Islam and nationalism

The 13th verse of Al-Hujurat states: "O people, We have created you male and female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another [not to fight each other]. Verily, the most noble of you to Allah is the most righteous of you. Verily, Allah is knowing and aware."{{sfn|A Charter|2015|pp=14–15}}{{sfn|The Study Quran|2015|p=1262, v. 13 commentary}}

Some Muslims believe that Muhammad condemned nationalism in many ahadith, stating "Whoever fights under a banner of foolishness [tribalism], supports tribalism, or gets angry for the sake of tribalism, he will die in a state of ignorance".Sahih Muslim 4561 When asked about nationalism he answered by saying "Leave it, it is rotten".رواه مسلم، في صحيح مسلم، عن جابر بن عبد الله، الصفحة أو الرقم: 2584، صحيح. Some Muslims believe that he declared nationalists as non-Muslims by saying "He is not one of us who calls to tribalism. He is not one of us who fights for the sake of tribalism. He is not one of us who dies following the way of tribalism".Sunan Abī Dāwūd 5102 He had travelled to Medina to solve the long and bloody conflict between the Khazraj and Aws tribes. Eventually, both tribes converted to Islam and became the Ansar. Muhammad also said that the Ghuraba will be "those who disassociated themselves from their tribes."Musnad Aḥmad 3784

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, various nationalist ideologies emerged from the Middle East, including Turkish nationalism, Arab nationalism, Iranian nationalism, and all 3 of these ideologies paved way for Kurdish nationalism, which started off as a defensive movement against them. This was also the period when the Salafi movement, Islamism, and Pan-Islamism emerged, with the latter rejecting the concept of nations in favour of one Islamic nation.{{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=John L. |title=Islam and politics |year=1984 |pages=59}}

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani led an Internationalist and anti-nationalist movement and wanted unity among Muslims. Afghani feared that nationalism would divide the Muslim world and believed that Muslim unity was more important than ethnic identity.World Book Encyclopedia, 2018 ed., s.v. "Muslims" Muhammad Rashid Rida, a student of Afghani and of Afghani's disciple Muhammad Abduh, would continue this belief. Rida believed that the unification of the Islamic community would only be possible through the restoration of an Islamic caliphate which implements the Sharia. Rida called on Arabs to make a pan-Islamist project aimed at the revival of the Islamic caliphate which incorporates all Muslim lands.{{Cite news |date=March 13, 1902 |title=The Pan-Islamic Movement |work=The Times |location=London, England}} Rida also called upon Muslims to build a political system based on Islam; rather than nationalism, which he frequently condemned as a Western ideology.{{Cite book |last=Motadel |first=David |title=Islam and the European Empires |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-966831-1 |pages=35, 175, 187, 190, 197}}{{Cite book |last=Milton-Edwards |first=Beverley |title=Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945 |publisher=Routledge Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=0-203-57276-9 |page=23}}{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=Andrew M. |year=2013 |title=Islamic History & Al-Qaeda: A Primer to Understanding the Rise of Islamist Movements in the Modern World |url=https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=pilronline |journal=Pace International Law Review Online |publisher=PACE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW |volume=3 |issue=10 |pages=344–345 |via=DigitalCommons}}

Around 1908 was when Turkish nationalism began significantly rising. Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had made way for the ideology of Kemalism, which became the founding ideology of Turkey. The Kemalists aimed to Turkify and secularise and Turkey and went as far as banning the hijab and the adoption of the Turkish adhan.{{cite web |title=Turkish Society (Turkish organization) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-610080/Turkish-Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123185527/http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-610080/Turkish-Society |archive-date=2008-01-23 |access-date=2008-03-22}} (1912) Arab-Islamic nationalism emerged as an Islamist variant of Arab nationalism. In Turkey, the radical Kemalist reforms led to a birth of the ideology known as the Kurdish-Islamic synthesis. Many decades later, during the Cold War and Operation Gladio, the Turkish–Islamic synthesis emerged, where Alparslan Türkeş, an advocate of the Turkish adhan, began opening Grey Wolves training camps with American support to train its members to fight against leftists, Alevis, Kurds, as well as Islamists that did not accept Turkish nationalism.{{Cite book |last=Combs; Slann |first=Cindy C.; Martin |title="Grey Wolves". Encyclopedia of terrorism. New York: Facts On File. |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4381-1019-6 |pages=110 |quote=The Grey Wolves, the unofficial militant arm of the MHP, has been involved in street killings and gunbattles.}}{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Augustus |title=Terrorism: An International Perspective |last2=Prager |first2=Fynnwin |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2019 |isbn=9781526459954 |location=Thousand Oaks, California |page=302 |chapter=Part II: The Terrorists – Violent Ideologies: Terrorism From the Left and Right |lccn=2018948259 |quote=The Grey Wolves – The most prominent organization of the violent right wing in Turkey is the Grey Wolves. The Grey Wolves are named for a mythical she-wolf who led ancient Turks to freedom. Its wolf's-head symbol is displayed by MHP members and other nationalists. The Grey Wolves have been implicated in many attacks against leftists, Kurds, Muslim activists, and student organizations. They have also been implicated in attacks supporting the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Mehmet Ali Ağca, who was convicted of shooting Pope John Paul II, was a former Grey Wolf. |access-date=17 November 2021 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8p-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA302 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113184247/https://books.google.com/books?id=f8p-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA302 |archive-date=13 January 2023 |url-status=live}}

