Muzaffar K Awan, MD, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Peter Baillie, MBBch, FRCOG, Dean of Academic
Affairs, Baqai University, Shaher Baqa, Sindh, Pakistan.
Globalization means different things to different people. The term globalization
has become part of our vocabulary over the last three decades but the
socio-cultural and economic changes it connotes have been taking place from the
time immemorial and had begun when the hunters and gatherers placed their feet
on the planet earth. How do we in today’s age define globalization?
Globalization is generally defined and considered as the establishment of a
corporate super state system above all governments. An alternative definition of
globalization means the awakening of humanity to a mindful global (universal)
unity and connectivity (tawhid).
Globalization has always been a universal (Global) system. The powerful has been
the global while the weak has been the local. However, in today’s times, the
global has become overly hegemonic center while the local has become the
deprived periphery. Ancient China was the center of the world according to
ancient cartography but Persia and Rome disputed Ancient China as the center of
the world. Then Islam came and as a new power inherited both, Western and
Eastern powers and became the center of the world for 800 years in Al-Andalusia
and the then known world in spite of the invasions from the West, the Crusaders,
and from the East, the Mongols. The West followed, after reaching the Western
hemisphere and by crossing the Atlantic in 1492, even if the intentions were to
reach India by the western route. From the start of modern era until early
1940s, Europe was the center of the world and Africa, Asia and Latin America
were the periphery.
The foundation for the eventual rise of the bipolar world is clearly found in
the years leading up to and during the Second World War, when the two
superpowers arose from the power vacuum created in Europe and with imperial
decline of Great Britain and France. Germany and Italy tried to fill this hole
unsuccessfully while Britain and France were more concerned with their colonial
empires. The United States and the Soviet Union ended the war with vast
advantages in military strength. At the end of the war, the United States was in
the singular position of having the world's largest and strongest economy. This
allowed them to fill the power gap left in Europe by the declining imperial
With the strong ideologies that they both possessed, and the ways in which they
attempted to diffuse their respective ideologies throughout the world after the
War, they indeed succeeded. The question of Europe having been settled for the
most part, the two superpowers rushed to fill the power vacuum left by Japan in
Asia also. It was the globalization and dimensions of their political, military
and economic presence that made the United States and the USSR superpowers. It
was the rapid expansion of the national and global structures of the Soviet
Union and the United States during the war that allowed them to assume their
Since the demise of Soviet empire in 1991, the US became a solo imperium
challenging the rest of the world. Hegemony exercised by the superpower and the
prevailing view of neoliberal globalization has produced identity
countercurrents around the world. In the larger cultural areas of the world -
China, India, Africa, Latin America and Islamic lands - ground swells surge in
opposition to the hegemony, and in favor of the right to authenticity and
difference. The pressures from the center to the periphery combined with the
crisis of capitalism have culminated in the failings of present globalizing
In referring to globalization here as a failing system, we do not of course mean
that capitalism as an economic system is in any way at an end totally. We do
mean a global economic and social order failure that increasingly reflects a
fatal contradiction between reality and reason—to the extent, in present times,
where it threatens not only human common welfare system but also the
continuation of most mind-full forms of quality of life on the planet.
There are 3 critical contradictions that make up the contemporary world crisis
emanating from corrupt capitalism and its globalizing development: (1) the
current and progressive Financial Global Crisis and stagnating depression; (2)
the ever growing threat of planetary ecological collapse; and (3) the emergence
of global imperial instability associated with shifting global hegemony, Muslim
and Western tensions, global war on terror and the struggle for resources. Such
structural weaknesses of the elitists system, as Joseph Schumpeter might have
said, are the product of capitalism’s past successes, but they raise
catastrophic problems and failures in the present nonetheless. How we choose
to act today in response to the failing system is therefore the most critical
question that humanity has ever faced?
From the beginnings of the modern age, the West began challenging the entire
world in a series of events commencing with the decline of Al-Andalusia, fall of
Granada and the discovery of the Western half of the world, i.e. the Americas in
1492. The Europeans acted as though the East and the Muslim Civilization hadn’t
existed before the Western race arrived in the western hemisphere. 
The Western fleets of ships embarked on journeys for the purposes of exploration
from Genoa, and commerce expanded in the 17th century, Algeria was colonized in
the 19th century, Britain wiped out the Mogul empire in India and besieged the
entire old world. In merely two centuries Europe became master of the world by
means of seafaring, after the crusades in the 11th and 12th century had failed.
