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.