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globalisation. Having geographical boundaries and frontiers blurred and dissolved, religions
find it easy to spread and reach every part of the world.
Since globalisation, according to many scholars, is aimed at the hybridisation of the world
cultures around the pattern of the Western culture; and since it entails liberal values and
norms, religion (particularly Islam) constitutes a challenge to it. This is because Islam’s norms
and values are incompatible with the liberal values of globalisation.
Globalization has played a tremendous role in providing a context for the current
considerable revival and the resurgence of religion. Today, most religions are not relegated to
the few countries where they began. Religions have, in fact, spread and scattered on a global
scale. Thanks to globalisation, religions have found a fertile milieu to spread and thrive. As
Jan Aart Scholte makes clear:
controversial or novel thinking, nor is it meant
to be. However, the dominant reasoning on
the subject of globalization, expressed by
authors like Thomas Friedman, places
economics at the center of analysis, skewing
focus from the ideational factors at work in this
process. By expanding the definition of
globalization to accommodate ideational
factors and cultural exchange, religion’s agency
in the process can be enabled. Interestingly,
the story of religion and globalization is in
some ways the history of globalization, but it is
riddled with paradoxes, including the agent-
opponent paradox, the subject of this article.
Religion and globalization have a co-
constitutive relationship, but religious actors
are both agents of globalization and principals
in its backlash. While some actors might
benefit from a mutually reinforcing
relationship with globalization, others are
marginalized in some way or another, so it is
necessary to expose the links and wedges that
allow for such a paradox. To that end, the
concepts of globalization and religious actors
must be defined, and the history of the agent-
the U.S.
Globalization
The term globalization is of quite recent
provenance. It first appeared in the business
and sociological literature of the 1980s, but by
the end of the century it had become a
broadly invoked expression in both academic
and popular discourse around the world. Along
the way, it has acquired a variety of meanings
that it is well to understand at the outset. They
share the common element implied in the
word: all parts of the world are becoming
increasingly tied into a single, globally
extended social unit. Among the variants,
however, by far the most widespread sees
globalization primarily in economic terms,
referring mostly to more recent developments
in the operation of global markets, capital, and
multinational corporations. A related view
development of a transnational civil society.
Moreover, perspectives of this sort stress the
renewed importance of cultural differences
under conditions of globalization. The world is
not just becoming the same; it is also
becoming more pluralistic. It is almost
exclusively under this meaning of globalization
that religion appears as part of the process
rather than as either irrelevant bystander or
victim.