Globalisation and Challenges of the Muslim Religion on Its Influence to the Family and Its Function in the Middle East - Essay Example

?Globalisation and challenges of the Muslim religion on its influence to the family and its function in the Middle East The world, we live in, has been and still is a place of continuous activities. Activities in the sense, humans have evolved through various physical and mental activities, and one of the key activities or even belief, which have kept the humans evolving even further is religion. Majority of the humans all over the world follow one religion or other. Even the non-believers might have followed some religion, before becoming non-believers. However, religion is not a static concept or entity, which will be contained in one place or in a particular period of time, but it could spread to various places, and importantly could evolve and change based on certain world events. One of the events, which is having impacts on religions, and thereby in the way that religion impacts lives is globalization. Globalization is the process, in which the geographical and other social boundaries are broken, with interaction happening between people in various spheres of life, including economics, social, cultural etc. Because of this interaction, and its impacts on various ‘spheres’, the religion also gets impacted. That is, as the contemporary world becomes globalised with dynamic changes, with increase of people getting connected and the world becoming a smaller place to be, there are challenges impacting the Muslim religion of Islam, and those impacts influence the family and its function in the Middle East. So, this paper will analyse how globalisation is impacting the religion of Islam, and how that impacts Muslim’s family life, with specific focus on Middle East. Family and Religion Family is also an omnipresent concept followed in all the countries and cultures of the world. Humans will not normally exist or thrive in isolation, he/she will be in the midst of others, and family is something, which majority of the humans are born in. That is, with biological connection established, when they are born, families get formed naturally. However, in the current times, the definition of family has had some competing definition due to the nature of change in family dynamics and composition. In general, it can be defined as a thing, in which group of individuals will live collectively particularly in a house or home, preferably under the control of one head. “A family is group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adaptation and residing together; all such people (including related subfamily members of one family)” (Mather 2004, p.2). When one focuses on family from the perspective of Functionalist theory, it is clear that the institution of family plays many key roles. As a vehicle of socialization of individuals with the family from birth throughout the life stages. Functionalist acknowledges the socio-emotional support. As a means of production Family as a means of regulating sexual activity. Transmits social identity and social status of individuals within a given family, community or society. However, with the rise of single parent families, families with same sex couples and even families where the partners live together outside of marriage, traditional definitions of family are being broken, particularly in the Western world. Dhami and Sheik (2001, p.57) ascertain that, “We live an era in which the nature, function, and structure of the family have been thrown into question. Many, for example, would consider an unmarried couple, a single mother, and homosexual couples as equally legitimate expressions of the family unit.” At the same time, when one focuses on the family from the perspective of Islam, the family is defined as ‘divine institution’. That is, Dhami and Sheik (2001, p.57) further argue that, “Islam takes a more conservative stance, arguing that the family is a divinely inspired institution, with marriage at its core.” Thus, when religion or particular religious beliefs are focused, it interprets family differently. Religion is an omnipresent entity which is visible throughout the world, and importantly it forms a key part of people’s living, impacting various aspects of their lives. Each religion contains certain set of beliefs and practices, which will be ‘religiously’ followed by its followers. When the definition of religion is focused, it becomes a difficult task. Although, there are difficulties in ‘cornering’ on one accepted definition, some of the key parts, which constitute religion, are the beliefs and practices. These beliefs and practices could have spiritual origination and when sizable people follow these things, it becomes a religion. Then, that process is continued with even more people following it, leading to the formation and definition of religion. “Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual…in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.” (Connelly 1996). Among the religions, which are followed by sizable portion of the people, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism are the key ones. Among these, Islam is one of the religions which has a worldwide reach and is impacting the lives of many people. Founded, based on the teachings of Prophet Mohammed, it has teachings relevant to family life, gender roles, etc Islam and its impacts on family Islam is also a monotheistic religion, which originated from the teachings of Muhammad, an Arab religious figure. Muslims does not believe in any visible God, but pray their invisible god of Allah. They believe that Allah only revealed theirs holy book of Quran and the basic tenets of Islam to Muhammad, who is regarded as the God's final prophet. The population of Muslims is around 20% of the world population with the sect of Sunni making up 85% and the Shi'as’ 15%. Indonesia, the Southeast