Globalization has been a central theme in political, economic, cultural, and religious debates since the turn of the century. While some see it as a solution, others consider it the root of our problems. The intensification of cultural and military warfare, and the “West v. the Rest” mentality, fuels a deep-seated ethnocentrism. Religion, meanwhile, faces scrutiny from various fundamentalisms and grand narratives. Many modern Muslim thinkers are skeptical of globalization, perceiving it as a homogenizing force that spreads Western culture and concentrates power among a few nations. They argue that Islam promotes human oneness and provides an intellectual and spiritual framework for a more civilized and universal approach to globalization, opposing the Western-centric hegemonic tendencies. The goal of this book is to demonstrate that Islam favors globalization in its original, voluntary form, as opposed to the violent imposition of the West on the East. It will examine Muslim responses to globalization and their attempts to find global answers to local problems in their own local, regional, national, and global contexts. Several academic works have explored various aspects of globalization, focusing on tensions and conflicts, such as power politics, religious authority, and legislative issues. However, there is a notable absence of attention given to the Islamic perspective on globalization, including both appreciation and critique. This book addresses this gap by offering not only a Muslim critique of globalization but also a broader framework for understanding Islam’s unique perspective on globalization. Does globalization support the inclusivity that Islam advocates? How does Islam fit into the globalization era? What impact and influence may Muslims have on the future of globalization? What unique prospects does globalization provide Muslims and the Islamic faith? Is Islamic revivalism a reaction to globalization? Alternatives to globalization could exist. What kind of structure will the Islamic globalization paradigm have? In addition to addressing these questions, the book attempts to provide a theoretical framework for Islamic globalization, which incorporates the shuratic practice and the vision of an international community extending beyond the Arabs and non-Arabs. This underscores the importance of historical contexts for contemporary actions and beliefs. In the process the book attempts to extend the debate on Islam and globalization by mapping out the effects of globalization on various aspects of Muslim culture.

Both human rights and globalization are powerful ideas and processes, capable of transforming the world in profound ways. Notwithstanding their universal claims, however, the processes are constructed, and they draw their power from the specific cultural and political contexts in which they are constructed. Far from bringing about a harmonious cosmopolitan order, they have stimulated conflict and opposition. In the context of globalization, as the idea of human rights has become universal, its meaning has become one more terrain of struggle among groups with their own interests and goals. Part I of this volume looks at political and cultural struggles to control the human rights regime -- that is, the power to construct the universal claims that will prevail in a territory -- with respect to property, the state, the environment, and women. Part II examines the dynamics and counterdynamics of transnational networks in their interactions with local actors in Iran, China, and Hong Kong. Part III looks at the prospects for fruitful human rights dialogiue between competing universalisms that by definition are intolerant of conradiction and averse to compromise.

One of the greatest dilemmas facing Muslims today is the fact that Muslim culture is often seemingly incompatible with the culture of the modern Western world, and the features associated with it - technological progress, consumerism, and new electronic communication, all of which have the potential for a homogenizing effect on any culture. This book explores many key aspects of the globalisation process, discussing how Muslim countries are coping with globalisation, as well as considering how the West is responding to Islam.

The second half of the nineteenth century marks a watershed in human history. Railroads linked remote hinterlands with cities; overland and undersea cables connected distant continents. New and accessible print technologies made the wide dissemination of ideas possible; oceangoing steamers carried goods to faraway markets and enabled the greatest long-distance migrations in recorded history. In this volume, leading scholars of the Islamic world recount the enduring consequences these technological, economic, social, and cultural revolutions had on Muslim communities from North Africa to South Asia, the Indian Ocean, and China. Drawing on a multiplicity of approaches and genres, from commodity history to biography to social network theory, the essays in Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print offer new and diverse perspectives on a transnational community in an era of global transformation.

