Identity and Human Rights in the Age of Globalization

In its opening sentence, the author states that the non western world has yet to grip the concept of globalization and prosper from it. He is referring to the muslim world, as those people face increasing media attack since 9/11. Western powers (who he implies are running globalization) basically gave minorities a choice; resist and defend their identity or be marginalized and integrated. This is the problem facing many different cultures and people are being "encouraged" to abandon their identities and assimilate into the world system. The author points out that some find globalization to be a power battle between the core countries over control/influence of the periphery and semi-periphery countries. In this sense, the rest of the world has to suffer while a small fraction (all western world) benefits. However, one thing this article points out is that globalization is a natural part of our human nature, and that it is inescapable. In this new age of globalization (post-9/11) we as a nation, being one of the leaders of the world, need to respect other cultures. This is hard, though, especially for muslims because of 9/11 and our nation's newfound Islamophobia. I think that these marginalized people around the world deserve the human dignity that we receive and their identity, as well as all the other identities that are being discriminated against due to post- 9/11 globalization.