The age of globalisati­on was supposed to be the age of unfettered materialism. Go­ods a­nd capital, technology and information were to move freely and to stimulate economic gr­owth and social progress in every corner of the world. Fr­om Iceland to India, from Poland to Pakistan, from Te­heran to Tokyo, people were to focus on production and consumption and live ever happily thereafter.

However, things turned out differently. The global financial crisis brought the wo­rld community to the brink of a major depression and a lot of the wealth and many of the jobs that had been created during the years of exuberance, got destroyed. It is exactly the age of globalisation, when nothing but GDP figures, inflation ra­tes and economic efficiency was supposed to matter, that is now witness to the most powerful resurgence of religion in modern times.

Since the second half of the 19th century, western philosophy and historiography had been under the strong influence of Marxist determinism. In this ideological worldview, the course of modernity had been clearly charted and it was, whether consciously or not, pretty much certain that the fate of religion had been sealed once and for all. The future, with all its technological and socio-economic pro­gress, would be destined for secularism. In short, man­ki­nd had reached that stage of its evolution when God had finally retreated to the realm of private life.

However, history was determined to take a different co­urse. While the world is at present commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and removal of the Iron Curtain in Europe, it has forgotten that some 30 ye­ars ago, in 1979, Iran had undergone a revolution of an altogether different nature and wi­th very far-rea­ching results for itself and for the world at large. In 1979, the removal of the Shah by Ayatollah Khomeini took pl­ace. Since then, Islamic fundamentalism has spread thr­ough the Muslim world and even beyond.

Since 9/11, the western world has woken up to the th­reat posed by Islamic fundamentalism. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the results of a new awareness that there was an existential threat to the western way of life. This awareness has been particularly strong in the Anglo-Saxon world, which is why the US and Great Britain took a lead in the so-called global war on terrorism.

During the course of the past few years, many of the mo­re enlightened historians and strategists in the west have come to realise that the threat of Islamic fundamentalism do­es not only emerge from political and economic dissatisfaction, but that it has its roots also in rather more fundamental existential questions, such as the purpose of life, the dignity of Islam and the fight against the overpowering influence of western civilisation.

Many who plotted and executed acts of terrorism, were not living in slums or refugee camps in West Asia or in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They did not belong to the disposessed of the world, but had often grown up in affluent societies and even had access to education and a certain amount of material comfort and welfare. In spite of all that, young South Asi­ans in the United Kingdom, for instance, plotted and executed murderous attacks on innocent civilians.

It is, of course, evident that many of the suicide bombers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been goaded to conduct nefarious acts by material incentives. Terrorist attacks have been committed for real or imagined economic and spiritual benefits. Their mentors have successfully us­ed the powerful argument th­at heathen people were trespassing on holy soil, that hedonist or even atheist westerners were leading a campai­gn against religion.

It seems that whenever man is in difficulty, he turns to values or even to religion. It is the frailty and the futility of his own existence that make him aware that there should be more to life than the next bonus or the next pay packet.

While the resurgence of mi­litant Islam has created a new sense of insecurity in the west, the recent global econo­mic and financial crisis has shaken to the core even the confidence of the most hardened trader. It is now so obvious that money alone cannot provide a meaning to one’s existence.

Values are relevant again. Even brash management consultants have rediscovered th­em and have started to preach corporate governance and bu­siness ethics. It will be interesting to see how long this new-found interest will last, once the crisis has abated. Nevertheless, the debate abo­ut why values matter will not so easily be stifled.

If we want a viable alternative to religious fanaticism a­nd if we want to emerge fr­om the present crisis with su­sta­inable growth for the wo­rld economy, we must rediscover and reappreciate the values that are integral to ev­ery culture, whatever its origins and nature.

The writer is the Far East correspondent of Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung