Globalization and Identity: Conceptual Paradoxes in the Middle East

Document Type : Original Article

Author

-Full Professor of Political Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The politics of the Middle East region in particular and the Muslim world in general have been characterized by the Islamic movement in the aftermath of the lslaj.uic revolution in hank. Alongside with nationalism, socialism and their variations, political Islam has been put forth as a construct and a prescript Hon for state crate the mainly .enhance of political sovereignty as well as a social model for Muslim countries by the Islamists. Though in most countries  political Islam is a movement or is organized around a political party, and some states like Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan have labeled themselves as “Islamic Republic,” it is only in the case of Iran that Islam is modeled as a system of governance. During the same period that political Islam has stood both as a movement as well as a model of rule, the global system beginning in the early l8Os, has seen unprecedented levels of change. Significant among them are: the downfall of the USSR and the attenuation of the socialist model thereafter.  Intensification of the global economic, technological and financial interdependence, intensive privatization of economic activity and the universalization of liberal democracy with its numerous variations as the model of governance.
This article intends to relate these two developments. A number of salient questions stand Out as the two significant developments are correlated: I) To what degree the Islamic movement since its introduction in Egypt in the I 930s and later on in many of its actual examples has produced a model? Second, to what degree has the Islamic movement been a political reaction to Western colonialism? And third, to what degree the globalization processes and the principles of the Islamic movement complement one another? In light of the aforementioned conceptual formulation, the major assumption is ibis article maintains that the economic and political dynamics of the current globalization processes led by the Western world are not only intensifying in the coming decade but are proving its.
 
 

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