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  January 07 2009 7.47 gmt
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Redefining the Globalisation Debate 06
  
       
   Indeed multiculturalism as defined by the west has been recognised by certain quarters amongst the western intelligentsia as ultimately divisive. The problem of unifying different communities in the Khilafah State was never an issue because Islam solves the problem of identity without any ambiguity or disparity. Rather diversity is viewed as a strength and not a weakness. Muslims and non-Muslims have lived together for centuries and everybody contributed to the golden ages of Islam. Indeed when we examine the history of Islam we find that Islam embraced people from Africa, Eurasia and Central Asia, the Balkans, China, the Indian Sub-Continent, South-East Asia and Europe. Islam removed the false borders between human beings intellectually and politically until the understanding of Islam weakened in the minds of the people and nationalism took hold during the political and cultural invasion of the Islamic world by the western colonialists. Rather than demonstrating a weakness of Islam it actually demonstrates just how devastating nationalism and secular philosophy actually is. Therefore it is an argument for Islam, not against Islam.

The globalisation debate is in the process of being redefined by Islamists who provide an alternative vision and conception of globalisation. Indeed the debates about secularism and capitalism are already becoming globalised because Muslims inhabit all corners of the earth and as they become more politicised their voice will increasingly grow in unison. This is evidenced in the recent hijab ban controversy in France where Muslims are challenging secularism. This debate has international ramifications because to win the intellectual debate in the western world would contribute greatly to winning the secularism debate internationally. Especially when the west seeks to propagate its values and culture to the whole world. We are indeed on the precipice of something great, something monumental and historic. There is an urgent need for all of us to engage in a debate about identity and the correct basis for progress.

Globalisation provides us with this opportunity to truly engage in a global debate involving all of humanity. While this essay merely touches upon the epochal opportunities open to us it should remind us that we are at a point in human history when we can truly forge a better world.



1Professor Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (Basic Books, April 13, 2004)

2Alvin Toffler, Turner Pub, (March 1, 1995)

3Francis Fukuyama, The Great Disruption, (Profile Books, 2000)

4Philip Bobbit, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History, (Penguin Books, 2003), p216.

5Anthony Giddens, Runaway World, (Profile Books, 2002)

6Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Disontents, (Penguin Books, 2002), p214.

7George Monbiot, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order (Flamingo, 2003)

8Matthew Horsman & Andrew Marshall, After the Nation-State: Citizens, Tribalism and the New World Disorder, (Harper Collins, 1994) xi.

9Will Hutton, The World We’re In, (Little, Brown, 2002) p47.

10Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2002)

11Mark Leonard (Ed.), Phoebe Griffith (Ed.), Reclaiming Britishness (Foreign Policy Centre, September 2002)

12Robert Cooper, The Postmodern State and the World Order (Foreign Policy Centre, June 2000)

13Philip Bobbit, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History, (Penguin Books, 2003), p225.

14Ibid p230.
15Ibid p230

16George Monbiot, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order (Flamingo, 2003) p111.

17Ibid p8

18Dominique de Villepin, Dimbleby Lecture 2003.

19Tony Blair speech, Iraq and the threat of international terrorism (05/03/2004)

20Amy Chua, World on Fire, (Heinemann, 2004)

21Martin Jacques, The Power of the Ethnic Minority (Guardian Newspaper, 21st February 2004)

  
       
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