means that the potential for members of different
communities, countries, cultures and religions to know one another is
greater than ever before. That many societies today are ethnically
heterogeneous, partly because of the globalization process, makes it
even more imperative that people come to know and understand one
another. Knowing and understanding the “other” is an important
principle in the Holy Qur’an which Muslims are exhorted to practice.
More than knowing one other, globalization makes it possible for human
beings to demonstrate their sympathy and compassion for the victims of
natural calamities and man-made tragedies thousands of miles away. By
bringing the images of human suffering of this sort to the living
rooms of people everywhere within hours of a disaster, television has,
in that sense, connected human hearts separated by land and language,
color and culture as never before in human history. This is an
accomplishment of the globalization process which religion would not
hesitate to applaud.
The globalization process has also brought to the fore issues such as
the rule of law, public accountability, human rights and the other
canons of good governance. Though the motive of some of those who are
pushing for these ideas is suspect, as we shall see in a while, there
is no denying that these concepts of good governance are valid in
themselves. Besides, they are in harmony with the fundamental
principles of Islam and certain other religions.
By the same token, whatever may be the underlying reason for the
concern that certain influential groups in the West show for the
rights of women in the non-Western world, there is an urgent need to
address some of the problems that they face, especially in societies
where the legitimacy of male dominance is an article of faith. The
globalization of most, though not all, ideas related to the rights of
women is therefore welcome, particularly because these ideas are not
inimical to the fundamental teachings of most religions which
acknowledge the dignity of both female and male.
Negative aspects of globalization
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| Anti-globalization
demonstration before the UN Conference on Financing for
Development Monday, March 18, 2002 (AP Photo) |
While there are positive aspects to globalization, its negative
consequences are, at this point in time, overwhelming.
Environmental degradation in certain countries in the Asia Pacific
region has reached alarming proportions. This is due in part to the
unrestrained logging activities of transnational corporations and
local companies whose sole aim is to multiply profits through
increased timber exports. Enhancing a corporation's market share, even
if it is at the expense of the environment, is after all an important
economic axiom in the era of globalization. And yet it is only too
apparent that disregard for the environment is a transgression of a
much revered ethic found in not only the indigenous religions of the
natives of Australia and New Zealand but also in Buddhism and Islam.
The reduction of absolute poverty notwithstanding, new economic
disparities have developed in a number of countries which are supposed
to have benefited from globalization. In China, disparities between
the coastal regions in the South, which are integrated into the global
economy and the country's interior, are quite stark. There are also
wide income gaps between the industrial and export sectors, on the one
hand, and the agricultural and food-producing sectors, on the other.
Uneven development appears to be a feature of the globalization
process. Needless to say, huge economic disparities, which invariably
generate grave social consequences, are unconscionable and for that
reason unacceptable to any religion.
Globalization has forced many countries in the South to relegate to a
lower league the most fundamental needs of their people. The equitable
distribution of food; piped water and electricity for the rural poor;
proper sanitation for the urban poor; low cost housing; adequate
health care facilities for the majority of the populace; and quality
education for all are no longer priority concerns. The integration of
poor Southern economies into the global economy has often meant
facilitating foreign investments in those sectors which are most
lucrative to the investors. It could be manufacturing cigarettes in
one instance or setting up a breakfast cereal distribution network in
another, or growing flowers for export in a third instance. When the
basic necessities of life are set aside in favor of profits and
markets in such a callous manner, religion would have no choice but to
view the globalization of the economy as immoral.
The immoral character of the global economy is becoming even more
apparent in yet another sphere. Globalization, aided and abetted by
the removal of national controls over cross-border financial flows and
the computer revolution, has resulted in short-term capital entering
and exiting markets at lightning speed. Because this capital is as
massive as it is volatile, it is capable of wreaking havoc upon an
economy which may not have the mechanisms to deal with it. This is
what has been happening in Southeast Asia since July 1997. The
dramatic outflow of capital from the region, triggered off to a large
extent by currency speculation, has had a devastating impact upon
Southeast Asian economies. Millions of women and men have lost their
jobs; millions more are struggling to survive as hunger and poverty
ravage home and hearth. It is not just the tragic consequences of
capital volatility that religion would regard as a blot on the human
conscience. For most religions, the role of speculation, which in some
respects is a euphemism for gambling, would be a stark reminder of how
unethical the global economy has become. Worse, money, which for ages
has been a medium of exchange, is now a commodity of profit. It is a
damning indictment of globalization itself.
