This paper harnesses sociological institutionalism to develop a comprehensive understanding of global Islamism as the communitarian mirror image of cosmopolitan world society. In the first section, I present cosmopolitan world society and global Islamism as varieties of globalization. In the second section, I discuss the constitution of agency and the related paradoxes in either case. In the third section, I analyze world society and global Islamism in terms of principles and values, notably with regard to boundary management and political culture. In the fourth and final section, I discuss the ways by which world society and global Islamism achieve social integration. This is crucial because social integration enables collective action galvanized by political entrepreneurs, as well as careful generalization by the scholar. I find that world society thrives on established forms of political and legal integration, and is buttressed by integration via functional subsystems such as advanced markets, science and technology. The same cannot be said to the same extent about global Islamism. At the global level, Islamism is bound to be frustrated because the integration of Muslims into a universal community of believers is impossible. At the local level, however, the cohesiveness of Muslim communities may turn into a comparative strength when cosmopolitan world society enters a terminal decline. Until that happens, conflict between world society and global Islamism can perhaps be managed when both are recognized as rival globalization projects, and when their mutual incompatibilities are openly acknowledged.