In 1925, with the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran had also became a secular state with nationalist policies. Iran had been increasingly secularised and also Westernised until the Iranian Revolution which made Islam the basis of Iranian politics. Ruhollah Khomeini also aimed for the unity of all Muslims under the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist. Khomeini made many attempts to bridge the divide between Sunnis and Shias and also to eradicate nationalism in Iran.{{Cite book |last=M. Lüthi |first=Lorenz |title=Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-108-41833-1 |location=New York |pages=491, 505–506 |chapter= |doi=10.1017/9781108289825}}

Arab nationalism emerged in the 1920s and became the leading ideology in the mashriq. Its influence grew and Arab nationalists seized control of various Arab countries. Gamal Abdel Nasser later came and boosted Arab nationalism, and political parties like the Ba'ath Party did as well. Islamism began challenging Arab nationalism and being its top political opponent.{{Cite web |title=ARAB NATIONALISM |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/arab-nationalism}} Arab nationalism decreased due to lost morale after the Six-Day War."[http://www.meforum.org/518/requiem-for-arab-nationalism Requiem for Arab Nationalism]" by Adeed Dawisha, Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2003Charles Smith, The Arab-Israeli Conflict, in International Relations in the Middle East by Louise Fawcett, p. 220. The Muslim Brotherhood then stepped up its actions against Arab nationalism, especially in Egypt and Syria, which were the leading places for Arab nationalism.{{cite web |date=5 June 2017 |title=The end of Nasserism: How the 1967 War opened new space for Islamism in the Arab world |url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/06/05/the-end-of-nasserism-how-the-1967-war-opened-new-space-for-islamism-in-the-arab-world/ |access-date=15 May 2019 |publisher=Brookings}} The Syrian Ba'ath Party regularly attacked religion, and came into conflict with other Arab nationalist ideologies like Nasserism, which was accused by the Syrian Ba'athists of betraying socialist ideals. Nasser later accused the Ba'athists of being anti-religion and promoting sectarianism among Arabs.{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=David |title=The Ba'ath and the creation of modern Syria |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-415-83882-5 |edition=Routledge Library Editions: Syria |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=49, 57, 61, 72, 82–83, 88–100, 133–134, 148–149, 153, 161 |quote=}}{{Cite book |last=S. Abu Jaber |first=Kamel |title=The Arab Ba'th Socialist Party: History, Ideology and Organization |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1966 |edition=1st |location=Syracuse, New York, USA |pages=xii-xiii, 76–78, 93–95 |lccn=66-25181 |quote=}} The Iraqi Ba'ath Party, especially during the rule of Saddam Hussein, was a secular and socialist party just like the Syrian Ba'ath Party. However, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party had a much stronger Anti-Iranian sentiment{{cite book |author=Jerry M. Long |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRzUAAAAQBAJ&q=saddam+yellow+snake&pg=PA69 |title=Saddam's War of Words: Politics, Religion, and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait |date=17 August 2009 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-77816-0 |pages=69–}}Con Coughlin. Saddam: His Rise and Fall, page 19. {{ISBN|978-0-06-050543-1}}: Quoted from Samir al-Khalil. Republic of Fear, 1989. University of California press. pg 17 and only turned religious after the Faith Campaign after Iraq's defeat during the Gulf War but kept the nationalism.{{multiref2| Baram, Amatzia (October 2011). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150722184035/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/From%20Militant%20Secularism%20to%20Islamism.pdf From Militant Secularism to Islamism: The Iraqi Ba'th Regime 1968-2003]" (PDF). Occasional Papers. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: History & Public Policy Program. Archived from the original ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150722184035/http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/From%20Militant%20Secularism%20to%20Islamism.pdf PDF]) on 22 July 2015.