It is not just Southern economies which have been jeopardized by
globalization. The increasing technological advancement of industrial
societies – which is inextricably intertwined with the globalization
of the world economy – is partly responsible for the growing
unemployment in the North. The problem has been aggravated by the
outflow of Northern investments as they search for low-cost production
sites in the South in order to maximize profits. Consequently, in
1995, "34 million people were out of work in the OECD countries -
7.5 per cent of the workforce - and since 1979 unemployment in the
European Union has more than doubled, to 11 per cent."
Unemployment, and the resulting income inequalities, are an affront to
human dignity.
Globalization has also popularized a consumer culture in every nook
and cranny of the planet. The shopping mall is the symbol of this
culture, which thrives upon the incessant stimulation of material
wants. Since the desire to consume more and more can never really be
satisfied, the consumer becomes addicted to shopping to a point where
the spiritual, moral and intellectual dimensions of his/her
personality do not grow and develop. What is even more alarming, the
consumer culture has redefined perceptions of the human being to such
an extent that in most societies today the worth of a person is
measured in terms of his/her material possessions. It is not what a
person is but what a person has which counts. It is a notion of the
human being for which no religion will have any empathy. If
perceptions of the human being have changed so drastically, it is
mainly because of two of the principal institutions of the
globalization process: the business corporation which produces the
wide array of consumer goods and the media which advertises them.
Indeed, with the way in which transnational corporations and the
global communication media are shaping consumer tastes, ranging from
food to attire, one gets the impression that they may soon be creating
a homogeneous global culture. Though this fear may not be well
founded, given the continuing strength of local identities in many
parts of the Asia-Pacific region, it is nonetheless a legitimate
concern. The jeans and T-shirts of the young, for instance, seem to
suggest that certain forms of attire associated with the global
culture have caught their imagination. If indigenous food and attire,
language and music, art and architecture are pushed into the
background as a result of powerful homogenizing trends not only will
the rich cultural diversity of the region decline but the communities
that are the repositories of these traditions will also eventually
lose their vigor and vitality. In this regard, isn't it a shame that,
even as it is, there is so little variety in architectural styles in
the different cities of Asia?
Perhaps what is at stake is more than the decline of cultural
diversity and variety. Isn't globalization also guilty of propagating
a superficial American pop culture which titillates the senses but
deadens the spirit? Built around television singers and movie stars,
it is a culture absorbed "in the moment" and does little to
encourage reflection and contemplation. This is one of the
characteristics of the contemporary globalized entertainment culture
that distinguishes it from the music and plays of earlier religious
civilizations, which very often sought to raise the moral
consciousness of the community.
The impact of globalization is evident in yet another sphere of human
endeavor. Formal education systems everywhere are emphasizing
managerial and technical courses. Information technology and computer
science as academic disciplines have acquired the sort of popularity
and respectability which few other university subjects command today.
Universities and schools, it is obvious, are merely responding to the
demands of the market place. To put it in another way, in order to
stay ahead in an increasingly competitive international market
environment, brought about by globalization, education is being
restructured so rapidly that it may soon become synonymous with the
acquisition of certain specific skills and techniques and nothing
more. As a result, the inculcation of moral values and the development
of character have ceased to be an important goal of the education
system.
This brings us to the role of the new information and communication
technologies in the globalization process. While it is true, as we
have noted, that these technologies can be a boon to humankind, it is
undeniable that there is also a lot of useless, meaningless
information that is being transmitted through the Internet and other
such channels. In this regard, the public is justified in expressing
concern about the smut in cyberspace, though its extent is sometimes
exaggerated by certain quarters. Of course, religion has an
unambiguous position on this just as it recognizes that not all
information in this era of globalization leads to knowledge and not
all knowledge gives birth to wisdom.
