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Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Article “The impact of globalization on Islamic political identity: the case of Turkey” by Hasan Kosebalaban
Taken from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2393/is_1_168/ai_n15944529
This article gives rise to a number of queries, and misgivings about what globalisation is best at doing - opening up countries to the world. Does globalisation rob a country of its identity, equalizing every country into a uniform worldwide village? By opening up countries, will they be negatively or positively influenced by others? And also, will countries, like Islam, cherish what globalisation brings to them or instead, be ignorant about the endless possibilities globalisation offers and choosing instead to exploit it and let it go to waste like what Africa is doing at this very moment? Let’s hope that the former will occur instead.
Turkey was the first democratic Islam nation to be governed by a party rooted in Islam politics, and Islamic participation in politics is finally allowed, due to the international confidence gained by Islam while undergoing globalisation. Thanks to globalisation, east meets west as Turkey finally opens doors to trade in the west. Positive interaction between them has changed what bad impressions Islamists have of globalisation and the West, that globalisation is a battlefield for global politics and the West is a ferocious monster exploiting their countries. Now, globalisation has become a golden opportunity for interaction between the West and themselves, and this has led to increased domestic liberation, modernisation and Westernisation. Globalisation has also increased Turkey’s economic growth, and gone are the days in which Turkey is struggling by itself in poverty and unstable political turmoil. Globalisation has proved itself to be extremely useful in the case of Turkey. Turkey is beginning to accept a more open-minded view on politics regarding their country, and is indeed opening up to the West. In this case, Islamist governments have gained more confidence in presenting themselves politically, economically and socially on a global level. They fit in, having felt like they own a place in the world.
The eventual result of globalisation will be a “borderless” world, where countries are evidently exposed to the rest of the world, and their domestic social, economic and political problems are magnified under the critics of the world. With it comes political instability and conflicts, so much so that political turmoil ensues and establishes itself once again in Turkey. Islamists may be so much westernised that they are trying to think like the West, act, and govern like the West. Not all political maneuvers of the West bring about positive changes, and Turkey may find itself following in the footsteps of the West if it tries to mimic what the West is doing. The now stable political parties may generate tensions between themselves, if they are conflicted in both domestic and global decision making.
Is it also true that countries are losing their identities with increased globalisation and increasing invisible boundaries between countries? Globalisation has indeed made its point on erasing political boundaries in the world. But with it comes more open-mindedness on each countries politics, and one good example will be how Turkey has accepted Islamic participants in its politics when it is previously disapproved by the public and socially unacceptable. Also, globalisation exposes how countries govern themselves, and how their political problems are handled etc. How one’s politics are handled may influence another to do the same, and this results in a knock-on effect in which more and more countries do the same. Soon, politics will be uniformed globally and even the way a country does things may influence others to do the same. Will countries lose their individuality and become a “clone”, and reach a point in time where one is identical to many others? Of course, it is too early for tell-tale signs to show but this may be a great possibility in the future. Uniformity is already evident in our globalised world as mass-production takes place everyday and most of our possessions originate from there. I do hope that politics within countries will not reach the extent of uniformity throughout the world even with the blurring of boundaries.
Though opening up to the West may bring about optimistic economic and political turns, too much of it may only result in chaos and instability in the country. It will be best that Turkey knows what’s best for itself and decide wisely. We do not know what will happen in the future, but it is apparent that Turkey holds the key to greater political stability and economic growth if it makes use of globalisation wisely - to expand their boundaries and bring about greater growths in its economy and greater breakthroughs in politics.
Political expert,
Vanessa(:Labels: globalisation, Islam, politics
Globalised @ 8:07 PM
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