REALITIES
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP OF RELIGION AND GLOBALISM ?
Peter Berger argues that far from being secularized, the “ the contemporary
world is … furiously religious.
In most of the world, they are veritable explosions of religious fervor, occurring
in one form of another in all the major religious traditions---
Religions are the foundations of modern republics.
The late Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, bragged about
the superiority of Islamic rule over its secular counterparts and pointed out that
“there is no fundamental distinction among constitutional,despotic, dictatorial,
democratic, and communist regimes.”
-With globalization religion becomes a culture of pluralism that teach us to respect
of other religions.
- Media and technology play an important role to spread the ideas of every religion
so that people can know about every religion and can choose the right path of their
life.
-As globalization brings economic marginalization, many various religious
organization play an important social role such as- Catholic Relief Services, World
Vision International, and Islamic Relief Worldwide etc.
-Globalization also brings global political forums that try to diminish cultural, ethnic,
ideological and religious differences such as- while discussing issues such as
international peace and security, health, poverty, environment etc.
Globalization and religion with furthering challenges:
-Globalization also brings negative impacts on religion by breaking traditional beliefs
as people are more connected with the world that sometimes weakens their own
religious belief
-As religious and traditional beliefs are decreasing, the explosion of new religions is
another prominent religious phenomenon in this globalized world.
-Globalization with its consumerism culture brings changes on women’s dress that
sometimes impact negatively.
-Religious terrorism
-Terrorism activities worldwide are supported through not only the organized
systems that teach holy war as the highest calling, but also through the legal, illegal,
and often indirect methods financing these systems.
-We can also link the idea of religious identity in this era of globalization that may
hold in-line with Huntington’s “clash of civilization” thesis.
Introduction:
Globalisation isn’t a new phenomenon and since the ancient period this process has
been going on in different scales. But globalisation became a buzzword in the 1990s
because of political and economic dimension of the international system. From the
1970s onwards, various anthropologist, economist etc began to research and realised
that globalisation is the only process that can be fitted to any discipline. There is not a
single definition of globalisation. We can explain this from various theories and
perspectives.
Roland Robertson defines globalisation as “the understanding of the world and the
increased perception of the world as a whole”.
Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King, sociologists, define globalisation as “all those
processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world
society”.
Anthony Giddens uses the following definition: “the globalisation can be defined as
the intensification of social relations throughout the world, linking distant localities in
such a way that local happenings are formed as a result of events that occur many
miles away and vice versa”.
So, we can see that globalisation is a process of interconnectedness, interdependence
and integration of economics and societies. It is also a process of interaction and
integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a
process driven by international trade and investment and enhanced by information
technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on religion, on
political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical
well-being in societies around the world.
Globalisation is one of the strongest forces that have profound and wide effect around
the world. It does not only have deep impact on economy, but also on various aspects
of life and society, including religion.
In fact, Reza Aslan argues that “no single force can be said to have had a greater
impact on propelling globalisation forward than religion, which has always sought to
spread its message beyond the ethnic and territorial frontiers of its origin”. Religion
means a system of beliefs and practices that creates both cultural and religious
differences and gives the strength to respect and tolerate other religions in the age of
globalisation. One the one hand, globalisation creates new door to strength religion
such as enhancing beliefs and values, teaching equality for everyone, showing
kindness etc. On the other hand, it creates obstacles and challenges as it breaks
traditional values while weakening their own religious values, reinforces specific
identities, creates a circle of conflict and competition among various religion etc. So,
we can see that, relationship between globalisation and religion is a complex issue,
one with new possibilities and furthering challenges.
Relationship between globalisation and religion
Everything has positive and negative impacts. Relationship between globalisation and
religion is one of them. It includes both possibilities and challenges. In the followings,
I will first discuss about possibilities and then challenges.
Globalisation and religion one with possibilities:
Globalisation helps to increase greater religious tolerance and acceptance of other
culture and religion that enhances our mind, knowledge etc.
With globalisation religion becomes a culture of pluralism that teach us to respect of
other religions. In one country, people from different religions live in harmony and
peace and also respect one another. Media and technology play an important role to
spread the ideas of every religion so that people can know about every religion and
can choose the right path of their life. For example- websites provides opportunities to
contact with others worldwide and gives information and explanations about different
religions regardless of his or her geographical location so that religious ideas can be
spread everywhere. Through various TV channels, radio, internet etc, religious ideas
are disseminated. Such as, we find various TV channels as Iqrae, Ennass, Majd, El
Houda, Erahma, peace TV etc. as purely religious channels created for the
strengthening and the fortification of Islam. Through media, we can learn about every
religion that enhances and broadens our mind and knowledge. We can say that
globalisation increases the capacity to strength, tolerate and respect for every
religion.
As globalisation brings economic marginalisation, many various religious
organisations play an important social role such as- Catholic Relief Services, World
Vision International, and Islamic Relief Worldwide etc serve many disadvantage
areas such as- poverty relief, health care, the HIV/AIDs crisis, and environment
problems etc that draws massive followers while strengthening religious values and
ideas. For example- In face of political chaos, and crushing poverty, the Africans find
the church is the place they can go for assistance and relief. The Winner’s Church in
Nigeria is one of Africa’s fastest growing churches that help the members who come
for salvation from economic hardship. In this way, many religious organisations are
working in favour of the poor and needy people.
Globalisation also brings global political forums that try to diminish cultural, ethnic,
ideological and religious differences such as- while discussing issues such as
international peace and security, health, poverty, environment etc., the UN, WHO, EU,
AU, OIC etc organisation also shares basic commitments of religious tradition such as
peace, human dignity and equality, religious freedom, conflict resolution etc.
