The Politics of Collective Identity

Every community benefits some groups and social relationships and disapproves other groups by imposing sanctions on them. Marginalized groups are criticized for pursuing their identity rather than their objectives of equal rights. Collective identity can be considered a mixed blessing because apart from having advantages, for instance, establishing solidarity among the interiorized groups, it may also lead to a number of challenges. Marginalized groups have the demand for recognition and redistribution, which faced criticism, arguing that the two are not the matter of justice and, therefore, should not be demanded from the government. However, they are complementary in nature and interdependent on each other to realize their objectives.

Multicultural Society and the Convergence of Identities

For a stable and cohesive society, immigrants had to assimilate into the prevailing culture and became like the rest. However, most communities prefer integration where immigrants become an integral part of the community. A common belonging in the society can only be achieved if there is a moral contract between both parties. 

National Identity

National identity refers to the identity of a person as a member of the political community or the identity of the political community, in general. National identity faces challenges when the community experiences substantial economic and demographic changes, internal and external terrors, or recovers from a distressing period. National identity debates were solved differently. For instance, in Germany, the debate concerned moral and political origin; in Britain, it dealt with an economic and political decline; in India, it was about political and social regeneration; in Canada, it took a constitutional form; and in Muslim countries, it revolved around religion. 

The Concept of Identity

Identity consists of features that define something and distinguish it from others, and it has three integrated components. Personal identity describes humans as unique individuals with different bodies and sense of selfhood. Social identity identifies people as belonging to various religious, ethnic, cultural, and occupational groups. Finally, human identity shows people as belonging to a distinct species, which makes them human in nature. 

European Liberalism and the Muslim Question

Muslim immigrants arrived in Europe in the 1950s, became culturally visible in the 1970s, and became politically visible in the late 1980s. Muslims wanted the state to protect their religion that, according to the liberals, was discriminatory in nature. As Muslims wanted to overturn the liberal society, they were considered a threat, which aggravated the Europeans anxiety. Currently, young Muslims feel alienated because they lack roots in the country, and they rarely contact their white counterparts, thus engaged in defiant activities.

The Pathology of Religious Identity

Religion involves transcendence and faith. For believers, their religion is the source of how they view the world. Scriptural literalism characterizes religious identity as something that transcends reason and that cannot be subject to rational criticism. Moral crisis is limited in modern Western countries because religion is one of the several sources from which they derive their world values. Fundamentalism pursues to regenerate a degenerated community by completely constituting it on a religious foundation by political means.

Challenges of Multicultural World

The end of the Cold War caused a new era subjugated by the clash of cultures, at a global level known as the clash of civilizations. Cultural identity was a major concern because people identify themselves with those with whom they share a common culture and feel threatened by non-believers. A political institution cannot stand on its own; it needs to share cultural basis, which gives it direction and legitimacy. No civilization can claim the universal validity because all civilizations have distinct identities. Thus, to ensure cooperation and minimize conflicts, nations should set conditions for a patient and sympathetic dialogue.

Globalization and Culture

Globalization facilitates intercultural dialogue by bringing cultures together and creating large areas of overlap and convergence. It has both desirable and undesirable outcomes for both developed and developing societies. Globalization leads to sectoral convergence, common culture, common elite culture, porous cultural boundaries, and pluralization of every civilization. Cultural globalization has enabled several countries to make an impact at a global level, although it is widely dominated by the United States. A global cultural homogenization and undermining of the society’s capability to sustain a creative cultural life should be avoided.

Principles of Global Ethics

Societies are bound into a system of interdependence. Global ethics is envisioned to provide universally valid principles that guide one’s choice and actions. The basis of global ethics is human nature, God, cross-cultural religion, or procedural devices, for instance, Kant’s universalizability principles. People have different capacities that distinguish them from other individuals and cannot be reduced to any one of them. Possessing various and unique capacities, each person is valuable, which presupposes the principle of equal worth. Global ethics also has the principle of human solidarity and the principle of respect for plurality.

Citizenship in the Global Age

Exclusivist views the world as being divided into political states. Every state is sovereign, derives its legitimacy from its citizens, and has the duty to promote their collective interest. As the exclusivist view is intensely flawed, it needs to be substituted by a globally oriented view of it. When states face a problem that they cannot solve, humanitarians can intervene and assist them.

Promoting Democracy

Although democracy has been interpreted in several ways, primarily it refers to a theory of political authority that must be a free choice of the citizens. It expresses the view that the citizens are the sole basis of political power, and the will of the people is the source of legitimacy. The principles of democratic governance are universally accepted, and they qualify to form the part of any proper system of governance. People have the duty to promote democracy because it encompasses the principle of equal human worth and encourages plurality and self-determination.

The Impact of Globalization on Arab Gulf of States

Globalization is a new world system and decisive economic and technological force in the recent development. Globalization has restructured the way of life, transformed the economy, turned small states into cosmopolitans, and integrated them into the international system. Oil-rich states deal with the economic and technical but not necessarily liberalization and political aspects of globalization, but they do not see it as a negative aspect. The Arab Gulf States are slowly responding to the call of democratization by applying liberal and democratic ideas but with substantial hesitation.

How Likely is Democracy in the Gulf?

Democratization is taking place globally through the advances of technological control. Rather than traditional authority disappearing after a century of modernization, it is thriving in the Arab world by having a greater capacity to adapt to changing conditions. For instance, Kuwait experiences participatory democracy that is characterized by a parliament that cannot override the veto power of the ruling Amir.

The Gulf Engulfed

Gulf countries have taken the initiative to develop an educational center in the Emirates, which connects it to the global world of research, teaching scholarship, and decision making. It is also integrated into global networks of trade, finance, culture, tourism, and information technology. Globalization American-style refers to increasing levels of interdependence along economic, environmental, cultural, and political dimensions over a vast distance. It could have been easier if globalization did not follow an American pattern.

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Moralities of Partiality and Impartiality

Close personal relationships have made life better, which also entails a morality of partiality. Morality involves an impartial weighing up of the claims of those who can be influenced by one’s action. Although the two moralities are different, as one concerns those with whom an individual has close relations while another presupposes no special status, they are both legitimate.