Local Expressions, Global Arenas: The Case of Pakistani Shia Muslims to Iraq

Religion and globalization affect each other in a myriad of ways. Olivier Roy theorizes – from a macro perspective – that in the face of globalization and secularization, religion attempts to become autonomous in a global space and separates from local culture and politics. One of the most tangible and conspicuous instances of globalization is religious pilgrimage, assisted by a bourgeoning tourism industry. Pilgrims traverse sacred spaces within limited timeframes and return to their local contexts. How does pilgrimage change the understanding of local religion and culture for these pilgrims? Using ten semi-structured interviews of Pakistani Shia pilgrims to Iraq for the occasion of Arba’een, I argue that in this case, local understandings of religion and culture do not change substantially because of three factors: one, the nature of religious practice is steeped in a local idiom of affective expression and can be difficult to separate local culture from religious practice; two, the structure of pilgrimage participation is made possible by local institutions (family, congregations) and structure the practice in global space; three, pilgrims orient their meaning-making processes towards their localities, and thus local space mediates any changes brought about by the pilgrimage itself.