Globalization has been to this day the most favorite form of Western hegemony
, achieved through military action, capitalism and the free market. After the
collapse of socialist system and the end of bipolar world in 1991, capitalism
emerged as the winner. The global capitalism was legitimized and further
justified on the premise of market unity and its hegemonic laws, profit,
competition, etc. and proclaiming of a new world order . The group of eight
industrialized nations became the hub of the world and transformed all of
Africa, Asia and Latin America into markets. Globalization became Westernization
and by now Americanization with the US being a solo super power which challenges
the rest of the world as a concept of dissemination from the core to the
periphery. The threat is actually greater because there has been only one path,
one opinion and one ideal being followed. And anyone who dares to defy, for
example, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan or Yemen must
expect military aggression, either through the United Nations, or outside the
United Nations and through NATO or international alliance.
Islamic Universality had existed before the present-day Western globalization
concept , but Islam set out with the belief in the universalizing human unity (Tawhid)
, meaning the whole world being equal before one God and one principle, and
therefore, equal human values, irrespective of race or gender. Islam did not
kill children, old or innocent people; it did not destroy homes. And when the
Muslim Arabs went to Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia and Far East; the
inhabitants of these lands, welcomed them as liberators. Islam had not been
tyrannical but was universally liberating force.
Comparing further Islamic universality with today’s globalization we stand at
two opposite poles. Islamic universality is based on diversity, coexistence,
mutual respect, and competition within the framework of tawhid (human unity) and
of all that is to be shared by mankind. Western globalization on the other hand
stands for conflict, division and a chaos that unfolds against the backdrop of
Western hegemony seeking to cast the entire world into the Western mold alone.
Universality is a humanistic trend, a step towards the interaction of
civilizations, the cross fertilization of cultures, the interconnection of
intellectual patterns, solidarity, complementarity and the mutual acquaintance
of nations, peoples and states. In universality, the world is a platform of
civilizations as they meet on vast expanses of common ground while each
preserves its own cultural identity and serves its nationalistic, civilizational,
economic and security interests within the context of a balance of interests,
not of powers.
Islam preserved the cultures, languages and religions of all ethnic groups.
Whoever sought the protection of Muslims maintained their religious practices,
as the case had been with Jews, Christians, Sabians and Brahmans in the past.
Even pagans were able to live under the pluralistic protection of Islam.
The system of the Islamic community stipulated that Islam was a singular
federalist Uma. This means different ethnic groups were protected and not
harassed. Different languages, cultures, customs and traditions were preserved
and ensured. There was no Islamic hostility towards Jews and Christians in the
Spanish cities of Granada, Seville, Cordoba and Toledo. Averroes and Moses
Maimonides  even led religious and philosophical discourse in Cordoba. As a
result, it was the Golden Age for Jews and Christians in Spain.
Naturally, frontiers had been crossed all over the world throughout human
history. When Alexander the Great left Greek Macedonia to conquer Egypt with his
troops, he built Alexandria and then moved on to India and Central Asia. This
was a form of Greek globalization. But the goal was for Greek culture to gain
prevalence even outside of Greece, and to replace “barbarian” cultures of the
local ethnic communities.
Romans followed a similar trajectory. They wanted to do the same and made the
Mediterranean a Roman sea. Then, Islam followed and spread after the Persian and
Byzantine wars, just as the two major Eastern and Western powers were waning.
But Islam did not want hegemony and brought harmonizing universality. The Early
Islamic expansions during the first century were not attacks or invasions that
can be compared to Alexander's campaigns, medieval crusades or recent European
There is a distinction between the West and the USA but The West is a worldview
that includes the US desire for dominance in the non-European and non-American
world. This is evident in Europe's viewpoint on the Palestinian, Iraqi, Iranian
issues, and its viewpoint on all other issues concerning people it used to have
ties with, like countries that were colonized before the US started to follow
the footsteps of traditional imperial states such as Great Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
Many nations from around the world are raising objections to Americanized
globalization since it does not merely begin as economic hegemony through the
market and its laws but also through the culture. The culture that goes along
with globalization; consumption, competition, profit, and hence, American values
that are spread through the globalization… meaning enculturation and double
With multi-national corporations, economy is implemented on a world-wide scale.
The group of eight, the GATT, the World Bank, the IMF and all international
financial centers are run globally not locally. There are only two alternatives:
to compete or retreat, to produce or to consume, to create or to imitate, to
invent or to assimilate, to give or to take, to export or to import, to be in
the center or to be in the periphery. A small and weak; is not able to assert,
and therefore, globalization means double standards. The elitist made laws of
the market and the freedom of competition belong to the powerful everywhere in
the world. The weak powers, however, are excluded from the system and turned
into a market for raw materials or for cheap labor.