This book presents the first comprehensive survey of the multiple versions of Islam propagated across geographical, political, and cultural boundaries during the era of modern globalization. Showing how Islam was transformed through these globalizing transfers, it traces the origins, expansion and increasing diversification of Global Islam - from individual activists to organizations and then states - over the past 150 years. Historian Nile Green surveys not only the familiar venues of Islam in the Middle East and the West, but also Asia and Africa, explaining the doctrines of a wide variety of political and non-political versions of Islam across the spectrum from Salafism to Sufism. This Very Short Introduction will help readers to recognize and compare the various organizations competing to claim the authenticity and authority of representing the one true Islam.

Written by scholars from a range of disciplines concerned with the Middle East and Islam (history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political science) and covering the Muslim world extensively (from Malaysia, Turkey, Sudan, Egypt, and Israel/Palestine to Muslim communities in Europe and the United States), this important contribution to the debate on globalization sets a standard in dealing with this pervasive force in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies.

This comprehensive Handbook explores how to best understand, develop and practise educational leadership in an era of significant disruption to education. Contributors evaluate the latest developments in leadership in education and provide novel insights into key conceptual and methodological issues.

Reenvisioning Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution in Islam examines the variety of strategic peacebuilding and conflict resolution activities conducted by Muslim practitioners and nongovernmental organizations in Muslim-majority communities. Qamar-ul Huda explores ways that Muslim scholars, civil society members, and communities interpret violence and nonviolence, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution in an interconnected globalized age, focusing on methods, practices, and strategies. He shows how a faith-based commitment can empower effective social, political, and intellectual action that results in meaningful change. The book sheds light on a variety of vital topics, including how the state utilizes hard and soft power in global, religious diplomacy; ways in which civil society organizations and NGOs maximize networks to engage in peacebuilding and conflict resolution; the role of civil society in soft power politics; and how some peacebuilding organizations are out of step with local Muslim cultures & religious customs, and why that matters. Qamar-ul Huda charts a vision of contemporary ethics of peacebuilding, pluralism, reconciliation, and dialogue.

Like the ancient Roman god Janus, globalization has two faces, one benign and the other malign. In this comprehensive and authoritative book, Dilip K. Das fills a gap in the literature by examining both aspects of the contemporary phase of economic globalization. Because globalization has had both welfare-enhancing, propitious consequences as well as detrimental ones, it has become an acutely contentious subject matter among both scholarly and public policy-making communities. Contemporary globalization cannot be studied without a balanced treatment of both facets. The author provides precisely that, covering large thematic areas of the global economy and globalization through the channels of trade, financial flows, attention to newly emerging trends as well as historical perspective. Neither overly technical nor highly model-oriented, this accessible book will be of great interest to scholars, students and other readers interested in a broad and balanced view of globalization.

After publishing articles in leading American journals for over two decades, Kishore Mahbubani was described as "an Asian Toynbee, preoccupied with the rise and fall of civilizations" by The Economist. Trained in philosophy in North America and Asia, and well-experienced in real politik as a diplomat on the world stage, Mahbubani has unusual insight into America's ever more troubled relationship with the rest of the world. In Beyond the Age of Innocence Mahbubani reveals to us the America that Asia and the rest of the world see. We are a country that has given hope to billions by creating a society where destiny is not determined at birth. After the Second World War, we created a global order which allowed many nations to flourish. But when the Cold War ended, America made a terrible mistake. We started behaving like a normal country, ignoring the plight of others, indifferent to the consequences of our decisions on others. America was imprudent in its policy towards two large masses of mankind: the Chinese and Muslim populations. Guantanamo damaged our moral authority, but Abu Ghraib, paradoxically, may have demonstrated the accountability of American institutions. Still, disillusionment with America has spread to all corners. To allow any lasting gap between America and the world, Mahbubani argues, would be a colossal strategic mistake for America and a huge loss to the world. But there is still time for the US to change course; and in this thought-provoking, visionary book, Mahbubani shows us how.