Globalization and Religion

11.20.19
Sis. Mary Rose Samillano

The Globalization
of Religion
 Relationship between Religion & Globalization
 Relationship between conflicts & Religion
 Strength & Weaknesses of the theses on secularization & resurgence of Religion
What is the relationship between Religion & Globalization?

What is the role of religion in the society?

Did globalization transformed the role of religion with societies?
In non-Western societies where religion guide politics and all other aspects of life, also in
extreme cases where groups would instigate violence in the name of religious beliefs.
Two broad & main arguments about the state of religion in the context of globalization.
The paradigm of secularization refers to the belief that religion would lose its significance
with economic development and modernization
The secularization paradigm is a family of theories that vary in terms displacement of
religion, the direction of the process and the driving forces they ascribe to the
secularization.

THE RESURGENCE OF RELIGION IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION.

Globalization and Religion
11.20.19
Bro. Jojimar Kenneth M. Gonowon

Table of Contents

What is Religion?
Some Christians declare that Christianity "is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus“.
Some Muslims say "Islam is not a religion - it is a way of life“.
It used to be the case that "most Hindus do not realize they 'belong' to that religion, for it
is a name given by outsiders.
Thankfully, most adherents understand the utility of words well enough to accept that they
belong to specific religions, and nowadays, there is a strong Hindu-awareness movement
that heralds a new generation of Hindus.
Religion : Descriptions
Religious Actors - Groups Statistics
Religious actors
• individuals or groups, who act on consistent messages regarding the relationship
between religion, politics and society
• religious actors are among the oldest of transnationals – carrying words and praxis
across vast spaces
Religious Actors – Prevailing Beliefs in the World
World Religions
The Silk Road– How Religions Crossed Barriers
• Globalization began already 3000 years ago as the Silk Road facilitated trade and
cultural exchange (textiles, spices and even religions were all exchanged along
the Silk Road starting around 1,000 B.C.)
• The Silk Road presented religious communities with the most efficient way to
spread their beliefs  Missionaries often joined caravans and traders.
• Buddhism was the first great missionary faith spreading from Northern India to
Afghanistan and Bengal and finally to China, Korea and Japan and back to Tibet
• Silk was extensively used in Buddhist ceremonies stimulating the demand and
facilitating trade along the Silk Road enhancing globalization.
• Islam was the dominant religion among Silk Road traders for most of the time
• Islamic scientific and medical advancements also had significant impact on Silk
Road travelers  Chinese Buddhist traders adopted Islamic medical knowledge
in wound healing and urine analysis

The Silk Road– How Religions Crossed Barriers

Globalization and Religion – A Paradox

• Religious actors have been agents of globalization for centuries.
• Globalization is often associated with spreading same ideas and views
(universalists)
 Samuel Huntingtion sees the universalists vs. individualists
as “clash of civilizations” between the West and the Rest.
 Globalization does not lead to identical responses from all religious actors, but
sometimes globalization is actively pursued by religious actors (Paradox)
Example:
Groups such as Al Qaeda oppose Westernization, but are at the same
time products of this phenomenon even utilizing the tools and techniques
to achieve their own globalizing aim.

Impacts of Globalization on Religion

Globalization has diverse, even paradoxical implications for religion.
Globalization may have implied on faith in the following three possible impacts:
1) Religion is being eroded.
2) Religion is being strengthened.
3) Religion is declining but it has developed new identities of hybridity.

Cultural homogeneity / destruction vs Cultural pluralism

The distinct norms, different cultures and different
worshiping ways and practices will be wiped out by
globalization which promotes homogeneity.

Threat to traditions of religions, disintegrate

traditional social norms and values by the
invasion of consumerism, cyber culture and etc.
Human rights are becoming the main issue in global
world.
• Status of women
• Ritual killings and human sacrifice

Conflicts vs Cooperation
Internal and external conflicts – multipolar world
Resurgence of conservative-traditionalist religious movements. These movements have
been often labelled as religious fundamentalism.

Religious fundamentalism:
1) Religious phenomenon; religious is very essential as ideology, ethos, goals,
leadership of fundamentalism are founded and built on religious beliefs and
practices.
2) A reaction to and cultural changes which are experienced as a dramatic crisis so
that it differs from traditionalism.
3) Defensive reaction which attempts to preserve or restore an idealized or imagined
former social order which is characterized by a strict patriarchal order and
moralism.
People cannot bear these uncertainties, any movements, like religious fundamentalism,
that are regarded to bring certainties back will gain its market and acceptance.
Ex: India (Hinduism)
Creation of extremists and terrorists

Conflicts vs Cooperation
Essentially, all religions teach these shared principles of
love, patience, peace, justice and equality.
The phenomenon of globalization of religion has made it easier to transfer the all-
embracing message of any religion all over the world. As a result, societies are becoming
less exclusive and more multi-religious.