If there is another side to the new information and communication
technologies, there is also an ugly face to the current human rights
revolution. As we have hinted, in the era of globalization, human
rights issues are being increasingly manipulated by the centers of
power in the West to browbeat and sometimes even bludgeon countries in
the non-Western world into submission to their will. Because human
rights and democracy have become foreign policy tools of the United
States and certain European states, international relations today,
more than in the past, is characterized by double standards and
selective morality. This goes against the ethical norms that religion
espouses in the relations between peoples and nations.
Globalization has also, in a sense, internationalized crimes. Drug
trafficking and the trafficking of women and children have become much
more difficult to control today because of their international
character. White-collar crimes such as money laundering, embezzlement
and corruption "transcend frontiers and have become similar
everywhere." How religion views these and other crimes in the
global arena needs no elaboration.
Like crime, disease has also become globalized. AIDS is one of those
epidemics spreading in the Asia-Pacific region which can only be
brought under control through a global effort. The porous borders of
today's world have made it all the more difficult to check all kinds
of contagious diseases.
Challenge
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| Anti-globalization
demonstration in Durban, South Africa, where the United Nations
held the WCAR |
If we were to reflect upon both the credit and debit sides of the
globalization ledger, we would realize that, whatever good has come
out of it, it is to a large extent a by-product - sometimes a totally
unintended by-product - of a process the basic motivation of which is
the expansion of markets, the maximization of profits and the
accumulation of wealth. It is this very motive and the all-consuming
drive that accompanies it that are largely responsible for the ills of
globalization. The iniquities and injustices generated by the process,
its negative consequences upon culture and society, its adverse impact
upon the human person undermine its august claim that it is a
harbinger of a new age of global solidarity. On the contrary,
globalization in its present form could well be one of the most
serious challenges ever to the integrity of human civilization.
Strategy
The crucial question now is: how does one deal with this challenge?
Since there are some positive aspects to globalization from the point
of view of religion and culture, it is important that one does not
reject it in totality. Instead, as a short and medium-term strategy
one should try to inject ethical and moral considerations into some of
the dominant economic institutions, activities and goals associated
with the globalization process. The advocates of religion could, for
instance, examine various aspects of the market to see how ethics
could be integrated in a much more comprehensive manner into product
manufacture, distribution and producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer
relations. It should be emphasized in this connection that religions
such as Islam and Protestantism have always regarded the market as an
integral part of society. But the market has to be regulated by
ethical principles, which is why in one of the greatest empires in
Islamic history - the Uthmaniyyah Empire - the mammoth bazaars
established for private trade and commerce were required to observe
strict rules to ensure that there was justice for producer, consumer
and intermediary. By the same token, Islam and most other religions do
not repudiate profits if profits are linked to genuine entrepreneurial
effort. This explains why in Islamic economic philosophy the idea of
reasonable profits, obtained after the stipulated requirements of
justice had been fulfilled, was accepted by all leading jurists as
legitimate. Indeed, even wealth as such is not anathema to Islam
provided that it is acquired through means which religion regards as
legitimate and is used for the greater good of humanity. What Islam is
opposed to is the worship of wealth, the obsession with making money
as if it were the be-all and end-all of human existence. The challenge
before Islamic thinkers and thinkers in other religions is to devise
economically-sound policies and institutions which can transform the
notions of profit and wealth built into the globalization process i
nto practices that are more in keeping with religious principles.
Long run
Infusing the economic dimensions of globalization alone with ethics
will not do. For the impact of globalization is, as we have seen, all
pervasive. In the long run moral values and the spiritual worldview
drawn from religion should be brought to bear upon the other sectors
of society too.
Culture, for instance, should be guided by universal moral values.
This does not mean a cultural elite imposing upon the rest of the
populace a particular dress code or some rigid rule about the
intermingling of the sexes in order to stave off the negative
influences of globalization. What it does require is the development
of a strong ethic of restraint within one's own culture which would
act as a check against the spread of decadent lifestyles and rampant
consumerism. The family, the school system, religion and the mass
media can help to inculcate this ethic of restraint in the individual
and the community – provided that the economic system and the
political elites also play their part.
That the internalization of ethical values within the consciousness of
the individual and the community is the only real hope for humanity as
it grapples with the negative aspects of globalization becomes all too
obvious when one considers the challenge of cyberspace. It is almost
impossible to exercise effective censorship over what is transmitted
through the information superhighway. One has no choice but to
strengthen one's own internal compass. The individual has to decide.