With these political organisations various religious communities such as the world
council of churches, the Jewish Diaspora, Roman Catholic Church also take part in
international affairs. For example, they have participated in Jubilee 2000 that was an
international effort advocating for cancelling third world debt by the year 2000. They
also participated in world faiths development dialogue that was an effort of
international faith leaders along with the World Bank to support development agendas
corresponding to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Besides this, various
religious organisations were involved in interfaith dialogues such as the 1993
Parliament of the World’s Religions that provide an opportunity for assembly
members to come to know other spiritual and religious leaders in ways which could
support future collaboration and action together for peace, the relief of suffering, and
the preservation of the planet.
In this way, globalisation opens a new door for religion that enhances cooperation,
tolerance and brings new opportunities and possibilities.
Globalisation and religion with furthering challenges:
Globalisation also brings negative impacts on religion by breaking traditional beliefs
as people are more connected with the world that sometimes weakens their own
religious belief. A survey shows that British people’s religious beliefs are changing.
For example, when they are asked if they believe in God, in response 77% people
answered ‘yes’ in 1968 and 44% said ‘yes’ in 2004. This evidences shows that
religious beliefs are becoming less in Britain.
As religious and traditional beliefs are decreasing, the explosion of new religions is
another prominent religious phenomenon in this globalised world. New religions
separate themselves from the conventional ones and develop their own identities.
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are 9,900 distinct religions and
2 or 3 new religions created every day. Some study estimated that there are more than
10,000 new religions. In Japan, estimated number of new religions varies from 800 to
a few thousands. Rapid changes of society escalated by globalization, paves the way
for weakening conventional religion that gave birth of new religion and makes it
difficult for establishing institutes to adjust themselves.
Globalisation with its consumerism culture brings changes on women’s dress that
sometimes impact negatively. For example, veil is now becoming popular and is even
sought by highly educated women and those in hi-society circle. In Indonesia,
expensive veils designed by prominent artists, which is influenced by fashion
designers in New York or Paris, can be found in luxurious department stores and has
become the symbol of high social status. In other word, expensive veils and Islamic
dress have been transformed into commodities for consumption by middle class, in
similar fashion as branded names. This is undoubtedly the effect of consumerism
which is conveyed through globalisation. Here, we can see that veil is used for fashion
that weakens its religious beliefs. Because religion is regarded as a spiritual matter
while consumerism is about materialism.
In this globalised world, under the influence of consumer culture, achievement and
material prosperity has become the aim of life while inner peace is ignored. Here,
globalisation causes mental stress because as it favours material prosperity,
sometimes individuals focus on attaining some material possession such as a house,
car, wealth, or simply any object that hamper their inner peace by undermining
religious ideas and perspectives.
Religious terrorism is terrorism that is carried out based on motivations and goals that
have a predominantly religious character or influence. As world is connected because
of globalization, people can spread their ideas and beliefs on everywhere and often by
inspiring those ideas, people come up together in order to fulfil their purpose in the
name of religion that often causes terrorist activities. Terrorism activities worldwide
are supported through not only the organised systems that teach holy war as the
highest calling, but also through the legal, illegal, and often indirect methods
financing these systems. These sometimes use organisations, including charities in
order to mobilize or channel sources of funds.
Charities can involve the provision of aid to those in needs and charitable offerings
are fundamental to nearly all religious systems, with sacrifice as a furtherance of the
custom. After the 9/ 11 attacks, terrorism becomes one of the major challenges in this
globalised world. As a result, U.S. President George W. Bush first used the term “War
on Terror” on 20 September 2001 in order to counter the terrorism. In recent time, we
see emergence of ISIS, whose aim is to protect Islam. This group continues killing on
purely religious grounds but Islam or other religion not permit anyone for such types
of killing and terrorist attack. Here, religion is used negatively.
We can also link the idea of religious identity in this era of globalisation that may
hold in-line with Huntington’s “clash of civilisation” thesis. He argued that the
primary sources of conflict in the future will be along cultural and religious lines. He
also argued that future conflicts are most likely to occur between “Muslims and non-
Muslims”, identifying the “bloody borders” between Islamic and non-Islamic
civilisations.
In this way, globalisation brings challenges and negative impacts on religion. With the
advancement of technology, media and the free flow of information, people are losing
their own religious values and terror groups have used their political agendas by using
religion as a tool to fulfil their political gains.
Conclusion:
Finally, we can see that the relationship between globalisation and religion is a
complex issue as it has brought both new possibilities and furthering challenges. So,
from the above analysis we can see that globalisation enhances both positive and
negative aspects of religion. As media and technology in one hand spread religious
ideas and teach to respect other religions, they also cause breaking religious ties that
give birth to new religions or sometimes makes people ‘infidel’ or ‘irreligious’ and
also causes terrorist activities in the name of protecting their own religion, values and
beliefs. Every religion has its own beliefs, values, perspectives and ideas in order to
make human life better, to choose the right path, to enrich our knowledge, to give
courage, to avoid wrong activities etc. Though the differences among various religion,
we should remember that every religions teaches the common thing that non-violence,
harmony and peace among every people, no discrimination with each other, to respect
every religion, behave cordially, to help not fight, to bring unity and justice, to bring
equality and freedom, human dignity etc. We should take good always and avoid bad.
In this way, we can minimise the challenges of religion and globalisation and can
bring the culture of peace and harmony.
