Middle East and Globalization - Reactions To Globalization

Reactions To Globalization

Some authors claim that the general reaction to globalization among the Arab states has been a negative or a defensive one. The key reason for the rejection may be the lack of previous cultural penetration of the Islamic Middle East by Western culture, institutions and ideas. In this context globalization was seen as a form of surrender to a dominant, non-indigenous standpoint. Islam, a religion governed by its own set of laws, developed an alternate world view with many of the elements of globalization contradicting it. It has a powerful and cohesive community which at times acts like a cultural defence wall against the Western influence and, as a result, limits the use of European languages in the Middle East. The rejection of globalization also appeared due to the political systems that governed the Middle East. Mostly autocratic, the Middle Eastern regimes have learned how to survive and mobilize mass support against globalization. Repression and demagoguery were some of the tools used to convince the masses that anti-globalization was the only way of defending the Arab nation and Islam. People were thus discouraged from supporting elements of globalization like democracy, free enterprise, civil and human rights.

In his book ‘The West and the Rest: Globalisation and the Terrorist Threat’, Roger Scruton contests that by imposing itself and its values on the entire world through the globalization process, the West is creating the conditions for conflict to occur between other cultures. It has made itself impossible to ignore and was at the very cause of an anti-Western movement and an international Jihad. Globalization brought face to face two very confident and incompatible ideas and the battle for dominance has been transformed into what is known as terrorism or “the dark side of globalization”.

Rather than reflecting a specific ideology, terrorism represents nostalgia (for pre-modern civilisation) and has been the result of a clash between modernization and tradition. Though violent, it can also be seen as an unacceptable response to destructive imperial national policies which themselves must be transformed if a world without terror is possible. Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network represents bad globalization and the perverted use of technology but in a sense the Al Qaeda Jihad is the reverse image of McWorld, which imposes its Jihad on local culture and tradition, wanting to create the world in its own image. Just as Al Qaeda dreams of imposing a radical Islam on the world, taking over and destroying Western infidel culture, McDonald’s wants to destroy local and traditional eating habits and cuisine and replace them with a globalized and universalized menu.

A more balanced view on the Arab response is that rather than creating a unified anti-Western block, globalization is feeding a great debate within the Islamic civilization about how Muslims should adjust to modernity. Much more than being against the West, Muslims are interested in re-establishing an Islamic unity and incorporating Western technology and science into Islam.