And the individual who derives his/her value-system from religion will
decide guided by time-honored principles of right and wrong. Of
course, there will be complex situations which will sometimes confound
one's judgment, but there is no doubt that the fundamental, universal
values of religion often provide the guidance that the human being
seeks. As the late Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of
the United Nations once put it, "On the bookshelf of life, God is
a useful work of reference always at hand but seldom consulted."
To decide on the basis of Divine ethics, the human being has to be
deeply conscious of his/her relationship to God. A God-conscious
individual within a God-conscious society - that's another way of
meeting the challenge of globalization. The first of the long-term
approaches is the internalisation of moral values. A God-conscious
society, it should first be clarified, is much more than a place where
religious rituals are faithfully observed and religious symbols are
held in reverence. In a truly God-conscious society, a significant
segment of the citizenry would act against injustices and iniquities,
uphold freedom and equality, and maintain harmony and equilibrium
between individual and community and between community and
environment. They would do this out of a deep sense of awareness and
understanding of their position as God's representatives on earth. A
God-conscious individual is therefore also a person who not only
comprehends but also fulfils his/her responsibility towards his/her
fellow human beings, to nature, to animals, even to the unborn
generations of the unborn future - out of a sincere commitment to
justice and compassion arising from a profound love for God. Such
individuals and such societies constitute the real antidote to the ill
effects of globalization.
Religion
For such individuals and societies to emerge, a real transformation
will have to take place. There will have to be fundamental changes to
the economy, to politics and to culture. The globalization process and
especially the vested interests that benefit directly from it will not
allow it to happen. However, if we conceive of this transformation as
a long-term struggle we should begin somewhere. And the best place to
start is one's own religion since how we develop our understanding of
and approach towards it is not entirely out of our control. We should
see religion as a total way of life anchored in faith in God and
expressing itself in ethical conduct at the individual and social
level. Justice, love and compassion - values that are highly cherished
in any religion - rather than form, ritual and symbol, should propel
this way of life. Since these values are universal, religion which
serves as a conduit for them should also be preached and practiced in
a genuinely universal manner.
This is what one expects the practitioners of the religions to do in
the coming century to counter the challenge of globalization. They
should discard the narrow, exclusive concept of religion which often
confines virtue and goodness to one's own kind. Justice and compassion
in this exclusive approach seldom transcend one's own religious
boundaries. As we come to the end of the twentieth century we should
eliminate forever such religious exclusivity.
In a sense, certain aspects of globalization, which we have analyzed,
may make it easier for us to put across the universal, all-embracing
message of religion. Given the worldwide reach of the media today we
have, for the first time in history, the opportunity to convey to
humankind as a whole the universal essence of each of our religions.
Instead of allowing narrow-minded bigots to monopolize the airwaves,
why shouldn't men and women with a universal outlook state their case
through the global media infrastructure?
Even more important, societies everywhere, as we have observed, are
becoming less and less exclusive and more and more multi-religious. It
is as if social reality itself is forcing us to get rid of our
exclusive attitudes and develop a universal orientation to our
religion, which will be more accommodating of ‘the other’. Indeed,
one gets the feeling that each and every society is slowly, often
painfully, beginning to realize what "humanity as a single
family" means. Perhaps this is the path that nations must take
for a universal community founded upon our common humanity to emerge.
It is a community that globalization will never be able to achieve.
When such a universal community of different religions and peoples
bound by their common humanity becomes a reality, we will understand
what the illustrious mystic, Jallaluddin Rumi, meant when he wrote,
"The lamps are different but the light is the same."
See
Also:
Globalization
and Justice from an Asian Perspective
Western
Media and Islam: What Can Muslims Do?
Useful
Links:
*
Dr.
Chandra Muzaffar is considered a symbol of intellectual activism. He
is Head of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), which
aims at raising the awareness of structural injustices in the
international system. He is a prominent Malaysian intellectual and
university professor. He writes on globalization, human rights, and
Islamic reform. His books include Alternative Politics for Asia: A
Buddhist-Muslim Dialogue.
Co-published
with The
International Forum for Islamic Dialogue
with permission from the author.
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