Globalization and Greed: A Muslim Perspective

Globalization is the process of increasing the interdependence of the world's markets and businesses. This process has speeded up dramatically as technological advances make it easier to communicate, and do business internationally. Aart Scholte defines globalization as internalization, liberalization, universalization, and westernization or modernization adds nothing unique in substance to warrant a new terminology. He introduced a fifth term, supraterritoriality or deterritorialization, in order to underline the most salient characteristics of globalization, the erosion of national characteristics of human activity.

There is a wealth of economic evidence that demonstrates that globalization brings great benefits as well as costs. It offers the opportunity for a higher rate of sustainable growth - growth that translates into longer, healthier lives and improved living standards. On average, economic growth is good for the poor, and trade is good for growth. A significant degree of openness to trade, financial liberalization, and global financial integration are necessary conditions for sustained economic growth. Even skeptics of trade liberalization recognize that no country can afford to turn its back on international trade.

The increasing integration of the world's economies does not inevitably increase the inequality of incomes. The 19th century saw an explosion of inequality but by the middle of the 20th century it had stopped rising. The proportion of the world's population in absolute poverty is now lower than it has ever been.

Many of the apparent costs of globalization reflect domestic policy failures, to the extent that they would be better tackled through domestic policy reform than through seeking to halt the forces driving globalization. The effects of economic liberalization depend critically on the circumstances of individual countries. Many of the apparent costs of globalization reflect domestic policy failures, to the extent that they would be better tackled through domestic policy reform than through