ABSTRACT
This final chapter focuses on questions that seem particularly relevant to the twenty-first century as also Muslims enter the new millennium. The phenomenon of globalization is historically contextualized. Primarily associated with economic integration on the basis of open market and free trade principles, it also tends to be regarded as setting in motion a homogenization process of other values. However, increasingly extensive and intensive contacts between different parts of the world has given new salience to cultural diversity and religious plurality, and an emergence debate whether the new global order is to be characterized as a clash or a dialogue of civilizations. This awareness, combined with a growing assertiveness on the part of non-Western cultures, also carries over into the responses to other matters of a global nature, including ecological questions, such as environmentalism and sustainability. Scientific advances also raise questions related to medical ethics and bioethics. Also, Muslims have to deal with sensitive issues such as abortion and euthanasia, organ donations/transplantations and blood transfusions, new reproductive technologies such as IVF, coning, and stem cell research, as well as sex change operations and genetically modified food production.