Europe balances as a balance scale between Africa, Asia and Americanization in
the world. There is a difference between Westernization and Americanization.
Islam has now become the second religion in Europe, and therefore, European
interests are in the Southern Mediterranean. Lives in the North and South are
tied through emigration and common history. US hegemony in the name of
globalization can be damaging to European interests as well as the Arab Islamic
World at the same time.
During the cold war, there were two poles controlling the world, the socialist
and the capitalist poles. The world was concerned as to which system would
triumph over the other, not through wars, but through competition. At that time,
the socialist system supported all movements of liberation, and it even helped
build the Aswan dam in Egypt. African, Asian and Latin American nations felt
that they had an ally other than Europe and the United States.
Capitalism, with its administrative and practical success at the time, did not
require its legitimacy and after the demise of the socialist Soviet system, a
new type of concocted capitalism has emerged, call it the end of history,
globalization, global village, revolution of technology, clash of civilizations,
global war on terror and the pre-occupation with matters such as
Islam-Confucianism versus Judaism- Christianity for concealing the primary
interests of industrialized nations.
Globalization is a form of ongoing colonialism, open to the same criticism that
it relies on an instrumental racism and European cultural supremacy as
ideological supports. These ideologies are the building blocks for a
contemporary version of a colonial ‘commonsense’ that colonizer groups in modern
societies draw upon for everyday decisions. Such ‘commonsense’ continues to see
the people of developing nations as an enemy and assertions of their collective
rights as primitive impediments to a world-wide capitalism.
It is an alternative agenda exported to the Muslim World as a periphery so that
they are engrossed by the issue of democratic change, since the West thinks that
the problems is not the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land, but instead
the systems of rule. Thus, the issue of national liberation and the people's
rights turned into a mere ideal of human rights.
The Islamic nations are increasing getting aware of the secularity that is
compatible with religiosity, particularly the religiously neutral secularity by
the State that accommodates the presence of religion in the public and political
Also, the experiences of religiously neutral but secular democracies in the West
and several Muslim countries demonstrate that secularization does not in any way
harm the religious belief.
Actually, religiosity and spirituality certainly can and have persisted within
the negotiated processes of state secularity. Moreover, the experience of
neutral secularity demonstrates that the iron curtain between religion and the
state in France and Kemalist Turkey has been unnecessary, counterproductive and
excessive in nation‐building projects .While the Indonesian experience has
revealed that the neutral secularization in Muslim majority countries can be
fortified by democratic institutions and processes, a highly functioning state,
economic empowerment and vibrant civil society. Neutral secularism can also be
energized by an enlightenment Islamic discourses that promote harmony between
Islamic spirituality and secular democracy .
The enlightenment and renaissance Islamic discourse allows Muslims to support
the inclusive secular state  and supports a post‐Modernist state
secularization that incorporates the sacred within the framework of the state.
This shift towards a post-modernist secularity is not unique to the Muslim World
but reflective of a global religiosity that is strongly characterized by
universality, multiplicity and not very different from North to South. Making
sense of increasing global religiosity, prominent Western scholars of religion
and society in the likes of Jose Casanova have observed that secularity and
religiosity even if complex may be different but are intertwined more than
commonly believed .Thus, to create an iron curtain between ‘religion’ and
‘politics’ is both unjustified and counterproductive for popular democracy , as
curtailing the free exercise of the civil and political rights of religious
citizens will infringe on the fabric of democratic civil society[ 7].
Interestingly, the Islamic state model has been discredited by the theological
contradictions, governance failures, political repression and economic records
of Islamic states such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. The enlightened Islamic
scholars and intellectuals have strongly rejected the Islamic state for
politicizing Islam and upholding authoritarian political structures that serve
the interests of ruling elites. Echoing the critics of authoritarian secular
states, they call for a separation of religion from the control of state
institutions. The Islamic state and authoritarian secular state models appear to
have lost all of their appeals in contrast to the neutral secular democratic
state model which has been gaining a great deal of political interest in the
This is revealed by the sustainability of Indonesia’s inclusive secular
constitutional moorings despite ongoing challenges by the Islamic conservatives;
electoral successes and governance credibility of the AKP government that have
allowed it to cautiously restructuring of Turkey’s military dominated secular
state; political moderation and alternating Islamic parties such as Malaysia’s
PAS and ongoing protest movements fuelling the ‘Arab Spring’. Instead of the
polarizing Islamic state agenda commonly touted in the 1980s and 1990s, many
Islamic parties and movements have focused on good governance, democracy and
economic development and appear willing to work within the framework of the
secular democratic state – an inclusive and pluralistic framework acceptable to
majorities in Muslim majority countries.
