What Explains the Global Islamic Revival?
The Prestige-Piety Feedback Loop
What lead to the Global Islamic Revival? This was one of the most significant political movements of the 20th century, occurring across multiple world regions. The existing literature is rich, but extremely disparate and disconnected, typically focusing on local idiosyncrasies – Egypt’s economic stagnation, Turkey’s religious associations, Iran’s religious authoritarianism, Sahelian state weakness, Pakistani return migration from the Gulf, repression in Uzbekistan, Indonesian’s resistance to secular schooling. But could there be a common cause?
Here is my own answer, drawing on my qualitative interviews with Muslims in Morocco, Turkey, Britain, Canada, the US, India, Uzbekistan, and Malaysia. I am indebted to their astute observations and generosity. Critique is always welcome.
