Globalization and the Muslim World
Culture, Religion, and Modernity

Cloth $39.95L   |   0-8156-3024-7   |   2004

Paper $19.95s   |   0-8156-3049-2   |   2004

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, 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.

Reviews
"Fresh and interesting. . . . The case studies are rich in data, and the theoretical and historical studies are nuanced and insightful. . . . Because of the widespread belief in a "clash of civilizations," both in popular forms and in parts of the academy, the subtle yet powerful critique that this book offers is timely, important, and valuable."
Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina

Sage Race Relations Abstracts:
Vol. 31, No. 2, May 2006
This collection brings together the work of various scholars of Middle Eastern Studies as well as Islamicists from a range of disciplines. The scholars in this collection take up the issues of postmodernity and globalization. Without coming to a unified definition of these terms, they come to the conclusion that postmodernity is a global condition with ramifications for the study of the Middle East and Islam. Schaebler’s article deals with the historical construction of the term ‘civilization’ and its opposite ‘savagery’ from their French enlightenment origins to the colonial civilizing mission that strove to make them global. Boroujerdi adds to the critique of Western knowledges with a defence of the current project of knowledge indigenization by Third World intellectuals. Sayres Rudy then takes a critical look at the treatment by political science of ‘globalization’, ‘Islamism’, and ‘postmodernity’. Jocelyne Cesari then looks at the ways that Islam is being redefined by the nearly 7 million Muslims in Western Europe and the 4 to 6 million Muslims in the United States. Stenberg then narrows the focus and looks at the work of two institutions in Virginia, the International Institute of Islamic Thought and the School of Islamic and Social Sciences. The second part of the volume deals with concrete experiences and practices of globalization. Heather Sharkey examines the implications of social contact for identities in the case of the Muslim societies of Northern Sudan. Toby Huff’s contribution looks at Malaysia’s social experiment with the Multimedia Super Corridor. Skovgaard-Peterson compares two television shows featuring what he calls ‘global muftis’. Raudvere then looks at women’s religious activism in Turkey. Patrice Brodeur then outlines the theoretical concept of ’glocalism’ as a useful analytical tool to the study of global processes and their effects on the Middle East and Muslim identities. Finally, Ann Marie Oliver takes up the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and its role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Author
Birgit Schaebler is professor of West Asian history at the University of Erfurt, Germany.

Leif Stenberg is associate professor of Islamic studies at Lund University and in religious studies at Växjö University, Sweden.

61/8 x 91/4, 400 pages