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Westernization
Refers to economic, legal, social, cultural, and political modernization and development following Western models of law, political systems, finance, dress, language, education, ideas, and behavior. Typically accompanied European colonial activities throughout the Islamic world and resulted in the devaluation of local languages, culture, and economic and social structures, as well as alienation, marginalization, and the perceived loss of cultural identity. Political failures as well as the failure to achieve development, public order, and modernization led some to conclude that Western models had failed and to call for religio-cultural revival, returning to Islam and its accompanying cultural values as a more authentic and historically powerful identity.