Asian country, holds the largest population of Muslims in the world. However, countries in Middle-East constitute the single large grouping of Muslim population in the world. Middle-East comprises of countries in Western Asia and Northern Africa, and there are around 15 countries. All of them (except two) are Muslim majority nations, with many countries among them following Islamic Sharia rule. Middle-East Asia and North Africa (MENA) is one of most key regions of the world, and that includes from the political sense, economical sense, social sense as well as religious sense. As stated by Atkinson and Coffin (2003), “It isn't just a desert, intellectually or climatically.” When one focuses on the spiritual or religions aspect, Middle-East is the hotspot because of the origination of Islam there and also due to the presence of key Holy sites, Mecca and Medina. “Mecca (Makkah in Arabic) is the center of the Islamic world and the birthplace of both the Prophet Muhammad and the religion he founded…The sacred land in which Mecca and Medina are located, known as the Hijaz, is the western region of the Arabian peninsula” (sacredsites.com). Muslims from all over the world visit these two holy places as part of Haji Pilgrimage and the key teachings are interpreted here only. Muslims carry out their daily prayers by facing Mecca only. Thus, this region has key influence in the way Islam is viewed and interpreted, even regarding the aspect of family. When viewed from Islamic viewpoint, in Middle-East, families has to follow conservative norms regarding the marriage and the resultant evolution of family, thereby avoiding same-sex marriage, living together outside marriage, etc., for them to be constituted as a family. In a Muslim perspective, a family consists of a legally married couple, constituting husband, wife and their children, as well as their parents, siblings and other relatives. The emphasis is that a family comes into existence only through two means: blood relationship and importantly Islamic authorized marriage. Allah (SWT) says, “And it is He Who has made man from water: The He has set up relationships of family and marriage: And your Lord is ever All Powerful (over things). [Surah AI Furqaan: 54] (fiqh.org). This focus on marriage being a relationship between heterosexual man and women forms the key part of Islamic marriage, and Islamic perspective of family format. Mernissi (1987, p.107) argues that, “The dynamics of shared spaces between the sexes can best be understood by analysing the functioning of the conjugal unit, the only model of heterosexual relationships that Muslim society …offers to its children.” Another key aspect of family from Islamic perspective is, the respect and care given to the elders. Although, people in various cultures as well as religions care for their elderly parents, Muslims does that in a more prominent manner as it was viewed as gift from Allah. “Elderly parents are respected on account of their life experiences and their hierarchic position within the family unit. The opportunity to attend to the needs of one’s parents in their later years is viewed as a gift from Allah.” (Dhami and Sheik, 2001). There is a view that in Islam, the women are not treated equally, as they are mostly confined behind the walls of the house, without education, social exposure, etc, and are also stipulated to wear hejab in the outside, against their own will. However, the other view is, the emphasis of equality is affirmed by the Islam religion as all human beings are equal. When viewed from the positive perspective, the disapproval by the Islamic religion of mixing sexes and regards this as conflicting with the roles it assigns to the family in society. Gendering roles is evident and does operate in Islamic families and this becomes a functionalist distribution of roles, responsibilities and duties. Women are expected to undertake family roles within the family while the men are expected work hard and earn a living for the rest of the family. Reproduction and caring for children rest mainly on women. Impact of globalization on Muslim Family Globalization is a kind of development that shrinks the globe, bringing people from different parts of the world together, through economical, social and technological aspects. . “Globalisation is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment …. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on religion, on political systems...” (Aurence and Othenberg, 2002, p.1). Thus, during globalization along with economical changes, cultural changes also happen in various countries. These cultural changes are viewed both positively as well as negatively. Some critics’ including Islamist critics’ claim that the changes brought on by globalization is destroying or negatively impacting the local culture and even the local religion. On the other hand, other sections of people view that changes brought on by the globalization evolves and enriches the local religion and culture. With the tremendous pace of technological development in the field of information technology and television, sharing of ideas and exposure to different cultures was but a certainty. With globalization and the associated labour movement, cultural pockets were created in countries, including in Middle-East. This multiculturalism was not restricted to only cuisines like Thai, Italian, Mexican, Indian and Chinese, but also spread to and also having impacts on other fields as well. Although, globalisation is making an impact on the economy of the various countries, both positively as well as negatively, its impact on religion or cultures or identity or even families, are reaching maximal proportions particularly through media. Human societies across the world lead their lives following a particular culture or identity, which might border on their national identity and importantly their religion, and this, is applicable to the