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Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah by Oliver Roy (2004, Columbia University Press, New York City, 349 pages)
OLIVER ROY, A PROFESSOR AT THE SCHOOL OF ADVANCED Studies in Social Sciences in Paris, has written previously about Islam in a global context. In Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, he argues that the spread of Islam around the globe has blurred the connection between a religion, a specific society and a territory. One-third of the world's Muslims now live as members of a minority. Though millions of Muslims have settled voluntarily in the West, they are concerned about the pervasiveness and influence of Western culture, and the effect its models and social norms have on Islam as a system of values and ethics. The return to the Islamic tradition has been accompanied by a growth in westernization. Thus the revival of Islam has been a consequence of westernization, not a clash with it. This thesis clashes with the views of political scientist and author Samuel Huntington, whose books have been reviewed in previous editions of Real Estate Issues.
Neofundamentalism has been gaining ground among a rootless Muslim youth, especially second- and third-generation migrants in the West, Roy notes. This trend has produced new forms of radicalism, including Al Qaeda, and rejection of integration into Western society. The uprooted militants wish to establish an imaginary ummah, a Muslim community built around Islamic values, that isn't embedded in any particular society or territory.
Roy also asks how we can reconcile hatred for the West with the long lines for visas outside Western consulates. This reality appears to be a dichotomy until readers realize the neofundamentalist ummah has nothing to do with territorial integrity, and instead should be considered in abstract terms.
The quest for Islamic authenticity begins with debunking Western culture and values, Roy asserts. However, without territory, leaders cannot sustain religious or social dogmas through civic authority. For these reasons, creating an abstract worldwide community, or ummah, is far more important than creating a state....