However, globalization moved the Islamic movements to a new phase because of the
need to defend home countries and the corresponding land, and the need to defend
what is sacred in the public sphere; especially after the West and the United
States in particular, had taken on the appearance of a new imperialistic
Islam is no different from the other monotheistic beliefs; it is being cast in a
militant light without any reason, and at its core it is a religion of peace and
enduring universal values for humanity. In those far off days in a harsh desert
environment, Islam corrected many of the obvious deficiencies in Christianity
and Judaism with a far greater emphasis on submission to the will of God. It is
also the ultimate community orientated faith – the transnational Uma inclusive
of all of humanity but viewed wrongly as threatening by the non-Islamic world.
There is some difference in the structure of two societies. In Western society
the structure is directed towards the individual rights of freedom and rule of
law in contrast with the Islamic tradition where family is the core of the
society and individual is an integral part of the family and the civic society.
The historical and universal norms were integral to traditional civilizations
based on faith and spiritual principles rooted in anthropocosmic worldview .
It was post medieval Europe that deviated from these norms and substituted an
anthropocentric worldview for an anthropocosmic one. Europe also preferred power
over wisdom and “total freedom “of reason from revelation, intellectual
intuition and insight. All this has led to so many “isms” in the 20th century
and thanks to modern means of warfare, loss of meaning of life, the laicism
(extremist secularism), and dehumanization of humanity, decaying global social
fabric, radical free markets with corrupt capitalism, the unprecedented
destruction of nature and numerous other extreme consequences of modernism’s
Scattered and weak as Muslims are, they have been relying on others for food and
clothing, arms, education etc. Islamic universality remains a dream for the
future, ----an alternative to globalization when the Muslims and the masses of
the world have largely become consumers despite the tremendous natural resources
everywhere on our planet. The ultimate question is how Universalist regional
blocs will emerge and become powerful enough and how that will genuinely
challenge and transform the failing Globalization?
The Latin America, with exceptions of Brazil, is still in a state of social
unrest and in league with criminal drug cartels. Africa, on the other hand, is
threatened by debt, desertification and diseases, like Aids. What remains is the
Islamic world of Middle Eastern, North Africa and South Asian region, where
intellectual dynamism, preservation of identity and major issues still exist
more so than the rest of the world.
Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Nigeria formed a group of 14 nations
which has expanded to 28 countries already. The group represents an
African-Asian bloc which stands against the joint European market at this point.
Hence, the achievement of equilibrium could be possible through regional
co-operation and the gradual liberation of nations from elitist globalization.
Who knows, perhaps Europe might eventually join them? Turkey remains pivotal
nation keen to join the European Union. But the Islamic world, despite the OIC
representing 56 Muslim nations over 40 years, becoming a credible union of its
own and capable of competing with the West remains a remote dream even to this
The paradigm shift will strengthen the nation states and put their own houses in
order, achieve the goals of the Palestinian solution, bring amicable end to
global war on terror and engage in constructive dialogue with the West ,create
individual national level social movements in all Muslim nations to hook up with
Hizmet, and create a regional and global co-operation, and creation of a Muslim
Positive and constructive Globalization---Universality in the Islamic context
has yet to be put into practice around the world including the Muslim world.
Globalization has divided the world and has led to great oppression, global
recession not only in terms of human rights but also the law of nations. What
has globalization done for Palestine? What has globalization done for
alleviating poverty still rampant around the globe and for eliminating conflicts
and wars, and making our planet achieve peace, harmony and the rights of
Why just human rights, which are based on a solely Western perception of humans,
meaning that the individual possesses the exclusive rights of his own? What
about an ethnic group's rights to self-determination? As a matter of fact, thus
far, no one really thinks there is anything special about the prevailing
globalization. Who is going to benefit from the world as a global village?
Afghanistan, Palestine, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia? For how long
globalization is going to remain an American and European exclusive interest?
The world urgently needs a diversification of coherent regional blocs for the
purpose of bridging the ever widening gap between the rich and poor. The world
ought to consist of many blocs. The multiple regional blocs must support genuine
universality to eliminate the anti-globalization demonstrations and recent
global protests against the accesses of radical free market, insulated elitism
and failing capitalism around the world.
