Muslims must face up to challenge of globalization

Muslims must face up to challenge of globalization

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, Chairman, Muhammadiyah, Jakarta

Unfortunately, Islam and globalization has come to be seen by
some as a lethal combination that poses a serious threat to the
West and to human civilization. Therefore intensification of
dialogue and greater contacts to foster deeper mutual
understanding between the two civilizations becomes imperative.

As the presence of Islam in Southeast Asia is also large, and
Muslim countries in this region are also experiencing the uneven
process of globalization, would it not pose a threat to the U.S.
and to the Western civilization too? Will Southeast Asia's Islam
become a hotbed for terrorist organizations?

Individuals, communities, and nations in post-colonial world,
including the Muslim world, have expressed their discontent with
globalization. It has been blamed for the widening of the
poverty, and the reason for the growing disparity.

Globalization is embraced and seen by regional countries with
a degree of suspicion. Some believe it to be a form of global
conspiracy of the West aimed at undermining Islam and the Muslim
community.

It is seen as a challenge to syariah; a concerted effort of
the West to secularize Islam, pushing it to the realm of the
private and the spiritual, and removed from the earthy world. The
end goal of this process, some believe, is re-colonize Islam and
turns it into an appendix of the Western civilization.

Such suspicions have not developed in a vacuum. It emerges out
of a specific social, political, economic, and historical context
primarily within domestic political order, and also within the
global order. In Southeast Asia, for example, more than 70
millions Muslims continue to live in extreme poverty. They often
find that justice is not for them, but for those in upper places
within the society.

They are presented with a new way of life on daily basis.
While some send their children abroad for better education, tens
of millions of others struggle to buy even a simple book for
their children. Millions of Muslims cannot understand why
hedonism and consumerism, with all its consequences for morality
and ethics, are allowed to flourish unabated by the state.

Globalization has come to be seen as a direct challenge, if
not an assault, not only to the identity and way of life of a
community, but also to the very existence of that community
itself. The forces of change, which sweep before their eyes and
infiltrate their private and public live, have not always been
easy to be understood and comprehended, let alone controlled.

When the imperative of change becomes a dominant and
intimidating narrative, presents itself as an inevitable
phenomena, and leaves no alternative but to be on board or left
behind, the capacity of some people to make an informed choice is
significantly reduced in the absence of a level playing field.

When the pressure strengthens in the absence of
globalization's real progress for the deprived, they soon feel
confused, alienated, and forced into a "precarious retreat."

A chain of self-transformation, that forces an individual to
question his/her rights and place within the society, is in
order. First, when the deprived see that the state and the
government have not come to their defense, they feel abandoned.

Second, when they see the problem becomes a waiting game
without a clear end, they get frustrated. Third, when they see
the state becomes an accomplice in maintaining the uneven
progress, they get angry.

Confusion, frustration, despair, and anger would soon find its
expression in many forms, some through violent means, initially
aimed at what they see as injustice, moral decadence, and
religious bankruptcy within a domestic order.

Then you have a breeding ground for growing radicalism. In
such societies any religion becomes a refuge, as a source for an
alternative mode of defense mechanism against the effects of
modernity and the janus face of globalization. The state often
comes in as catalyst that forces the deprived to resort to
violent acts through regime's policy of repressing political
dissent and denying political participation.

What went wrong?

One of the greatest problems faced by some within the Muslim
community is the tendency and habit of placing the blame
elsewhere, often looking at the post-colonial global structure as
the only reason behind the plight of Muslim countries.

True, the unjust international order also contributes to the
problem. However, the wide-spread injustice in their society is
largely caused by the absence of good governance and wide-spread
corruption, exacerbated by the absence of democratic political
institutions.

The second problem is the preoccupation of some elements in
the Muslim world with a historical exercise that rejects all
aspects of "modernity project" -- including democracy, human
rights, state based on rule of law, and nation-state -- on the
basis of a strong belief that Islam is consisted of a unique and
comprehensive social-political system.

The arguments that Islam is not compatible with democracy
would certainly sustain the irony of injustice, corruption,
oppression, despotism, and authoritarianism so pervasive in many
parts of the Muslim world.

In the hands of such advocates Islam has become an excuse to
preserve despotism. The Koran and Hadiths (the Prophet's
sayings) are full of references to the principles of democracy
and pluralism, and the importance of human rights. Islam strongly
emphasizes the principles of nasiha (advice), shura
(consultation), ikhtilaf (airing and resolving disagreements),
tasamuh (tolerance) and hisbah (public accountability and
ombudsmanship) in governing the relationships between the ruler
and the ruled; all refer to what we now call democracy.

Islam even teaches that a Muslim should accept an atheist as
his/her neighbor. Unfortunately, some in the West also dismiss
the possibility for the compatibility between Islam and the idea
of freedom. According to the Der Spiegel daily, "freedom of
thought is, like every other human rights in Islam, unIslamic."

The third problem is the obsession with the glorious past.
This period of the 8th century to 13th century often dismisses
the fact that the Islamic civilization during this period did not
demonstrate political justice; it was often marked by inter-
dynastic rivalry that led to the destruction of the civilization
itself.

Islam still lacks a conscious and coordinated movement aimed
at reformulating its understanding of the doctrine in a
fundamental way. Muslims need to engage in an all-encompassing
attempt to reformulate its theology, philosophy, sufiism, law
system, social principles, economy, politics, science and
knowledge, and art, with the Koran as the most importance and
highest reference.

The above is an excerpt of the writer's address to the
Trilateral Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C. which took
place on April 5 to April 8.