ABSTRACT
Resurgence underlines the political nature of Islamic social movements seeking to restructure state and civil society, not simply conform to some 'fundamentals'. The term 'Islamic cultural zones' (ICZs) connotes the plurality of the institutional and cultural experience of Muslims rejecting essentialist readings of Islam as a totalizing, monolithic entity. Islamic resurgence is linked principally to processes within civil society, but its primary aim is to restructure the state. From an ideal-typical Islamic civilizational perspective, the current phase of globalization is superimposed on earlier Christian-Muslim encounters and subsequent European ascendance. Falk's distinction between two variants of globalization offers a useful point of entry into an account of the contradictory dimensions of the neoliberal 'phase' of globalization. The chasm between privilege and misery, domination and powerlessness takes on the appearance of cultural conflicts.