After September 11, we are still looking for the answers to our predicaments.
The renowned scholar and social scientist Akbar Ahmed, (of the American
University in Washington, D.C) after his extensive research has suggested a
better answer to the question that could not be addressed until the Muslim world
and the West find ways to deliberately closing the gap past the hatred and trust
deficit intensified by the war on terror and the forces of failing
globalization. Seeking to establish dialogue and understanding between these
cultures, Ahmed led a team of dedicated young Americans on a daring and
unprecedented tour of the Muslim world. Journey into Islam: The Crisis of
Globalization  that is the riveting story of their research for common ground
between the Muslim World and the West.
Rejecting stereotypes against Islam and its bitter encounter with de facto
globalization, Akbar Ahmed offers a new framework for understanding the Muslim
world. As Western leaders wage a war on terrorism, Ahmed offers insightful
suggestions on how the United States can improve relations with Islamic nations
and peoples. Written with equal compassion and urgency, Journey into Islam makes
a powerful case for forming bonds across religion, race, and tradition to create
lasting harmony between Islam and the West. It is essential for anyone concerned
with the future survival of the United States as a world leader and beacon of
hope, and for the individuals who face the painful challenges of failing
globalization, and for the very future of our planet.
The Islamic worldview historically has always been dynamic universality,
integrative and interactive as exemplified in the Uma of democracy model during
the first Century of Islam,  and for over half a Millennium Muslim
civilization’s contributions in Al-Andalusia. 
Muslims too have lagged behind for several recent centuries and this occurred
due to disconnect between authentic teachings of Islam and its right-full
practices. According to Gulen,  today’s serious challenges for Muslim’s are
the absence of a true scientific mentality in Islamic nations and the absence of
true dialogue between Islamic world and the West with Western hegemonic legacy
and Muslim failure to rise up to the challenge of showing the world, the
positive dimensions of authentic Islam . Islamic Renaissance in the making is a
phenomenon that is local and universal in nature ---a universalizing process.
Gulen’s educational, social and global movement emphasizes its own version of
globalization (universality) in a world dominated by the Western and Japanese
forms of failing globalization. Unless universalizing project is led by highly
educated, responsible and accountable generation of human beings and global
citizens, it will not be successful.
At this point, it is the duty of multilingual Golden generation of global
citizens (inspired by Gulen) already in millions (estimated to be 5 to 10
millions) who have dedicated their lives for humanity as volunteers and are
traveling widely around the world, studying the social sciences and humanities
in different educational and scientific settings, and above all, are actively
engaged in universal interfaith and intellectual dialogues and education. The
collapse of communism had opened the door, since 1991, for a wider Pan-Turkic
and universal Islamic renaissance in my opinion through Gulen social
/educational movement (hizmet) and Turkish Republic’s current economic and
political influences in Central Asia, MENA and the rest of the Islamic world.
Islamic universalizing and alternative paradigm will eventually prevail upon the
failure of the de facto imperialistic globalization and Islamic renaissance will
bring about a new bloc not necessarily confrontational to the West since
socialist system has already ended and corrupt capitalism awaits its own demise.
 Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (New York:
Harper and Row, 1947), 61
 Jacob Bender, a Documentary Film, Out of Cordoba: Averroes and Maimonides in
Their Time and Ours (Press Kit, 2010)
 Hassan Hanafi, "Globalization Is Western Hegemony" (© Qantara.de 2003)
 Ibid, Jacob Bender, a Documentary Film, Out of Cordoba: Averroes and
Maimonides in Their Time and Ours. (Press Kit, 2010)
 Abdullahi An Naim, ‘The Interdependence of Religion, Secularism and Human
Knowledge, 11(1), 2005, p.63‐64.
 Abdullah An Naim, Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of
Sharia, (Cambridge: Harvard Uni. Press, 2008), p.269
Jose Casanova, 2006, p.20.
 Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity (San
Francisco: Harper Collins, 2002), p 310
 Akbar Ahmed, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (Brookings
Institution Press, 2010).
. Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers, At the Origins of Islam. The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, and London,
 Prince Charles of Wales, a memorable lecture on “Islam and the West”
presented October 27th 1993, Oxford University.
 Nevval Sevindi, ”Contemporary Islamic Conversations”: M. Fethullah Gulen on
Turkey, Islam, and the West (State University of New York, 2008)