Globalization or Recolonization The Muslim World in the 21st Century by Ali Mohammadi and Muhammad Ahsan (London: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd, 2002. 196 pages.)

Abstract

Globalization has been a burning topic of interest for social scientists and
the general public for the last 2 decades. However, a Muslim discourse on
globalization has not been sufficiently developed. The current book seeks
not only to present a dramatic picture of the ummah within the globalized
network of mainly economic relations, but also offers policy solutions to
get out of this crisis and create the Islamic ummah as an active actor in
global economic and political affairs.
As the title suggests, in this book globalization does not have the pos itive
connotations that it has in liberal western scholarship. In fact, it is seen
more as a recolonization of the Third World, and, in particular, of the
Islamic world. The first chapter lays the theoretical ground, the last one
concludes the argument and gives a strategic plan to counter recolonization,
while the other six chapters concentrate on different aspects of globaliza tion.
What comes out of the comparative analyses between the developed
and the developing non-Muslim and Muslim worlds is the striking fact that
Muslims score the lowest in almost all areas. Besides calling the Muslims'
attention to this disconcerting plethora of problems, the authors masterfully
document how the myth of interdependence fades away, notwithstanding
evidence of the unequal treatment by the "global" economic and political institutions, when the Muslims' interests are at stake. In many instances, the economic and political variables go hand-in-hand with the informative ones that perpetuate and legitimize these unfair actions through a fundamentalist image of Muslims ...