Muslim countries as well. As discussed above, the culture and thereby the practices followed within a family including the concept of family, elder’s roles, women’s role, etc., could be mainly determined by the religion, they are following. However, if there is interaction among the people belonging to different countries or cultures, and importantly if there exposure of one culture to other cultures through the omnipresent media, there are chances that the practices of the family may be influenced by the culture of other nations. This is what happens because of globalisation, leading to the emergence of global consciousness or identity or multiculturalism. That is, as globalization and the resultant spread of mass media causes and promotes more interaction and integration between the people and thereby their cultures, it kind of creates and impacts global consciousness or identity For example, a kind of media convergence has taken place, where the ownership of media and their influence is got placed among few transnational media houses coming from select few countries or the only country of United States of America. The globalization has led to the opening up countries including Middle-Eastern countries to these transnational media houses and this is impacting the Muslim families. These media houses with their multinational influence are able to influence the families, foreign affairs policies of the countries and thereby social sphere of the countries they are entering or broadcasting. As Muslim families are given a ‘front row seat’ to all the happenings in the Western world through various media forms, they influence the way family roles evolve. The best examples are the role by played by the American media forms. “American popular culture has become a globalized popular culture. American movies, television shows, music and books dominate foreign markets.” (Spiro 2008, p.44). In addition, “If there is a global village, it speaks American. It wears jeans, drinks Coke, eats at the golden arches, walks on swooshed shoes, plays electric guitars, and recognizes Mickey Mouse, James Dean, E. T., Bart Simpson, R2-D2, and Pamela Anderson.” (Gitlin 2001). When one focuses on the concept of family from Conflict theory, it provides key perspectives particularly regarding the role of male and female in a Muslim family and how it is changing because of globalization. The Conflict Theorists focus on the way in which family members compete and cooperate. Historically, Muslim families were structured based on patriarchy and patrilineal lines, and this was due to the fact that they have been built on gender inequalities, inbuilt in the religion. However, today we have seen a growing change in this structure approach in the way in which families are organized. That is, with globalization and the resultant western media showcasing women in various roles, apart from the homemaker role, Muslim women in Middle-East also want to replicate it. Globalization has led to proliferation of many multinational companies with women taking top roles in well known companies. With women going places in various professions, the Muslim also want to achieve that by breaking their stereotypical roles of homemaker. Thus, the globalization and the resultant proliferation of MNCs and media are impacting the roles of women in the Muslim families. Even then, there are sizable families in the Middle-East, which still follow the stereotypical role of women, by opposing the conflict theory. Thus, gender relationships in the Muslim family unit places males as dominant and given powers to control. At the same, females due to their typical historical expectations are to be submissive; dependent on their husband, and take care of their homes and children. From the above analyses, it is clear that Globalization is an omnipresent and continuous phenomenon impacting the lives of many people. It clearly impacts the day-to-routine of many people in various countries, including the way the follow their religion and its practices. Although, Muslim families in the Middle-East are still holding on to their conservative religious values, globalization with media is making slight changes in the roles of women in the family. However, the key question is, will the choice of the families to adopt changes to their religious practices will be left to themselves, or they have to change as part of the changes in the society and when the next generation takes on the centre-stage. . References Aurence, L and Othenberg, E R, 2002, Globalization 101: The Three Tensions of Globalization, American Forum for Global Education, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.globaled.org/issues/176.pdf. Atkinson, W and Coffin, B 2003, Opportunities or liabilities? Construction projects in the Middle East, Risk Management, vol. 50, pp. 11-12/ Connelly, P 1996, Definition of Religion and Related Terms, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.darc.org/connelly/religion1.html Dhami, S and Sheikh, A 2001, The family: predicament and promise, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/books/samplechapter/8129/Sheikh_chpt%2005-6969b480rdz.pdf. fiqh.org, An Ideal Muslim Family, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.fiqh.org/resources/an-ideal-muslim-family/ Gitlin, T. 2001, Media unlimited: How the torrent of images and sounds overwhelms our lives. Metropolitan, New York. Mather, M 2004, HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILIES IN APPALACHIA, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.prb.org/pdf04/HouseholdsFamiliesAppalachi.pdf Mernissi, F 1987, Beyond the veil: male-female dynamics in modern Muslim society, Indiana University Press sacredsites.com, Mecca, viewed on May 24, 2011 http://www.sacredsites.com/middle_east/saudi_arabia/mecca.html Sipro, PJ, 2008, Beyond citizenship: American identity after globalization, Oxford University Press US . Read More