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Soper, Fetzer - Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective

Tags: books, religion

Related to Nagel, Ferran - Politics of Religion and Nationalism

Summary

Religion and nationalism can be carved into 3 sections:

  • Civil-Religious
  • Religious Nationalism
  • Secular Nationalism

Can further be divided into stable and unstable components

Introduction

Model Religion-state ideological links Religion-state institutional links
Secular nationalism Weak to nonexistent Separation
Religious nationalism Strong (with a particular group) Multiple religion-state contacts (to a particular group)
Civil-religious nationalism Supportive (to religion in general) Benign separation or pluralistic accomodation
  • Launa of studies when it comes to nationalism and religion
  • Historically
    • Modenrists focus their attention on the role of language, the print media, and educational system
    • Gellner notes “curious fact” about nations and religion
    • Westphalian system subordinates religion to the state
      • iraq’s westphalian system continues with this to today
    • Secular nationalism replaced ethnic and religious identity for national identity based on civic and secular norms
      • friendly “takeover” of religion by nationalism
    • “Post-colonial states like india and turkey aggressively forged secular nationalism”
  • Walzer notes that the revival of religion in algeria, india, and israel represents rejection of secular nationalism
  • ireland has strong religious identity
  • “secular nationalism presumes the triumph of national over religious identity” - pg 8
  • “civil religious nationalism is rooted in the country’s religious experience, but nevertheless develops separately from it”
    • falls short in capturing every regime
  • “Religious nationalism can occur when religious groups are socially and politically strong and have some degree of institutional autonomy” - pg 15
    • bosnia has this, where lack of religious accomodation has lead to the rise of religious identities
  • Religion and state are not static, their discourses change over time
  • “We hypothesize that members of the majority faith are likely to express pro-nationalist sentiments in states with religious nationalism as its model, though this archetype runs the danger of alienating minority faiths” - pg 29

united states: Stable Civil-Religious Nationalism

  • US was founded by a mixed group of christians, sects varying wildly
  • US constitution specifices the relationship of state and gov
  • Gov does not interfere with religion, which allows them to spread
  • No anticlerical revolution like in france
  • US cares about being “generically” religious, not specifically the sect
  • US religious identity has morphed, adopting Jews and Catholics along the way
  • Religious groups were far more likely to support the Iraq war
    • Evanglicals especially

israel: Unstable Civil-Religious Nationalism

  • Israel’s founding brought together Zionists and Jews of all stripes
  • Failed to adopt a constitution, leaving the Basic Law
  • Ambiguity of the Basic Law has lead differing interpretations of religion and the state
  • Ben Gurion was not particularly religious and more socialist, but various different leaders have taken tacks
  • Ultra-Orthodox jews even reject the Zionist project
  • Political Zionism vs cultural Zionism vs Revisionism vs theological Zionism
  • Deeply debated in Israeli society, balance of power in the Knesset has been razor thin, which puts Zionists at the kingmaker role
  • Zionists more likely to favor state aid to settlements

greece: Stable Religious Nationalism

  • Greence has long history with religion, founding of the state from ottoman empire has revisionist tendencies about the role of the orthodox church
  • Orthodox Church has very heavy input on educational policy
  • Most Greeks see religion as an important part of their identity
  • Colors their views on Greece/Turkey relations, especially after the 1934 population exchanges

malaysia: Unstable Religious Nationalism

  • Constitution theoritically coded towards Islam, although in general is not
  • Recent leaders have attempted to appeal to native Malays and Islam, against Indian and Chinese minorities
  • Most native Malays very poor, Chinese tend to be urban and rich, Indians somewhere in between
  • Constitution amendments does privilage Malays to some extent
    • Rukun Negara was meant to harmonize these changes
  • Hostility to China is not a major change among religions, except Christianity
  • Malaysia forcing established Islam onto the state towards powerful minorities has dangerous ramificiations

uruguay: Stable Secular Nationalism

  • Relatively backwater among Catholics during Spanish rule
  • Had large anticlerical moment
  • Most people not religious, and stable because the religious base was never built up against the state

india: Unstable Secular Nationalism

  • Powerful religious actors at the construction of the state
  • Indira Ghdani and Rajiv Ghandi both spoke about secularism, but appealed to Hindu nationalism when needed
  • bharatiya janata party (bjp) largely appeals to Hindu nationalism
  • Secularism has appeal on the national discourse level, BJP attempts to mix Hindu identity with an Indian one
  • Normative values of secularism being overriden by powerful religious actors
    • goes against the idea that with time, a secular state imposed from top down will secularize the population

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