Social reality forces world religious communities to get rid of their exclusive attitudes and
to develop some universal orientations, which should be more accommodating to the
other.

Inter-religious dialogue therefore can be a discourse between two or more religious

organizations for better understanding of the tenets of each religion in order to promote
peaceful coexistence among the practitioners of such religions.

Thus interreligious dialogue will be fruitful as people of different religions and faith
encounter each other in an atmosphere of freedom and openness for each partner to
listen and understand each other.

Spread of Religion vs Secularization

The inner nature of religions and the purpose to be embraced
and practiced by people all over the world prompts it to spread
throughout all the world’s geographical spaces.
In order to emerge and spread, therefore, religions make good
use of the technologies of globalization.

Having geographical boundaries and frontiers blurred and

dissolved, religions find it easy to spread and reach every part
of the world.

Information technologies, transportation means, and the

media are deemed important means on which religionists rely in the dissemination of their
religious ideas.

EX: countless websites providing information about religions have been created.
Spread of Religion vs Secularization

The increase of industrialization, urbanization and rationalization would bring about the
decrease of religious faith.
Religion would become less important factor in human life of modern society and a
modern secular system would be a dominant force as theological system was falling
down.
Religion would eventually vanish from the lives of modern secular society.

Table of Contents
Homogenization as Threat for Religions
• Homogenization might wipe out cultural diversity
For example: Languages are dying at an alarming rate.
• Friedman suggests that the break-down to only 8 unique civilizations is the result
of globalization.
• Muslim dominance and control of trans-Asian trade was the primary factor leading
to the homogenization of Central Asia and the Silk Road.

Connectiveness of Globalization and Religion

Religion always sought to spread its message beyond frontiers
 impact on globalization
• Globalization with its homogenization can disturb cultures, so that some religions
oppose it
• Some people might seek protection from globalization impacts and foster
opposition
BUT,
Globalization does not lead necessarily to a homogenization of
groups and the rise of a universal community, because there
is the desire for esteem within a culture.
Secularization
• All secularizations would look alike ending up as same “rational” philosophy.
• Enlightenment and secularization spreads from educated elite to other people,
whereas other religious communities are marginal
 • Globalization will eliminate minorities in secularization
• Religious movements mean useful corrections to distorted modernization, but will
disappear after their temporary role.
• Modernists wish all churches to disappear having religious fundamentalism as
main enemy.

Extra Case – Extreme Buddhism in Myanmar (Burma)

Myanmar Religion and Extreme Buddhism
- Buddhism 90%, Christianity 6%, Islam 4%
- People regard Christians and Muslims as threats
- Some Buddhist extremists attack other religious groups
- 1988-2010, More than 300 terrors among religions groups
“How can Buddhists be extremists?”
- Teachings of Buddhism : Mercy, Moderation
Buddhist fundamentalist : Extreme hermit
- Myanmar : Buddhism + Nationalism = Identity
- Ashin Wirathu : “A dog is better than a Muslim”
Radicalization is not an issue just for Islam.
It is also globalized.

RELIGION IN GLOBALIZATION: Ongoing Conflict or Coexistence ?

The Communication for Future
The Religion‘s role in Globalization
Religious leaders in rare union with pledge to fight slavery
Basic Belief of Islam
• Faith in God (“Allah” in Arab)
• Faith in angels
• Faith in the Holy Books: Koran and Sunnah/ Hadith
• Faith in the prophets and in the messengers sent by God
• Faith in the judgment day.
(Source: I. A. Ibrahim. “A Brief Ilustrated Guide to Understand ing Islam”)

Five Pillars of Islam

• Testimony of Faith: “There is no true god (deity) but God (Allah), and Muhammad
is the Messenger (Prophet) of God.”
• Prayer: Five times a day
• Giving the “Zakat”: Support for the needy
• Fasting: In the month of Ramadan, Muslims must fast from dawn until the sunset.
• Pilgrimage to Mecca: Every Muslim should go at least once in their life time.

