Globalization and Religion: Identity and Power
INAES (Institute for North American and European Studies), University of Tehran
15-16 November 2005
Abstract
Religious Discourses and Globalization in Iran
Masoud Kousari
University of Tehran, Department of Communications
mkousari@ut.ac.irMasoud Kosari b.1964 has a PhD in Sociology (Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran, 2001) and currently is assistant professor in department of media studies at Tehran University. He has authored 2 books, co-authored and edited 2 books and also has published more than 20 articles mainly in the sub-field of sociology related to culture and literature.
The relationship between globalization and the religious discourses is an important thing for presenting any interpretation of the way if encountering between them. Therefore, there is not one interpretation of globalization because of these different discourses. This paper tries by distinguishing between three typical religious discourses in Iran, to explain how these discourses can be different in the way of confronting with globalization. I call these discourses as follows: the traditionalist discourse, the new traditionalist discourse and the religious intellectuals’ discourse.
According to the traditionalists, globalization is a kind of secularization process for eradicating of the religious values in the Islamic countries. For this group, from a religious point of view, globalization is a new facade of the old secularization process for transforming the Islamic society to a secular one. They are septic toward the process and it is not important for them by which word: globalism, globalization or globality.
In contrary, the second discourse not only tries to distinguish between the words, but also they claim that Islam with a universal goal has capacity for universalize its religious/ humanistic values. According to the new traditionalist discourse, not only Islam but also the other great religions like Christianity have had such a claim during their histories. They believe that God via the prophets has asked them to globalize the religious law (Shari’a) and ethics. Therefore, they are also septic toward the globalization process, but they are more active than the first group. They try to find a systematic scientific way (by a mixture of sociological, political and philosophic views) for theorizing the way for globalizing the Islamic values.
Finally, we have to point out to the third discourse: the religious intellectuals’ discourse. The religious intellectuals that had a very important role in the Reformist movement in Iran and prepared the theoretical base for depicting a new picture of the Islamic society or State, has a less septic view toward the process. According to this discourse, although globalization is a western process, but it is not a conspiracy for eradicating the Islamic values or secularization of the Islamic society. They try to take a more positive perspective toward the process by a terminology of globalization. Based on this discourse, internet and other ICT’s are a good chance for expressing the Islamic values and defending from the Islamic identity in a very small and connected world.