The era of globalization brought with it three enormous

GLOBALIZATION AND RELIGION problems.

It began in the 1970s by a variety of groups – Hindu,
Buddhist, Sikh, and Muslim – that were revolting against
what they regarded as the moral failing of the secular
state.
The United States' economic interests in the oil reserves
of the Middle East, and its unchallenged cultural and
political influence in a post- Cold War world led many
Muslim activists to see America as a global bully, a worthy
target of their religious and political anger.
The goal of bin Laden's and the other jihadi activists was
not just to get American influence out of Saudi Arabia but
out of the whole Muslim world.
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the
Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes
and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the
United States. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the
9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered US to combat
terrorism.
It came to be known as the ‘Global War on Terror’ by US
officials and the American news media. The war was also
characterized as the ‘struggle against radical Islam’.
Iraq also became a significant theatre in the US ‘war on
terror’, and the single largest catalyst for global anti-
American anger. The invasion and occupation of the
country in 2003 was initially justified as an attempt to find
and destroy weapons of mass destruction (though none
were found). But throughout the Muslim world the Iraq
invasion was widely perceived as an attempt to control
Middle East politics and its economic resources.
 The first was identity, how societies could
maintain a sense of homogeneity when ethnic,
cultural, and linguistic communities were spread
across borders, in many cases spread across the
world.
 The second problem was accountability, how the
new transnational economic, ideological, political
and communication systems could be controlled,
regulated, and brought to justice.
 The third problem was one of security, how
people buffeted by forces seemingly beyond
anyone's control could feel safe in a world
increasingly without cultural borders or moral
standards.
Religion provides answers to all three of these problems.
 Traditional definitions of religious community
provide a sense of identity, a feeling of belonging
to those who accept that fellowship as primary in
their lives.
 Traditional religious leadership provides a sense
of accountability, a certainty that there are moral
and legal standards inscribed in code and
enforced by present-day leaders who are
accorded an unassailable authority.
 Religion also offers a sense of security, the notion
that within the community of the faithful and
uplifted by the hands of God, one has found safe
harbor and is truly secure.
Critics of religion may observe that all of these religious
solutions are illusory. But for the moment, the religious
imagination provides a way of coping with the extreme
problems of globalization.

The jihadi idea of cosmic war provided a strategic

legitimization of violence by the implicit promise that if one
is fighting God's war, one could never lose. God always
wins.

Muslims call these violent acts ‘symbolic’. The bombing of

a public building may dramatically indicate to the
populace that the government or the economic forces
behind the building are seen as enemies. The point of the
attack, then, was to produce a graphic and easily
understandable object lesson. As such, they can be
analyzed as one would any other symbol, ritual, or sacred
drama.

On January 25, 2011, massive protests in Cairo’s Tahrir

Square in Egypt continued for 18 days until Hosni
Mubarak – in power for 30 years – succumbed to popular
demand and stepped down on February 11. Egyptians
had seen that peaceful mass demonstrations could bring
about real change.

The world cannot underestimate the importance of Tahrir

Square. Clearly, they constituted the catalyst for change.
Perhaps not since the peaceful overthrow of the
dictatorship regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the
Philippines has the world seen such a dramatic
demonstration of the power of nonviolent resistance.

Yet, as Tahrir Square showed, God does not always have

to fight, at least not in the terrorist ways that the jihadi
warriors imagined. In a couple of weeks of protests, the
peaceful resistors demonstrated the moral and strategic
legitimacy of nonviolent struggle.

GCWORLD | THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD © D.DONATO 2021

GLOBALIZATION AND RELIGION