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Islam in the Age of Globalization
Author(s) -
Lawrence Bruce
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00069.x
Subject(s) - modernity , islam , globalization , premise , openness to experience , pluralism (philosophy) , sociology , religious studies , political science , philosophy , psychology , epistemology , law , theology , social psychology
If modernity is ambiguous, the relationship of Islam to modernity is still more ambiguous. This essay reviews the scope of change that has occurred in the Muslim world since the onset of the Age of Globalization. Marshall Hodgson coined the phrase ‘the Great Western Transmutation’, decentering the West and accenting the cluster of traits that make moderns modern wherever they are. Hodgson's analysis is amplified by current Muslim voices, such as Ziauddin Sardar, Chandra Muzaffar, Omid Safi, and Ebrahim Moosa. The premise, as also the outcome, of this essay is to project modern day Muslims as global citizens who can, and do, promote innovation, openness and pluralism as legitimate, natural dimensions of Islamic loyalty. Globalization, like modernity, becomes not the enemy of Islam but its ally.