Jessie Yancey-Siegel

Globalization and Religion The interplay of religion and globalization over the years has been and currently is a controversial and contested subject. Many say that globalization is a relatively new phenomenon, only having emerged in the last century. Yet, religion, a major facet of life for every culture and area of the world, has been spread from continent to continent for centuries and has become truly "globalized". As Sudhir Kale puts it simply in his article Spirituality, Religion, and Globalization, "the earliest knowledge to traverse national borders has mainly been of the spiritual kind" (Kale, p. 96). Through immigration and the inter-connectedness of society, religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism have been spread throughout the globe. This same force of globalization has both aided in the spread of and poses a threat to religion. Along with this threat generated by globalization have come conflicts between proponents for globalization and their religious counterparts. Many factors have affected the global spread of religion. Imperial and colonial endeavors of multiple countries incorporated a desire to spread religious ideals in the colonized country. For example, the Spanish exploration of South America was marked by a strong motivation for the spread of Christianity. British imperialism in Africa aided in the spread of Christianity within the continent. Islam was spread throughout Southern Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and other regions by Muslim Conquests as well as Arab traders. Another force in the spread of religious beliefs, particularly Christianity, is the distribution of missionaries throughout parts of Asia, South America, Africa, and other

parts of the globe. This 'export' of religious ideologies has been aided by the exchange of religious figures such as priests, monks, and mullahs. The exchange of eastern and western religious ideologies is a dynamic that is widely studied, as it plays an important role socially, culturally, and politically in the world. The presence of Western missionaries in Asia has led to the spread of Western religions in the East. For example, the Christian Evangelical Movement, which was born out of the Western society, has been widely outsourced to the East. Seventy percent of Evangelical churches are in non-Western countries today, compared to thirty percent in 1970 (Kale, p. 103). In terms of east to west, eastern spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation have been introduced and popularized in the Western world, as well as eastern religions such as Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. In terms of the United States, this rise in popularity of Eastern religion is due in part to changes in immigration laws in the 1960s that admitted more Eastern missionaries into the country. One negative effect of globalization is deterritorialization. In this age of increased migration and cultural imperialism, it becomes harder to identify with a certain ethnic group or region. Kale explains that the indistinguishability of national borders (due to globalization), "poses a threat to the traditional collective identities of many people, which in turn causes them to turn to religion to reclaim those identities" (Kale, p. 98). A person's identification with a religion plays an important role in the construction of a new "cognitive map" through which the individual can locate themselves in the confusing and multidimensional setting generated by globalization. In this way, religion can be seen as an avenue of reterritorialization. Yet, deterritorialization also poses a threat to religions themselves. Key components that have defined all world religions such as sacred time,

space, and people face a threat of extinction by globalization. Place and nation once bound religious followers together, but in this globalized world that is becoming more difficult to do. In fact, the term "globalized religion" refers to the possibility that particular religions are no longer identifiable with a specific ethnic group or nation. Meanwhile, other aspects of globalization strengthen religion. Technology, which has become more advanced and critical to societal development in our globalized world, has aided in this crisis posed to religion. Many religious followers have become reconnected through modern forms of communication, such as radio, television, and the newest development of the internet. The Evangelical branch of Christianity is one example of a religious group that has harnessed the power of the television to spread its beliefs and connect its followers together in the form of "televangelism". Social networking websites such as Facebook and other online spaces provide a way for a community of believers to converse and share virtually; yet, at the same time, the absence of physical connectedness causes followers to become more isolated and privatized. Clearly, different aspects of globalization have either positive or negative effects on religion. The largest and most significant threat to religion in terms of globalization could be considered to be secularism. Secularism is a whole new ideology that can be defined as, "being separate from religious or spiritual connection or influence" (Dictionary.com). Many believe that secularization, a process that would led to the eventual extinction of religion, will be the outcome of modernization and globalization, due to the spread of scientific knowledge and the light of reason. At times throughout history, religion has lost some of it's power and influence. Yet, it continually resurges as a strong force, maybe even as a reaction to globalization, as it provides a way for people to identify with a particular group in an time

of loss of identity and migration. The idea of secularism has been strengthened in the past two decades though, promoted primarily by the Western World, and specifically the United States. As the United States becomes a stronger force of cultural imperialism, influencing the younger generations in non-western countries, secularism is becoming more of a threat to religious groups and those seeking to preserve their religious cultural traditions. Many resistors to globalization and anti-globalization activists have been those of religious groups, most notably Islamist extremist groups, neo-Confucians, and revivalist Hindus (Kurth, p. 5). These groups tend to see the United States as the promoter of globalization leading to secularization. Secularization leads to activities and feelings in opposition to the United States and the West in general. Islamist extremist and fundamentalist groups in particular pose a large threat to Western society, as they continue to become world-wide and inter-connected through forms of communication brought about by globalization. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and is second largest to Christianity. Many people tend to identify Islam solely with Arabs, yet, it is becoming more of a universal and globalized religion, with followers all around the globe. Ironically, the the population of Muslim converts is growing in the West, signifying the clash of ideologies and cultures brought about by globalization. In the U.S, native-born Muslims comprise 35% of the American Muslim population; of those 35%, 21% are converts to Islam (Benlafquih, Suite101.com). The majority of Muslims are not extremists and simply practice the religion. Yet, a small subset of the religion, in response to the growing Western influence in many countries with traditional Muslim ties, has responded in a more violent, aggressive manner in the form of terrorist groups. Al Queda, well-known as being the terrorist organization responsible for

the September 11th attacks on the United States, is a group that has formed partly in response to the increasing westernization of Islam-dominated societies. Al Queda and other terrorist networks believe that western modes of modernization have failed to end poverty in the Middle East and have promoted secularism, rather than religion in their own societies (Steger, p. 122). Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Queda, and his followers, seek to globalize a "pure" and "authentic" form of Islam. This process is known as "Jihadist Globalism," and is actually contradictory to the beliefs of terrorist groups who claim to be fighting against the forces of globalization. The terrorist groups rely on modern communication, transportation, international banking systems, and other products of globalization. This paradox will be interesting to observe in the coming years. As our world seems to continually "shrink" due to the forces of globalization, religion will continue to face many challenges as well as opportunities. The conflict between those who seek to modernize and advance the world through globalization, and those who wish to hold onto their traditions and practices will play out in many interesting ways.

Works Cited

1. Benlafquih, Christine. "American Muslim Statistics." Suite101. March 24, 2008. Web. December 2, 2009. <http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/article.cfm/american_muslim_statistics>.

2. Kale, Sudhir. "Spirituality, Religion, and Globalization." Journal of Macromarketing. 24.92 (2004): 92, 98, 103.

3. Kurth, James. "Religion and Globalization." Foreign Policy Research Institute. 7.7 (1999): 5

4. "Secular." Dictionary. December 1, 2009. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secular>

5. Robertson, Roland. God and Globalization. Harrisburg, Trinity Press International, 2000.

6. Steger, Manfred. Globalization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.