|{{Cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=Paul |date=21 August 1994 |title=Iraq Bans Public Use Of Alcohol |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/21/world/iraq-bans-public-use-of-alcohol.html}}

|{{Cite web| title= Saddam Hussein and Ba'ath Party Members Discussing the Status of the Party in the Arab World and Potential Cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood | date= 24 July 1986 | publisher= Conflict Records Research Center | via= Wilson Center Digital Archive |id= SH-SHTP-A-001-167 | url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/saddam-hussein-and-baath-party-members-discussing-status-party-arab-world-and-potential}}

|Rayburn, Joel (2014). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Za4_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 Saddam's Faith Campaign and the promotion of Salafism]. Iraq after America: Strongmen, Sectarians, Resistance. Hoover Institution Press. pp. 101–104. {{ISBN|978-0-8179-1694-7}}.}}

Hizb ut-Tahrir is extremely opposed to nationalism.{{cite web |date=13 May 2013 |title=News from Khilafah Conference 2013: Nationalism weakened the unity of Muslim Ummah |url=http://www.khilafah.com/news-from-khilafah-conference-2013-nationalism-weakened-the-unity-of-muslim-ummah/ |access-date=15 May 2016 |website=Khilafah |quote=Abdillah, a representative of Hizb ut Tahrir-Batam, confirmed that nationalism is dangerous for Muslim beliefs. Nationalism is a sense of identity with the nation. |agency=HTI Press |archive-date=2 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702061705/http://www.khilafah.com/news-from-khilafah-conference-2013-nationalism-weakened-the-unity-of-muslim-ummah/ |url-status=dead }}

Despite the inconsistency of Islam and nationalism, Pakistani nationalism is religious rather than secular, with Islam being the center of it.{{cite book |last=Ḥaqqānī |first=Husain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYppZ_dEjdIC&pg=PA132 |title=Pakistan: between mosque and military |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |year=2005 |isbn=0-87003-214-3 |location=Washington |page=131 |quote=Zia ul-Haq is often identified as the person most responsible for turning Pakistan into a global center for political Islam. ... |access-date=23 May 2010}} Hamas also mixes Palestinian nationalism with Islamism, which makes it have conflicts with ISG and other Salafist organizations. Jaish ul-Adl mixes Baloch nationalism with Islamism, Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and Other Rebel Groups mix Syrian nationalism with Islamism

, The Taliban's official ideology combines Islamism with Pashtunwali and Afghan nationalism, also being one of the causes of the Islamic State–Taliban conflict. Al-Shabaab incorporates an Anti-Ethiopian sentiment, inspired by Somali nationalism, into its ideology.{{cite journal |last=Makhaus |first=Ken |date=August 2009 |title=Somalia: What went Wrong? |journal=The RUSI Journal |volume=154 |issue=4 |page=8 |doi=10.1080/03071840903216395 |s2cid=219626653 |doi-access=free}}{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=William |chapter-url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-785 |chapter-url-access= subscription |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African History |last2=Gakuo Mwangi |first2=Oscar |date=25 March 2021 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |chapter=Al-Shabaab |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.785 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229155041/https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-785;jsessionid=8BDD05A94FB4CB9BB15D9428A61BB66C?rskey=cj1t0b&result=1 |archive-date=29 December 2022}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal |title=Surah al-Hujurat: A Charter of Ideal Social Life |author1=((Abul Kalam Muhammad Shahed)) |author2=((Noor Muhammad Osmani)) |author3=((Muhammad Abu Bakr Siddique)) |journal=Bangladesh Journal of Islamic Thought |year=2015 |volume=11 |issue=16 |pages=1–20 |url=http://www.bjit.iiitbd.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1.-Surah-Al-Hujurat-A-Charter_BJIT-V-11-N-16.pdf |issn=1816-689X |ref={{harvid|A Charter|2015}}}}{{Dead link |date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}
• {{cite book |title=The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary |editor1=((Seyyed Hossein Nasr)) |editor2=((Caner K. Dagli)) |editor3=((Maria Massi Dakake)) |editor4=((Joseph E.B. Lumbard)) |editor5=((Mohammed Rustom)) |year=2015 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York, NY |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GVSzBgAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0-06-112586-7 |ref={{harvid|The Study Quran|2015}}}}

{{Nationalism}}

{{Islam topics}}