(Source: I. A. Ibrahim. “A Brief Ilustrated Guide to Understand ing Islam”)

Main division within Islam
• Sunnis (85%) and Shiites (15%)
Muslim population: More than 1 billion followers (2005)
• Disagreements regarding the succession of Prophet Muhammad:
 Bloodline vs. Selection
• Last Caliphate ended with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, in 1924.
• “Historically, the caliph was the successor to the prophet, the political leader of the
community, and therefore the head of the early transnational Islamic empire”.
(John L. Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic
Studies at Georgetown University)
• Restoration of the Caliphate as a movement pushed especially by Sunni extremist
groups since the 20th century: Al Qaeda and ISIS
(Source: Christopher M. Blanchard. “Islam: Sunniis and Shiites”)

Islam and Terrorism

• Misunderstanding and misuse of Islamic principles derive mostly from the
conception of Jihad: Internal struggle to achieve self improvement, and external
struggle to fight against injustice and social oppression through preaching and
teaching.
• Extremist Muslim groups use this concept to legitimate the idea of armed “Holy
War”.
However....
Terrorism is not necessarily related to religion, let alone to Islam.
Islam and Terrorism
• Definition of terrorism: “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence
by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through
fear, coercion, or intimidation”. (Global Terrorism Database)
• The term “terrorism” was first used during the French Revolution to describe the
actions of Jacobins.
• In the 19th century, the actions of terrorists were motivated by anarchism, whereas
in the 20th century nationalism was the main cause.
(Source:Parvez Ahmed. “Terror in the name of Islam”)

Islam and Terrorism

• Even when religion is related to terrorism, it does not necessarily mean the Islam:
“Between 1980 and 2003, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group that
recruits from the predominantly Hindu Tamil population in Sri Lanka and whose ideology
is intertwined with Marxism, was the world's leader in suicide terrorism.” (Parvez Ahmed)
• Parvez also says that other major religions in the world have produced terrorist
groups: Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• Distortion of religious principles.
• “The majority of the violence seen with Islamic fundamentalists should be
attributed to the religio-political environment instead of the religion itself”
(Cassandra Rausch)

Historical background
• The Muslim- Western/ Christian opposition is not a new idea.
• Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire) and Islamic Empire (Middle
East and North Africa) in the 11th century: Christian Crusades to conquer the Holy
City, project which ended up failing.
 • Francis Robinson says that from the eighth till the eighteenth century, “the
community of believers created by God’s revelation to humankind through the
Prophet Muhammad was regarded as walking hand in hand with power.”
• Islamic civilization as the leader in terms of creativity: great achievements in
science, poetry and general literature.
• However, Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 marked the transference of
leadership to the West.
• By the 1920’s, the Caliphate (symbolic leadership for the community of believers)
had been abolished.
• Throughout the 20th century, western rule widely replaced the Muslim one with
their own culture and values.
• This phenomenon encouraged the birth of some totalitarian/ revolutionary Islamic
perspectives against secular leaders: Example of the Iranian Revolution 1979.
•
Impacts of September 11th
• “Dialogue of Civilizations”: Idea proclaimed by the Iranian president Muhammad
Khatami in the United Nations General Assembly in 1998.
• However, the possibilities of dialogue were greatly shaken by the September 11th
• Media and the creation of hysteria: “Why do they hate us?”
• USA declares war on terror: Afghanistan was invaded. Iraq, Syria and Iran were
pointed afterwards as the “other terrorist states” and were observed as potential
targets.
• In the public mind, Islam started to be fundamentally associated with terrorism.
• Akbar S. Ahmed conclusion:
 There must be dialogue that leads to the true understanding of other civilizations
 “Muslims need to explain Islam to non-Muslims and non- Muslims need to make
an effort to be responsive to them”
(Source: Akbar S. Ahmed. “Islam and the West: Clash or Dialogue of Civilizations?”)
Table of Contents

SUMMATIVE STATEMENT
We have just presented the complexity of the contradicting paradigms on the state
or religion in the context of globalization brought about by varying and opposing
understandings of the concepts of culture and modernity. There are dangers in arguing
in dichotomies and generalizations regarding the interpretations of religion in armed
conflicts and political movement. In doing so, we become complicit in reinforcing racism,
Islamophobia, exclusion and marginalization. Being mindful and having a dialogue are
ways in thinking and re-thinking the ideological implications of employing a singular
definition and understanding of modernization. Culture is neither static or monolithic.
Whether, we refer to either western, Islamic or east Asian civilizations, the complexity and
diversity among and within identities must not be dismissed.