The Global Islamic Revival - Key Graphs
The Global Islamic Revival represents one of the most significant sociopolitical transformations of the past half-century. Muslims increasingly came to disavow secular or syncretic customs, instead studying scripture, abiding by the Quran, maintaining gender segregation and condemning deviation. Yet existing theories cannot explain its timing or global spread across diverse economies, geographies, and political systems. Why did this movement gain traction from the 1970s onward, transforming societies from Egypt to Indonesia to Britain?
In today’s talk at Stanford (May 21, 12 noon PST), I synthesize cross-regional evidence to assess competing explanations, then offer a novel theory on the Global Islamic Revival.
To persuade you of this topic’s importance, let me share some new graphs on how Muslim-majority countries differ in terms of religiosity, beliefs towards gender and sexuality, as well as women’s economic outcomes.
Curious? Join on Zoom.
Muslim-majority countries are exceptionally religious
Only 3% of Muslim-majority respondents say that religion is not very important.
Besides tracking beliefs over different waves, we can also compare by age.
Young Latin Americans are increasingly leaving their faith, becoming less likely to say that religion is very important, pray daily, and attend weekly church. By contrast, Indonesian and Malaysian Muslims show no such departure, they are just as religious as their parents.
Muslim-majority countries place far greater weight on the afterlife.
In the graph below, I distinguish between Muslim-majority and ex-communist Muslim-majority countries, since in the latter Islam was heavily repressed. Multiple generations were not free to practice their faith.
In my interviews, Muslims repeatedly tell me that this life is “temporary”:
In Mumbai, Abdul told me that when a fellow market trader was economically distressed and brought his wife to work, he intervened saying, “this temporary life is just a drop in the ocean, endure whatever hardship”, keep the wife in seclusion so as to get to eternal paradise.
In Luton, Hassan (a restaurant owner) translated the Quranic sura on the wall, adding “our time on earth is just like a bird perching on a branch, before making its journey”.
In London, Zainab warned her nephew, “Don’t let your dunya be your akhira” (meaning don’t prioritise the temporary life over eternal paradise).
Believers may forgo material rewards in order to maximise utility over eternity. I call this “the paradise premium”.
Muslim-majority countries have closed gender gaps in education
Back in the 2000s, international development agencies championed female education, hoping that this would spur higher female employment. The good news is that Muslim-majority countries have belatedly closed the gap in schooling. However…
Female labour force participation is still 16 percentage points lower in Muslim-majority countries.
The exceptional high scorers include Sub-Saharan African countries like Mali and Niger (where women work in agriculture) as well as Qatar (which is mostly immigrant).
Muslim-majority countries tend to affirm male supremacy
Muslim-majority countries cluster in agreement that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job.
The Afterlife Penalty
To theorise how strong religiousity, belief in the afterlife and concern for gender segregation may suppress female employment, I’ve made a little visual.
Below, I show how the utility gained from women working alongside men varies by religiosity and concern for ‘free-mixing’.
For secular people, even as there is a greater likelihood of mixing with unrelated men, women’s work generates the same utility. This blue line is flat.
For religious believers, women working alongside unrelated men generates much much lower utility. The red line slopes downwards.
This visual is downward sloping because (1) some religions care more than others about interactions between unrelated men and women; and (2) even within the same religion, there is still significant variation (e.g. Indonesia versus Egypt).
Muslim-majority countries tend to prefer male leaders and condemn homosexuality
For those interested in cross-cultural variation, these differences are rather large, and worthy of further study.
British Muslims have different beliefs to their compatriots
British Muslims tend to be much more religious and strongly support the criminalisation of burning holy books. Unlike the general public, they do not strongly oppose gender segregation nor do they strongly oppose the legalisation.
What caused the Global Islamic Revival?
In my talk, I’ll discuss the competing explanations then offer a novel theory.
First, I argue that there was a crucial transformation in Muslim identity: from locally-based syncretism to state-attempted secular modernization to a reinvigoration of a transnational Muslim identity.
Second, I propose the Prestige-Piety Feedback Loop: modernization paradoxically amplified strengthened adherence to jurisprudential Islam and deference to credentialed religious authorities. As Muslims gained unprecedented access to jurisprudential knowledge, then piety and gender segregation became primary markers of status, with profound implications for women’s status.
Curious? Join on Zoom! Feedback is always welcome.
